Parents, lawsuits and high school athletics

Well that is a bigger argument, I'm just saying there isn't a corollary here because there's no 24-hour stretch they consider off limits.

 

On the Seventh Day, God created bingo, basketball and beer.

 

Did we play kickball together while our dads were drinking?

 

Probably.

 

My biggest problem with this scenario is that when the school joined the league a year or two ago, they agreed to join knowing the fact that the schedule might not work out for them, even after it was explained to them. Other schools have forfeited the state tournament because it conflicted with their religious beliefs and individual kids have sat out because of them as well.

But now this goes against them because the boys games were schedule at night instead of earlier in the day and the parents go apeshit.

You can't agree to play by the rules and then whine if they go against you.

 

Here's the thing, Della: We're talking about the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools, which should be a group built to consider the various constraints of its members. If rescheduling a game for religious reasons was going to be a problem, TAPPS shouldn't have let an Orthodox Jewish school join. But I can't imagine why it was a problem in the first place. The school is willing to play 86 percent of every week.

I hold little respect for the ideologies of religions and the divisiveness they create. But I don't see this as an example of abusing religion for personal gain as much as asking an organization that was created with the intent of catering to parochial schools to consider religious practices.

 

I thought on the Seventh Day, God created the NFL?

 

No. That was Pete Rozelle.

 

Among the big names chiming in on this case was Jeff Van Gundy, who called the organization.

“I called because when you’re the head of an association like this, the only thing you should worry about is doing right by the kids,” Van Gundy said in a phone interview Wednesday. “This decision has nothing to do with the kids. I feel like they made a mistake and they don’t have a vice president of common sense who will tell them that this is silly and it’s O.K. to change your mind.”

When you're choosing kids vs. bylaws, that is a pretty easy call. Van Gundy's right.

And then there's this, according to the New York Times: The organization posted a statement on its Web site on Wednesday that said it was adhering to its bylaws, which were written in the late 1970s, when “the member schools at that time all recognized Sunday as the day of worship.”

Yeah, it was totally convenience and scheduling. Not about religion at all, nosiree.

 

Here in the Bible Belt most schools won't schedule games on Wednesdays either, because it's a church night.

 

It's not whining.

 

The thing is, TAPPS has made accommodations in the past for its parochial schools, but didn't see the need to do so for a Jewish school. It's right that the parents called them on the hypocrisy of their position. This should be TAPPS' raison d'etre -- to give small religious schools their own playing field.

And Van Gundy got it right. When it's bylaws vs. kids, always side with the kids.