Competition by other means

Just win, baby. Or be a baby?

The Minnesota State High School League is investigating why the other teams boycotted the award ceremony after the Faribault Emeralds won the state high school high-kick dance tournament.

The Emeralds stood alone on the floor of Target Center on Saturday night to accept their first-place trophy and medals. When they went to join the other five teams in the tournament, to share hugs and high-fives, the other team members inched away until the Faribault athletes again stood alone.

“I felt really heartbroken,” Faribault senior captain Abbie Meehl said. “That kind of hurt me just knowing they’re not with us.”

The protesting teams were disqualified for “unsportsmanlike conduct” after they refused to line up for the awards ceremony. No second- or third-place trophies or medals were awarded.

As it turns out, the Faribault team apparently stole their routine from the Jackie Robinson West Little League. I might have that wrong, actually:

The teams, coaches and parents apparently were upset that the Faribault team’s routine looked suspiciously similar to a YouTube video of a performance by an out-of-state dance team. The team appeared to copy the video’s costumes, heavy eye makeup and music. They were also upset that the high school league had cleared the Emeralds of any rules violations.

Emphasis mine. The rules are one thing, the rulings are quite another. A few observations:

• We've had a window into some of the posturing that goes on in competitive youth activities. The Benster played organized baseball for many years and Fearless Maria is involved in competitive marching band and now drumline at her high school. In Benster's case, he was not playing at the higher, traveling level, which in retrospect seems a blessing. Our coaches were, with maybe one exception, focused on helping the kids get better and not on winning the game at all costs. Even at the lower, less competitive levels, I saw some astonishingly bad behavior from other teams and coaches.
• I think one of the reasons things get so competitive is because of the commitment involved in these activities. The kids in the band and drumline regularly practice for 3-4 hours at a session, 3-4 times a week, and then are gone all weekend for competitions. The end result is pretty remarkable -- if you watch the shows that the best high school programs put on, they are amazingly intricate and musically powerful exhibitions, with high levels of choreography and often with original music scored and arranged for the bands. And the financial commitment involved is north of four figures, when you take everything into account. For traveling sports programs, the cost is even greater. It's human nature to want to win under those circumstances and it's not particularly surprising that emotions run high if you don't win.
• The challenge for both the Minnesota High School League and for the larger Little League organization is balancing the nature of the competition taking place. As tough as it was for the Jackie Robinson West kids to lose their title, it was clear that their sponsors did cheat, because you can't alter the boundaries of the league after the fact. The danger in Little League is that if you let people form regional all-star teams, you'll never see a smaller town have a chance. One of the teams that seems to be a perennial visitor to Williamsport is the team from Warner Robins, Georgia. Warner Robins is not an Atlanta suburb; it's actually a town about the size of St. Cloud outside of Macon. It's the sort of town that develops an outstanding youth program and goes from strength to strength. If the rules were changed and a bunch of little of suburban Atlanta Little League districts were to do what Jackie Robinson West did, they'd likely beat Warner Robins every year. If you don't have a chance to win, what happens?
• The question for Faribault is murkier. While you could argue the Emeralds borrowed too many elements from a different high school's show, there's still the matter of getting your team to perform it properly. There are no real shortcuts; it's difficult work. The state high school league reviewed the Faribault show and compared it to the show from Utah. The league ruled that Faribault could compete. If you follow the rules and you win, that should be the end of it. It rarely is. I would assume that the parents and coaches of the schools that didn't win put in the same kind of hours and money that we do for the band program. There's going to be emotion involved when you fall short. Overcoming that emotion is part of what you should learn in competition. Apparently there's still some learning left to be done.