"We're losers. We got beat. There is no trophy for us."

I hadn't seen this posted on another thread. Louisville women's basketball coach Jeff Walz went off on a tangent about "everybody gets a trophy" culture in America during his press conference after a loss to Maryland. It sounds like he read some conversations we've had here. The best of it starts at around the five-minute mark. I knew nothing about Walz before this, but I thought it was worth hearing.

 

Granted Walz isn't one, but I'm really tired of selfish Baby Boomers using the "participation trophy" argument to shit all over millenials, because it's a straw man. I've never seen anyone treasure a participation trophy. Stuff like that and Walz's "friendship brackets" are typically marketing gimmicks to keep Mom and Dad writing checks to keep the youth sports industrial complex churning, not because any of the kids asked for or needed that.

 

Agreed. And in these cases it's usually cover-up for a coach who can't coach.

"This ain't intramurals, brother!" Dan Hawkins, when he had lost control at Colorado

 

Well, I kinda loved that. Good get.

Hey, I'm not blaming the kids. I'm blaming the people pushing the 13th-place trophies.

 

I don't like any non top two trophies but I do like the consolation bracket. With our sixth grade team I would rather play three games instead of one loss. Gives the chance to work in a real setting.

 

Was hoping this was a political thread.

 

Facebook parents come mighty close with the "graduation" ceremonies/certificates from 2nd grade.

 

But that's the point. Most of the 'participation trophy' crap is being done to edify the parents, who want to feel like Junior has accomplished something and/or they're getting value for the coin they just dropped for the Bumblefuck Ballerz's U11 AAU team than the kids want.

 

I hate this "participation trophy! eleventy!" bullshit. In my experience, the biggest bitching comes from parents whose kid is pretty good at something and they can't stand it that his/her accomplishment isn't set apart even more. Fuck that.

No kid ever got harmed because he or she got a trinket to commemorate his/her participation in some activity. In my working-class, high-school-football-is-king neck of the woods, we got participation trophies long before any millennials shit between two shoes, and none of us was under any illusions about our gifts or accomplishments.

 

Oh dear Lord. If you don't want to participate in people's lives online, you can fix that in about two clicks. They're probably putting that stuff there for the benefit of relatives anyway, and you just happen to get a window into what's happening in their lives. What a horrible, inescapable burden.

 

My only beef with participation trophies is that they're useless. I'd rather the kids get participation hats or participation shirts or participation hot-chocolate mugs.

 

I think most complaints are not for the trophy as much as they don't hand out MVP's and reward some of the elite.