apparently it's not okay to be really good

[retro]

Youth league institutes TD limit to hold back 11-year-old

 

[Darrell]

The game isn't about winning, Nic. It's about having fun, and everyone is a winner. :sarcasm

 

[jassilem]

The game isn't about winning, Nic. It's about having fun, and everyone is a winner. :sarcasm

That sounded very Little House On the Prairie of you..

 

[Mystic]

According to Arkansas Fox affiliate Fox 16, 11-year-old Demias Jimerson has emerged as such a dominant running back that the Wilson Intermediate Football League he plays in has reinstated a bylaw called the "Madre Hill rule," which bars him from scoring a touchdown if he has already scored three times and his team has a lead of 14 points or more .

omg thats just bloody stupid! What a backwards way of thinking to do that to an 11 year old because he is good at the sport.

 

[freakofnature]

So, I take it no one has tried to understand the reason behind the rule? They're not doing it to hold him back or punish him for being good. They're doing it so that the other players get a chance to play too. If you look at it from the perspective of the other players on the team this rule really isn't the horrible thing that everyone is making it out to be. The title of the article is somewhat misleading.

 

[Darrell]

They are singling (sp) him out, and that's not okay.

 

[freakofnature]

They are singling (sp) him out, and that's not okay.

He's going to be singled out either way. :dunno He's scored 7 touchdowns in one game. Why even put a team on the field? Just send him out with the quarterback, maybe an O-line player or two and they've got it made.

 

[Darrell]

He's going to be singled out either way. :dunno He's scored 7 touchdowns in one game. Why even put a team on the field? Just send him out with the quarterback, maybe an O-line player or two and they've got it made.

LOL, good point, Zirc.

 

[retro]

So, I take it no one has tried to understand the reason behind the rule? They're not doing it to hold him back or punish him for being good. They're doing it so that the other players get a chance to play too. If you look at it from the perspective of the other players on the team this rule really isn't the horrible thing that everyone is making it out to be. The title of the article is somewhat misleading.

When I played baseball, I had a season where I hit almost .800... should I have been barred from being able to hit because it "wasn't fair" to the other kids? When I played soccer there was a kid in my league that averaged about 5 goals a game. Should he have been barred from scoring goals because he was better than anyone else? It's punishing him because he's good.

As far as the other players getting to play... they do. A football team has 11 players on the field at any given time... they all have their own set roles. Some of them block, others run the ball, etc. When you have a talented player, you want to use him to win the game. I could understand it if the coach decided to use other players once they had a lead, but to mandate it? That's absurd.

 

[Mystic]

...oh boy do-gooders... trying to make everyone equal...:thumbdown

 

[Aeval]

When I played baseball, I had a season where I hit almost .800... should I have been barred from being able to hit because it "wasn't fair" to the other kids? When I played soccer there was a kid in my league that averaged about 5 goals a game. Should he have been barred from scoring goals because he was better than anyone else? It's punishing him because he's good.

As far as the other players getting to play... they do. A football team has 11 players on the field at any given time... they all have their own set roles. Some of them block, others run the ball, etc. When you have a talented player, you want to use him to win the game. I could understand it if the coach decided to use other players once they had a lead, but to mandate it? That's absurd.

I agree with this, but I was also thinking:

I wonder what would have happened if there was a Gretzky rule in hockey:

Gretzky broke every record there was to be broken, scoring 378 goals in one season at age 10. He was booed by other players' parents because they received no attention, it was all about Gretzky.

What would have happened if they restricted him to 3 goals a game?

 

[Dana]

So, I take it no one has tried to understand the reason behind the rule? They're not doing it to hold him back or punish him for being good. They're doing it so that the other players get a chance to play too. If you look at it from the perspective of the other players on the team this rule really isn't the horrible thing that everyone is making it out to be. The title of the article is somewhat misleading.

I can agree with this. The kid isn't in high school or in college where this shit really matters. Youth teams should be about fun and letting everyone have a chance.

 

[pjbleek]

....but he is cool with it, so I think that helps

 

[AUFred]

I have seen kids play who were almost that dominant. Seems like other players would have to try harder to compete. Instead lets bring everything down a notch or 6.

 

[retro]

I have seen kids play who were almost that dominant. Seems like other players would have to try harder to compete. Instead lets bring everything down a notch or 6.

Exactly... whenever I played someone better than me in sports, it motivated me to get better. The kid I was talking about with soccer... by the time we both played our last year in that league when we were in high school, I shut him down in our last game against each other. Of course, it kinda helped that we had played on the same team the two previous years, so I knew exactly what he did. But this is just teaching kids that excellence is punished, and that there's no reason to work to get better, because someone will come along and make it "fair" for you.

 

[retro]

I can agree with this. The kid isn't in high school or in college where this shit really matters. Youth teams should be about fun and letting everyone have a chance.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that you never played sports as a kid.

 

[Alien Allen]

you are only as good as your competition

The only time I had a problem with being over matched was if you ran up the score on purpose. In this case if I had a large lead as a coach I would have spread the ball around. I still would have given the kid his share of touches but I would have put others in the game too and given them a chance.

I coached a bit myself. Not football but roller hockey and lacrosse. One year the roller hockey team I coached made it to the finals. We were an underdog but played great and the goalie was outstanding. We went into over time. The other coaches would have only played their top 5 players. I gave mine more minutes but I still rotated everybody. I was going to risk it because it would have been hypocritical. A season earlier my daughter was on a team. She was better than 3/4 of the boys so she more than held her own but one of the other few girls in the league that was on the team was horrible. The coach gave my daughter very limited time and none in the last half of the game. The other girl played one shift. My daughter was pissed and he chewed her out so I went ballistic after the game. I have only ranted in public like that one other time in my life. There is a line to draw. Not all coaches know it.