where is the sportsmanship??

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201...ml?xid=shareFB

Ah, my old school district. This guy is a serious a$$hat.

That is unreal. Even though that Knowles guy denied it, you know he saw that bracelet before and also new that young lady was going to clear the height and just couldn't wait to call her out on the bracelet to win the meet. What a loser, I don't understand how he can sleep at night.

I would have fired the coach and given back the championship. What a scumbag.

You aren't allowed to wear any jewelry in high school sports. That is a rule. When I played baseball, if an umpire saw you wearing a necklace he would immediately make you take it off and then warn you if you do it again, you will get thrown out of the game.

one school gets to sleep knowing they really won and the other gets to sleep knowing they stole a trophy from a group who EARNED it!

Unbelievable. That poor girl thinks she lost the meet for the team. In today's society, people of low character always prevail if they whine loud enough.

Somebody should have argued that it isn't "jewelry". It's made out of clothing material and covers the skin.

in HS lacrosse they would give us a warning and make us tape up bracelets if anyone didn't want to cut them off, there were never penalties given out much less being forced to forfeit...that is ridiculous

It was messed up, but what happens when that little piece of clothing material gets caught on the pole, and turns a normal pole vault terribly wrong? There's a reason rules are rules, and it should fall on the other coach for not catching it, doubt he didn't know she had it on.

Rules are Rules...PERIOD! What if it she would have got it caught on the pole and a serious injury occured .... accidents happen

I read somewhere where he had something similar called on him in the past..

I disagree. Common sense should win in every situation. It should be a judge's decision. Or there should be some other type of penalty for the infraction instead of disqualification. If you are going to say that it's a safety issue then her long hair poses a risk too, or shoelaces. I'd like to see a pic of the bracelet to see what we are talking about though.

Yeah I can see that friendship bracelet (which is mentioned in the article that she ripped it off) is going to cause any damage by getting caught in the pole. What is she going to be dangling in the air by a thin bracelet?

Our school has one of those hate rivalries with a high school called Jasper. Vincennes Lincoln when my two brothers were on the baseball team were playing at Jasper for the Regional finals when the game was tied with one out and runners on in the final inning. They called a balk on our pitcher and Jasper won on a fantom play. Fast foward about 20 years and again the regional was in Jasper. The kid from Lincoln hits a walk off single (double really) to score the runner from 3rd to win the tournament and head to the state championship. The kid from third took his helmet off just before home plate. That had passed a rule saying you have to leave your helmet on but the first time should have been a warning. The ump decided to call him out. That lead to Lincoln's coach getting thrown out and they played extra innings and Jasper won yet again on their home field. Nothing like adding gas to a hate fire.

Originally Posted by wake77

Yeah I can see that friendship bracelet (which is mentioned in the article that she ripped it off) is going to cause any damage by getting caught in the pole. What is she going to be dangling in the air by a thin bracelet?

Yes, exactly that....... Maybe more, the bracelet catches vault pole, pulls it towards her, takes down the bar as well, and now she's falling with two poles falling towards her, one of which is likely headed towards one of her limbs if not her torso. More so, it's more about the general rule, such as in soccer, I'd rather an opponent not be wearing a bracelet, watch, and sometimes necklace, as I've heard of fingers getting severely damaged getting caught in them, as well as I personally was cut to ish by a dudes watch in a pick up game. It's sports, you don't need jewelry. Likely nothing would have happened with what she had, but with safety, especially in the lawsuit happy times we're in, you can't make exceptions to the rules.

The ref should have caught it. They usually do checks ahead of time in almost all sports that require no jewelry. You should not be able to disqualify a competitor is a opposing coach points it out. Basically, the other coach knew about it but waited for the girl to put herself "in danger" first so he could call her on it. Pretty weak and the other coach should be reprimanded as person who has administrative responsibility to make sure the activity is safe for all involved.

you have obviously never pole vaulted.it would be next to impossible to get a bracelet caught in the pole unless it was loose enough to come over your hand. the poles are at least 1-1/2 inches in diameter.he called her on it because that's how he could win.he's a bad sport. enough said.

Rules are rules, I suppose. If the coach did honestly notice the bracelet after the vault, then maybe okay. If he noticed it before and purposely waited until after the vault to get her disqualified, he's a total douche.

I used to pole vault through Junior High and Robert is right. That is why an opposing coach should not be able to get someone disqualified on a "safety" issue. Also, you have both the bar and pole falling on you all the time.

You're right, I've never pole vaulted. Point was, you can't make an exception. That was a suggested possibility, and I obviously didn't have experience to know that it wasn't a great possibility. I will not post anything further that may take away from the point of there can Not be exceptions to the rules, as in high school sports everyone knows you can't wear anything. I'm sure people get away with it all the time, but it leaves the team vulnerable every time they do it. The man is a bad sport, but in all fairness I doubt the girl had no idea she shouldn't be wearing it.

i'm not trying to beat anyone down . when i went to school in the 70's you didn't hate the player you hated the game.you would find a new game that you liked.i think you are missing my point . the coach didn't care about her safety or the rules until he saw a way HE could BENEFIT!.that's what i'm saying.

Did she break a rule or not?

Enough said...

Understand and agree to an extent, although it could also be, "wow, we just lost, but that coach was dumb enough to let his senior-top pole vaulter go in this important of a meet with a bracelet on, in clear violation of the rules" I'd fault the other coach just as much, as well as the girl, for even giving the opportunity. Who doesn't know that you don't wear jewelry in a high school sport?

I think to all those people who say "you can't make an exception" that is silly. Sports is about building strong kids into strong adults. We as a people have lost site of this in our world. I am 35 and my father was a football coach and preached sports and teamwork. He would never want or do anything like this to win a game. He wanted kids to learn LIFE lessons, and winning and losing isn't a life lesson in my opinion. Although that may have been a "rule" what are we teaching our young people by doing this? We are teaching that in EVERY circumstance there will be something you can find to benefit you just look hard enough. My problem is with the fact that parents, coaches and soceity alike have taken a drastic turn lately about sports and taking them WAY too serious. In reality how many of these student athletes will go on to be a pro track star....most likely zero....We need to focus on teaching them that life is hard, no shortcuts for hard work, and love eachother and help eachother out. No where in this instances is that taught. All this shows is another high school coach and parents deciding the "winning" a track meet is more important than the big picture. It's quite a shame in my opinion. I played college Football and like I said my father is a football coach so I came from that background that sports are a HUGE part of my life, however LIFE isn't all about sports. We just seem to lose sight of that all too often. I wish that more stories like the softball story were out there, but until people like this coach are gone there just won't be enough of the good stories and more of the bad.

JMO...

Originally Posted by deltahoosier

Our school has one of those hate rivalries with a high school called Jasper. Vincennes Lincoln when my two brothers were on the baseball team were playing at Jasper for the Regional finals when the game was tied with one out and runners on in the final inning. They called a balk on our pitcher and Jasper won on a fantom play. Fast foward about 20 years and again the regional was in Jasper. The kid from Lincoln hits a walk off single (double really) to score the runner from 3rd to win the tournament and head to the state championship. The kid from third took his helmet off just before home plate. That had passed a rule saying you have to leave your helmet on but the first time should have been a warning. The ump decided to call him out. That lead to Lincoln's coach getting thrown out and they played extra innings and Jasper won yet again on their home field. Nothing like adding gas to a hate fire.

Are you from Southern Indiana? I'm from Evansville, well Newburgh (Castle High School)

We played against Newburgh in Legion Baseball. I played in Newburgh. I grew up in Vincennes and I to played against Jasper in many sports since Junior High. Two of my brothers played summer ball for the Jasper Reds during summer ball while in College. I live in California now (well 20 years).

Yeah...I used to play football against Jasper and Vincennes...small world...or internet.

Sure is. I am sure we hung out as the same mall. Maybe even went into the same Risley's Audio Video Store (is they were still around) and most likely walked the same areas of old Roberts Stadium.

We didn't play Castle when I was in school. I sure hates me some Jasper though. ;0)

You guys ever play Evansville Reitz? I've been down to the Reitz Bowl a few times over the years and Even played a number of Games at Bosse (sp?) Field. Bosse Field was the old baseball stadium right?

Ha! brings back memories. I only went to Castle my freshman year and then moved back to Hawaii with my dad. We did play Rietz, Bosse, Memorial etc. I remember Vincennes having a tough football team though

Same malls? Like Washington Square, and Eastland. I go back to visit my mom every know and again, but I could NEVER imagine moving back there.

That's right. Washington Square. I could not remember the name of it. I did remember Eastland but I just remember that one being the "other" mall. Vincennes is always up and down in football. We have always been good in basketball over the years and the baseball team has really turned it around the last couple of decades. They even won a state championship. Football, if they are not banging heads against Jasper, they get rolled by teams like Heritige Hills (sp?).

If I was an athlete on that coaches team, I would have not accepted that victory. The (opposing) coach could have pulled the girl and her coach over to the side and, something along the lines, "You guys know she broke a rule, but I am not going to call it. Next time, though, I will. Congratulations on your victory." That would have been the honorable thing to do, not shattering some young girl's self esteem. If I was a parent on that coaches team, no way would I let my kid be a part of that celebration.