If you open your mind will your brains fall out?

[PPHSfan]

I sometimes ask myself this same question, and even though I know the answer to be NO, I think that we are all guilty of the fear.

I spent most of the morning trying to open mine and seeing if I could come up with a logical reason to change my mind about something that has been bothering me. I tried to put myself in the shoes of the other schools that seem to think that they have been cheated by my beloved team, because of a player that is fighting for what he feels is an injustice. I must admit that the first thing that comes to my mind is, yes they have a right to cry foul. But then I start thinking about things like...If my team lost a game because of ONE highschool player that MAY OR MAY NOT belong on the other team then maybe I need to get my team to play better.

Then I try to open my mind up to things like,"The District Committee found you guilty, as did the UIL, so you are guilty, so stop cheating."

Does anyone here know what the district Committee is? It is a committee made up usually of the superintendents of all of the schools that belong to a district. Does anyone know what a "Committee Representative" does? A committee representative goes to a meeting and "votes" on an issue that will best serve the intrest of his "constituants" or in this case, his school district.

Is anyone that is in disagreement with me willing to open their mind and try to see the irony in that?

Look at the following example.

If school distict A, accuses schools distict B of a foul, and districts C D E and F can only benefit by siding with A, and there is also a strong possibility that by Siding with school district B that it would cost their school district money, How should a "representative" who's purpose is to vote in his districts best interest vote?

Now let's bring in the Governing Body of All the districts. If you are the Parent of 32 kids, and 6 of them come to you and ask you to rule on a disagreement, and the problem boils down to "He said this, and She said that, and you have to decide, and 5 of the kids say one thing against the 1 child, how would you vote?

Do any of you actually think that the UIL would overturn a decision that has been ruled on 5-1 at the lower level?

Now lets go to how this mess all got started. One Coach makes the decision to check a box that is based on his opinion (because folks, when it comes down to judgement calls, that is what they are) and the ball starts rolling.

I guess the question that I would like to ask of most folks that disagree with me is this. If you were accused of something who would you wan't sitting in judgement of you. A jury of folks that have no interest in your innocence or guilt, or a jury of folks that have a financial interest in the outcome of your case?

Now almost everyone on this board wants to jump in Matthews corner when he is accused of cheating, because we all know him, and we wan't to be there for him. But why is it that so many of you that don't know this KID from Adam, want to listen to heresay and feed him to the wolves, and call him a cheater? Is it because you are afraid your brains might fall out if you stop and think?

[CatsDen]

"If school distict A, accuses schools distict B of a foul, and districts C D E and F can only benefit by siding with A, and there is also a strong possibility that by Siding with school district B that it would cost their school district money, How should a "representative" who's purpose is to vote in his districts best interest vote?"

If his job is to represent the best interest of the whole, then he must side with A because it not only makes financial sense, but also benefits the majority of those represented.

"Now let's bring in the Governing Body of All the districts. If you are the Parent of 32 kids, and 6 of them come to you and ask you to rule on a disagreement, and the problem boils down to "He said this, and She said that, and you have to decide, and 5 of the kids say one thing against the 1 child, how would you vote?"

Isn't there a signed document (the transfer paperwork)? How long has this document been in existence? Why is the problem only now being addressed? If the problem can be handled at their level (I'm not sure if we're talking about kids or a District committee or the UIL), then I would allow them to handle it themselves. If it is necessary for me to rule, then I would vote in favor of the majority...as long as they can produce justification or evidence.

"Do any of you actually think that the UIL would overturn a decision that has been ruled on 5-1 at the lower level?"

I think that they should not overturn the decision at the lower level unless suficient evidence is provided to prove that the lower level made a flagrant mistake. That lower level should be allowed to govern itself.

"Now lets go to how this mess all got started. One Coach makes the decision to check a box that is based on his opinion (because folks, when it comes down to judgement calls, that is what they are) and the ball starts rolling."

Or maybe the kid said, "I can't wait to get away from this town", or "this team sucks", or "the coach is an idiot"....Maybe he made it perfectly clear that he was transferring for athletic reasons only. For anyone to question the coach's integrity or reasoning without first-hand knowledge of the situation and atmoshpere is ridiculous.

"I guess the question that I would like to ask of most folks that disagree with me is this. If you were accused of something who would you wan't sitting in judgement of you. A jury of folks that have no interest in your innocence or guilt, or a jury of folks that have a financial interest in the outcome of your case?"

Where is the financial interest? There will be a playoff game played, regardless of who the participants may be. Unless the enrollment for one school is noticeably larger than the other (therefor generating more possible gate revenue), then the participant is irrelevant.

I think this is very simple. The UIL has rules in place and is responsible for governing within those rules. Someone broke the rules and have been held accountable. Without knowing the details of the case (which really isn't even necessary) I would side with the District Committee and the UIL Governing body. If you agree to join and play under the rules of UIL, then you must abide by the UIL's decisions. It sounds like one player's selfishness has brought quite a bit of trouble upon the entire team.

<small>[ November 19, 2003, 12:57 PM: Message edited by: CatsDen ]</small>

[JasperDog94]

Let's put a senario into practice:

Last year Jasper played an ineligible player for 2 kickoffs. As soon as the coach found out that the kid lied, he pulled him. But the damage was done. Jasper confessed and it came down to a vote in the district: Make Jasper forfeit the game or not. Jasper won the game convincingly and this player had alomst no impact on the game.

Now, the question that you proposed PPHSfan is that why would the other teams vote in favor of Jasper when it would help their own team by making Jasper have at least 1 district loss? The vote was 5-1 to not make Jasper foreit the game. Unfortunately, in this case, they needed a unanimous vote to keep the victory. The only school to vote against them was Diboll.

That's right. Even Newton voted to keep the results the way they were.

The moral of the story is: Some people make the right call even when it's not in their teams/schools best interest.

[PAINTBALL]

The problem with UIL is that they are stubborn and never admit that their rules many times conflict with other rules or laws, or are sometimes ambiguous and subject to different interpertations. The court's purpose is to reconcile these conficts. For example if the student's parent moves to another school district and establish residence in that district, the student by law must attend school in that district or get a waiver and pay tuition. If the parents move and the kid moves with his parents, the ability of his old coach to stop the kid from playing varsity sports at the other school should not exist. I respect anyone who takes on the UIL bullies and morans. I also believe that any coach who would try to stop the kid from playing is mean and doesn't have the kids' best interest at heart.

That's just my opinion.

[sinton66]

No public entity should ever be above the law. The UIL is not autonomous. They are humans, and humans often make mistakes, but , have you EVER heard the UIL admit it made a mistake?

<small>[ November 19, 2003, 08:53 PM: Message edited by: sinton66 ]</small>