OT: Michigan HS girls basketball team forfeits playoff game … to go on spring break
Everyone, focus your ire here for a moment!
The Jackson Northwest girls basketball team, coming off a 14-4 regular season and a thrilling win the the district championship game, has forfeited its regional semifinal game against undefeated and #2 East Lansing because 8 of the 12 players opted out of playing so they can go on spring break.
LINK.
To reiterate: this is a very good team in the regional playoffs with a chance to upset one of the best teams in the state, but NAW! SPRING BREAK, Y’ALL! WOOOO!!!!
I don’t want to focus on the girls, but those parents are PATHETIC. How could you permit (or possibly encourage) this?? Florida will always be there! But this could have been one of the greatest memories of those girls’ youth! Do you think they’re going to reminisce with their grandchildren one day about how wasted they got in St. Pete’s Beach?? Awful!
Is this a sign of the times?
(I’m particularly interested in this because Jackson is my hometown and I played against this school dozens of times.)
Fuck yeah spring break is awesome
Maybe because the season was delayed and it's gone on longer that anticipated and they have deposits that are non refundable. I don't know. I look back on HS, and I know people that have never moved on. If your best moments in life are your HS sports career, you probably needed to get out more.
If the best moment is your HS Spring Break, that's just as bad.
If the best moment is your HS Spring Break, that's just as bad.
I'd push back on that. Spring break, especially 12th grade year, is the most time you'll ever around your high school friends (literally 24 hours x 5 to 8 days). It's the reason why summer camps are also such big milestone experiences for kids. 'This American Life' on NPR had an episode on this phenomenon. Plus maybe no parents or a couple of "cool" chaperone parents who look the other way. It's certainly a top moment of your teen years before college.
It's really because they're just ducking Illinois and Ohio State.
March 31st, 2021 at 10:57 AM ^
And all of these kids have been used and abused by our government for political gains.
Fuck yeah kids - go enjoy yourself since Big Brother has had you on "lockdown" for over a year now.
#LetKidsBeKids
#OPIsClintEastwood
YEAH GO DOWN TO FLORIDA AND PARTY. catch covid and bring it back and murder your grandma if you didn't already murder her.
CELEBRATE BIG PARTYING DURING A PANDEMIC.
these trashy, non-competitive, take-the-easy-road, grandma killer, high school kids sure are selfish these days.
Let's eat grandma.
Is this a sign of the times?
a group of people got together and made a joint decision that benefitted them?
<clutches pearls>
Benefitted them how???? So they can go on a frigging vacation in the middle of a pandemic? So they learn to be losers by not finishing something they committed to?
Awful parenting to allow the kids to make this decision. Although I suspect the parents heavily influenced the decision because they want their vacation now and couldn't wait a few months.
I suppose you’d like us to get off of your lawn...
I like how even though you don't know their situation, you make yourself look awful trying to describe it.
This is crazy. People get way to into sports as some key in life. Some might view time with family as even more important nowadays than playing a game.
I just assume people with crazy opinions like this are the ones who scream at the coaches in little league games
It’s too bad those girls hadn’t had opportunities to spend time with their families over the past year.
Do you think they’re going to reminisce with their grandchildren one day about how wasted they got in St. Pete’s Beach??
Um, yes! Without spring break some of those Mounties would never BE grandparents!
Before some idiot blames millennials (as the new cultural bogeyman), I feel compelled to point out that today's high schoolers and young college-age adults are now Gen Z.
The millennials are their role models though.
ha, right
and Gen X are the role models for Millenials
ha ha ha
March 31st, 2021 at 10:28 AM ^
we all share blame for the erosion of work ethic in this country, and our children and their children will be living in the world hobbled by it long after we are gone.
March 31st, 2021 at 11:15 AM ^
I have been AARP eligible for quite a time (MGrowOld and I very likely ran into each other at some point) and am also an amateur student of history, so I think my perspective is pretty well informed. The "kids these days! (shakes fist)" point of view of old farts is something that has been going on probably since the last ice age. There's nothing generationally bad about any large group. You'll find wonderful people and assholes in all age groups. I WILL say that, on the whole, younger people are far more tolerant than people my age were/are, so someone's doing something right in that regard.
March 31st, 2021 at 10:41 PM ^
By your logic, if every generation accurately observes that some aspect of society or culture has deteriorated there never actually be a problem.
You can argue that there is no deterioration but simply trotting out the old "every generation says that" cliche is meaningless.
By your logic, aahhhhh forget it. Too many holes. I'm going on vacation.
Can you imagine what it’s like for the 4 kids that DIDN’T bail on the team? Livid would be the right word.
As a parent of a current high school athlete I would be livid too if the other parents bailed on us like this. Most high school sports are a year-round effort. There is so much time spent for a kid who wants to be goog going to practices and training as well as for parents driving them everywhere. To get to the playoffs and bail out to go on a vacation must be really disappointing for the kids and parents who made that year-round sacrifice.
This was the part that caught my attention. I wonder if it is four starters and 8 kids that play a smaller role on the team. Obviously one of the 8 is a starter, but in high school that 5th starter can still play a small role. I also wonder what the state of Michigan has to say. If they were going to opt out, why did they play in districts? If I was the state, I would not let the school participate in any state tournaments for the next year. The team they beat at districts was sent home when they could have kept playing.
March 31st, 2021 at 11:34 AM ^
COMPLETELY agree on this. you want to opt out because you found something better? see ya.
i'd be so, so pissed if i were on the team they beat in districts.
WHERE ARE THE PARENTS
“LET THEM PLAY! LET THEM PLAY!”
Probably packing for the same trip...
To be fair, these trips are usually planned way in advance and money is usually forked out in advance as well. This isn't the normal basketball season. This is a product of the season being moved around due to the virus and the politicians.
I know a lot of kids that are frustrated because they are falling behind in their Spring sports because the Winter sports are still going. Basically, it has just been a weird year. I'm not going to bury these kids for this.
And many people are pandemic fatigued and looking for a time and reason to get away for a while. Not saying I agree with that mindset, we’re staying home for spring break this year. Hopefully things will be back to normal next year.
Sort of confused for the forfeit. If you have 4 varsity girls still wanting to play does Jackson NW not have a JV squad to call up some freshmen/sophomores for the game? Or did the underclassmen want to party as well?
Fair question, my only other thought is fear of getting boatraced and missing spring break? Either way it's a shit situation
March 31st, 2021 at 10:22 AM ^
Only reason I say that is because Detroit Catholic Central's hockey team had a similar situation last week where the entire varsity team had to sit out due to COVID in the middle of the state playoffs. They called up the entire JV team and they won 2 regional games. Varsity came back for the semis and finals and won the state title. If they fear losing instead of at the worst trying, then I'm not sure I agree with the message being sent. You never know what can happen in any game.
looking at last nights box score..... some of the men's bball team might have been on spring break last night.
You win best comment of the day!
As a graduate of Northwest's crosstown rival Parma Western, this makes me laugh.
you sir must be middle aged....and yes it may be a sign of the times. my coach and paremts made me attend every practice/game with my arm in a cast up to my shoulder after bad break week 3 in 6th gtade. lucky for me, but certainly not.for him, a teammate also had a season ending injury so we both had someone to hang with between water breaks. in school and all sports there was no condition that justfied missing short of hospitalization. i also knew my teammates would all be at practice/games because thats just how it was--never gave it any thought. i have been thankful every day of my life that i had parents, community, and coaches, in all my sports, that demanded working hard. the formative years.
Who cares. If they don’t want to play, that’s fine. It makes them happy, and the other team is happy that they can advance I’m sure.
Its a rare win win in sports.
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The pearl clutching in this thread is ridiculous... AWFUL PARENTING!!!! HOW COULD THEY??? GIVING UP ON THEIR COMMITMENTS!
I'll bet that most (probably all) of these kids would never get to Floriduh without a year of planning and saving for the trip. Basketball season was moved into this time slot, not the other way around - and the players had zero choice in the matter.
I cannot blame these girls one bit for deciding to go on a trip they've (and their personal friends/family) looked forward to for the last, probably, 1-2 years. This isn't some trip where you decide to go on a whim (unless you're a millionaire family).
Now the parenting decision to let a teenage daughter head off to Spring Break on her own is a discussion in its own right. But again, I'll bet most (if not all) of these girls are going with friends/family chaperones.
Leave the pearls alone, they've done nothing to earn your harsh attention.
So, there are a ton of assumptions made on this area. I would wager that a large percentage of these trips are family vacations, not some party trip. Spring break party trips for high schoolers, while they happen, are far less common. Which brings me to another point. If they are family trips, these may be among the last times their families travel together. Such trips become difficult in college as scheduling becomes harder. Both my parents have passed, if you were to ask me what memories I cherish more at this time in life, my trips to state finals or family vacations, it would absolutely be family vacations. So, maybe the high horse that parents should make them play is a little off. But I still stand by my earlier point that they should not have played in districts.
When spring break my senior year rolled around (a few decades ago), I guarantee you neither me, my friends, nor my classmates were traveling anywhere with our parents. I have serious doubts these trips have anything to do with making family memories.
I am sure it happens, but I don’t know anyone who has 16-18 year old high school kids that go on spring break by themselves. In fact, the majority of the people I know go to national parks and other such destinations that are not crawling with parties. High school and college spring breaks can be quite different.
You don't know the right people.
Most people I knew went as a group without parents when I was that age back in the 80s.
I'm sure lots of kids went on vacations with the family. But, senior year, tons of kids went south, sans parents.
Maybe the people in charge shouldn't have forced them to choose between a break everyone else gets and the playoff game.
They're kids who have spent the last year locked down. So long as the other team members are cool with it, go have some fun.
This reminds me of the southpark baseball episode where different teams get skilled at losing their games so that they can end their season and go enjoy their summer.