Posted on 12/07/2010 4:32:16 AM PST by DemforBush
Adam Sisson is a high school senior. The teenager has spent his entire life dreaming of his senior seasons in high school sports, where he expected to be a star for the Eastern Montgomery (Va.) High football, basketball and baseball teams. Then, just days before his final high school year began, Sisson was given a shock: He was told that he was too old to play in Virginia high school sports by exactly 12 hours...
(Excerpt) Read more at rivals.yahoo.com ...
On the OTHER end ... some years back my sister was due to have her baby in early January. They joked that her tax specialist husband had her doing handstands on the bed New Year’s Eve so they could get the deduction in that year. Didn’t work. Kid came in January ;)
Those weren’t my words.
Soccer and some other sports have a very well developed league outside of schools. I’m not aware of those for Football in particular. Most sports are developing them as concentrating on one sport and making it a year round deal becomes more prominent. I think it will be hard for that to happen in Football because of the huge personnel needs.
That’s an excellent book. I bought it just before a week at the beach last summer, and I couldn’t put it down!
Yep. And if you bend the cutoff age for one kid, you'll have to bend it for the next, and the next. It sets a bad precedent. And God forbid, some kid gets hurt out on the field by another athlete who was technically too old to have been playing in the first place. KA-CHING!!!
Where we live, I’ve heard that college scouts don’t even really go to high school games except for football. Kids might play for the high school, but the serious baseball, basketball, soccer, hockey, lacrosse, cheerleading people are doing travel or club. The scouts go to those tournaments in greater numbers and frequency.
Yup. Most likely he'd been held back a year by his parents to make sure he'd be a bigger player. This happens all the time. Looks like they got caught out at it.
Red-shirting kindergartners for athletic and educational reasons is catching on - I hear lots of folks doing this. In grade school the physical and maturity differences in one year can make a big difference.
This is very popular where I live, but I ask myself, what happens when every boy entering first grade is seven instead of six? Will some parents keep their Johnny back another year? This kind of preference jockeying can get ridiculous after while.
Great posts, everyone. I always enjoy the different points of view FReepers bring to a discussion like this.
Hand the ball to the referee and jump all you want. It’s a delay of game to hold on to the ball....Sorry those are the rules.
If he was within the proper age by only a couple hours... this is a non story. But because he’s over by a couple hours... it’s a travesty....
He’s zinging fastballs in Little League when he’s almost 14 to 10 and 11 year olds?
Anyone have a picture of Jethro Bodine?
It was a funny one too. I’d don’t recall that show jumping the shark....
Seems as I remember Bodine is in the Fifth Grade and totally upsetting the class, to the point that they graduate him early.
The other funny one, is when Jethro wanted to a playboy, so he erects this penthouse....looking more like an outhouse on the back of his pickup as he searches for starlets...
I’m wondering if the cast and crew eventually became oblivious to the corniness even though it was funny. I mean, you’d think they’d never make it through rehearsal from laughing their @sses off all the time esp at Jethro...
Wasn’t there several episodes with Mr. Deeeroucher and they go out to “shoot golfs” And of course Jed and Jethro bring their shotguns and they’re skeet shooting gold balls off the tee.
Funny stuff.
Some players run all the way to the corner of the endzone, despite the play being over at the line. Is that also delay of game? Its holding onto the ball, right? What about players that walk the ball over to the referee or drop it? Dropping is considered relinquishing and that can be done a long way from a referee. Is that also delay of game? What if they jump, dance or pray, while moving toward the ref with the ball?
Its an ill defined rule left open to the subjective judgment of the official. With that in mind, the official's subjective decision is also open to everyone's subjective judgment.
As I said before, delay of game in the case of post touch down action requires that the game actually be delayed by a failure to relinguish the ball. Kneeling with the ball for 3 seconds and then running it to the ref is no more delaying than simply dropping the ball at the back of the end zone. So the penalty was for an action, not for a delay. Right?
If I'm the coach, I tell the kid to drop the ball next time before he kneels and to keep it to 3 seconds or less. If the player is back on his side before the kick, you have no penalty.
Then I have a problem with the penalty then.
The way this was presented initially when it ran was that the player didn’t relinquish the ball to the ref. If the penalty was for the action, then what difference does it make if he does it before he gives the ball to the ref or afterwards.
So if the penalty is for the action, while he still holds the ball, why is that? Because the play is not yet over?
The player brought attention to himself, he’s given a penalty...but would not have been given a penalty had he relinquished the ball. Makes no sense.
If you go back and look at commentary by various officials in this particular league, they talk about the continuity of the game being delayed.
So maybe you’re right, maybe I’m right. I grant you that kneeling for 3 seconds should not constitute a delay, but that’s how they presented it.
Here’s the bottom line for me. For HS sports and probably college too, you score a touchdown, you give the ball to the ref, drop it on the ground..etc. You do any kind of taunting, drawing added attention to yourself, actions that rub it in to the other team, obscene gesture...and it’s a penalty while you’re still on the field of play.
Or are we not in agreement on that this should have been a penalty?
Frankly, I'm OK with it being called, as long as they are that strict on everything, AND the issue is holding onto the ball.
I do draw a distinction between a very brief humble gesture (after relinquishing the ball), such as kneeling to thank God, or turning to wave at your family in the stands and mouthing "Thank you" to your Dad, as opposed to doing back flips.
If they want to prohibit show boating, they should write the rule accordingly, as delay of game doesn't really cover it. A player who tosses the ball to the ref and then does a dance is still show boating. While a player that says, "Thank you" in a humble fashion is not. But by all means be as strict as you want about the need to relinquish the ball at the end of a play, and also feel free to call "Delay of Game" against a long prayer IF the game is actually delayed (defined by the ref being ready to commence the next play and the player being on the wrong side of the line of scrimmage).
I coach middle school athletics as a volunteer and I have a lot of tolerance for the foibles of officiating. Far too much of it is subjective. Refs are people and their subjective decisions often go in a certain direction, or are based on the need to appear balanced. Perhaps the opposing team had gotten a "delay of game" for show boating, which they contested, and this ref felt bound to prove that he was even handed. I tell my kids that life isn't fair and referees aren't perfect so "deal with it". Only if I have a particularly egregious ref will I pow wow with them and take it up with division (about once per season).
All good points.
Now that that is settled.... What other interesting posts do we have over coffee this AM....Seems like everyday.... of this administration there’s been something...every friggin day. I guess it’s Congress hustling through the Dream Act in a Lame Duck session. And 8 REpublicans voted for it.
Surely this is not going to pass in the Senate...
Why is it that every bill is flawed that the democrats submit. Has that always been the case? Have you read the salient points of the bill? Rediculous. If a person wishes to be a citizen...there are ways to do it.... Why the Dream Act?
Total BS again....
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