You may be asking "Why is there a picture of a baseball playing kid on this blog entry?"I wanted to recognize the famous Danny Almonte who pitched a no-hitter in the 2001 Little League World Series. He had a 70 MPH fastball and dominated everyone he faced.
To be playing in the Little League World Series was an honor for any 12 year old...but the problem was that Danny was 14. His birth certificate was falsified and he was 2 years older than every other player at the event.
Its sad to think that teams, coaches & parents feel the need to cheat their way to victory, and to think its acceptable behavior. But hockey is an honest sport that has values and would not resort to that type of behavior.....right? Wrong.
I took a team of 8 & 9 year olds to a tourney in Minnesota this weekend. It was the International Cup and the competition is very good. Divisions are broken up by birth year. Its simple. Our team was in the 2000 division which means that every player has to be born in the year 2000 (or later like 2001). This makes the kids 7, 8 or 9 years old. We lost every game but held our own in most of the games. During our first game, we played a team that had some big kids. One of these bigger kids had 4 of the teams 7 goals. "Boy would I like to add a kid like that to our team..." I thought. At no time thinking that he was not of the correct age.
Wrong again. After much discussion between other teams & parents, we came to find out that first team we played had not 1, not 2, but 3 ineligible players based on birth year. This made these players 10 & 11 years old. Making this potentially a 4 year age difference between their oldest kid and our youngest. In the end, they ended up forfeiting all their games. 2 other teams were "accused" of ineligible players, but nothing was proven.
I had the opportunity of being near the standings board at the arena where parents were discussing how wrong it was that they actually tried to cheat. A parent from the accused team stepped forward and said "We were wronged as well. We were told that everyone does it and that this tournament followed a don't ask, don't tell policy." A mother responded before I could with my same thought. She said, "Regardless of what you were told, how can you think its ok to do that. Its still cheating." The conversation didn't go any further, but a good point was brought up.
We went to this tournament with the expectation we could possibly lose every game and we were prepared to do so. To know that we didn't have a fair opportunity to win is what burned me. An apology & a forfeit win did not make it any better. That game still happened and although our kids know they cheated, we still don't get to replay the game.
I was once told by a coach that the responsibility of the coach is to not only make good hockey players, but also to make good citizens. If we teach 8 year olds that its ok to bend the rules, what rule will they bend when they are 21? And shame on the parents of these players. My son is in the 5% rank in size for his age. He could play as an 8 year old for the next 3 years and still be smaller than the rest. If a coach approached me next year asking him to play on a 2001 team because "no one will ask due to his size", I would 1) Be offended as I would want him to play with kids his own age, and 2) Never play for that coach as they teach no values and have no ethics.
In the end, our kids had an awesome time despite losing every game (indoor water parks seem to cure all losses). They also learned a valuable lesson that cheating does not get rewarded and there is no benefit to doing it. They kept their heads high and played as best as they could...as true 8 & 9 year olds.
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