Friday, January 23, 2009

Apologize for winning ?

Read this piece of news this morning - here -

The gist of the story is that there was held a high school girls basket ball game between two schools; The Covenant School and the Dallas Academy. The end result was that the Covenant school defeated the Dallas academy by 100 - 0.

And then came the drama, the winning team was criticized for wining with such a huge margin and being not showing any humility in the game. Its a sensitivity issue u see, be sensitive towards your fellow looser, feel sorry for winning. Here is how it was put in the article :

The private Christian school defeated Dallas Academy last week. Covenant was up 59-0 at halftime.

A parent who attended the game told The Associated Press that Covenant continued to make 3-pointers -- even in the fourth quarter. She praised the Covenant players but said spectators and an assistant coach were cheering wildly as their team edged closer to 100 points.

"I think the bad judgment was in the full-court press and the 3-point shots," said Renee Peloza, whose daughter plays for Dallas Academy. "At some point, they should have backed off."


Now officials from The Covenant School say they are trying to do the right thing by seeking a forfeit and apologizing for the margin of victory. Covenant coach Micah Grimes did not immediately respond to a message left by The Associated Press on Thursday.

Queal said school officials met with Dallas Academy officials to apologize and praised "each member of the Dallas Academy Varsity Girls Basketball team for their strength, composure and fortitude in a game in which they clearly emerged the winner."


My immediate thought when I read this article was that the world has gone completely wrong. Are we asking the winning team to apologize coz they won?? And the losers should be one ones to forgive coz they are so high and mighty...traits apparently bestowed by the devastating loss???

It is a competition, one team wins one team looses. Rather than telling the winning team to forfeit the match and apologize, how about taking to task the loosing team and its coach and see where they failed.

I am sick of these people trying to make everything better for a looser rather than congratulating the winner. As children when we lost anything, we learnt from our losses, and that is what made the victories even sweeter.

This sensitivity issues and the way they are dealt with is getting to the point of being insane! or am I being too critical? Should winners not be applauded and losers made to strive to be winners? or should losers be applauded and winners chided for wining?

17 comments:

Bhargavi said...

wow !!! the gall of these people .. why does everything have to be politically correct ... what happens when these kids grow up and have to face the big bad world where u lose at times and lose badly!! will they want people to apologise to them then .. me thinks a lot of americans overreact when it comes to parenting and kids..cant imagine that happening in india or any other developing nation !!!

Angel's Flight said...

Bedazzeled,

I agree this whole keeping the kids sheltered is getting out of hand. A few years back the parents went on a ram[age coz the school was issuing too much homework!! can you imagine!!!

As a child if we didnt get enuf homework...parents would wonder what was wrong...lolz

eye-in-sty-in said...

While I am all for praising the winners, I am also all for humility. The grand thing to do would be to leave the game at half time!

It would also be the politically correct thing to do. because having done so, the losing team would NOT have conceded the game. They would want to fight and THEN it would have been ok for the winners to beat them by 110 - 0!

The press and the moral police would have been satisfied in a disgusting way!

It brings back a lost and forgotton memory where some cricketeer was retiring and the opposite team was sure of victory and they didnt bowl the last bowl as a mark of respect for the losing team and the player (both the team and the player were good and they deserved the respect). This was when Cricket was a gentleman's game. Kind of like the movie Cars where the red car ensures the retiring car finishes the race even at the cost of his own victory. Its respect.

In this case, the winning team was blamed becayse no body likes arrogance. Secondly, if they were trying to create a record, the record would be of lesser to no valur as it was created against a team that was no good. Perhaps this is what the writers of the article meant to convey. However, the winners being asked to apologise is ridiculous unless they were overly arrogant in victory! But even the over arrogance would be justified if there was a long on-going rivalry between the teams.

Blah! I'm all typed out!

Smita said...

Such are the times sweetheart...

Protest protest & protest....if nothing else you will get publicity..

Ava said...

Gosh ! Aisa bhi hota hai?

Angel's Flight said...

EISI,

Having read the article a couple of times, I did not find any indication that any arrogance was involved. Infact the winning team coaches and supporters were cheering loudly, and apparently that was wrong.

In any case this whole thing is totally nuts! thanks for typing out :)

Smita,

So true, but this is shameless!

Ava,

Haan ji haan...aisa bhi hota hai!

eye-in-sty-in said...

I was watching a football game (or was it basketball?) and when the winning team kept on scoring against the losing team, the tone of the commentary changed. I guess the lack of a fight from the losing team is perceived as the winning team being arrogant.

Since it is expected the better person/team to also be the bigger person/team, the calls for an apology could have been made.

Ofcourse, not having witnessed the actual incident take place, it is all speculation on my part, but then I like speculating. And there is my 2 cents.

couchpapaya said...

wow! the US should now apologize to all countries who took part in the 2008 olympics. in the interests of political correctness!

Angel's Flight said...

EISI,

Now for an update. The whole deal is that the loosing team, parents school etc are saying that the winning team was not behaving christlike....since they were a convent school they should have been more humble and backed off....

The Coach of the winning team refused to apologize saying that the winning team worked hard and won fairly ...and guess what he was fired!

So much for winning!


CP,

Hell yeah! infact I would like to see and apology from the person who stood first in my class...from 1st std to the 12std....I think that will make me feel better

How dare they come first? They should be humiliated for their behavior!

eye-in-sty-in said...

I am not from a convent school nor am I christian by religion - so I cannot comment on this topic anymore... yes yes, I know, I know. This is still my reason and I'm sticking to it :D

btw, you gals certainly dont sound dumb! Before u and CP demand apology from your brother's mother's daughter, think of how many ppl u'll have to apologise to for beating them :D still interested in getting that apology :D :D

Anonymous said...

For a while, I wondered if you hadn't found that article somewhere on that satirist's paradise, onion. Looks like you hadn't. Strange times, eh?

Anonymous said...

Oxy left a link to this post on my blog....

I am not surprised at this, since such stupidity has been going on for a while - all part of greater "sensitivity" and political correctness.

Disgusting.

Quirky Indian

Angel's Flight said...

EISI...

Babe ... sarcasm! come on....! lolz

As for beating people....hehehehe..oh the fun days!

Avionic,

First when I read it I thought it had to be a joke...but alas the Onion did not publish this masterpiece

Oxy,

Can you imagine if we had that 'privileged' ?..na baba na

Quirky,

First of off thanks for stopping by....:)

I agree with the fact that this kinda behavior is disgusting...come on..these kids are set on the path of being pathetic losers for sure...over sensitivity breeds losers

Salil said...

Hi,
I too read this on Yahoo News and was shocked initially.
Then, I was amazed about the power of perspective - how the same event could be perceived differently by different people - and wondered when I would be able to see all perspectives to an issue.
Sorry for being philosophical - but that was my exact stream of thoughts!
Cheers,
Sal

Angel's Flight said...

Sal,

Thanks...for the comment. But yeah these people make me wonder where they come from mentally!

Cheers

Nautankey said...

I think winning is more important but then if the winners go on to taunt the loser without humility that leaves a bad taste,afterall its a game and respect for fellow human's feeling is more important.

But if that was not the case then the winning team has every right to cheer and savour their vicroty n record...protesting for that is going overboard.

Looks like i have given 2 contrary views in two stanzas..argh..i am loser may be thats the reason behind the first one :D

Angel's Flight said...

Nautankey,

Naaa..ur just thinking on both sides of the coin. mark of a balanced thinker!! :)