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Did any of you even bother to read the link? REASONABLE accommodations--not completely changing the rules of a sport. If a kid can run, how is it a problem to make it possible for him to run competitively by using a flashing light as well as a gun to start a race? You people thrive on hysteria--it's like you don't know how to function if the world isn't falling in, and if it's not really happening, you just blow everything out of proportion just in case.
The other thing that drives me nuts is this whining about how the world has turned into "everybody is a winner" crap. I have a house full of teen age boys and a husband who are all athletes and sports nuts. Winning is WONDERFUL, but that's not what they learn from sports--they learn to work as part of a team in some instances, and in others the sense of accomplishment that comes from working your heart out and having the SELF DISCIPLINE and WORK ETHIC to ACHIEVE. If you believe that it's all about the win, then you've been badly coached, probably badly parented, and I hope you NEVER play any kind of a leadership role in youth or High School sports. My guess is that you've never actually been anything beyond an arm chair athlete, because you have no concept of sportsmanship. Winning is amazing, but what it takes to get to the win, and what you learn along the way, is what matters.
My kids all play football (and they're good) because their buddies play and it's fun, but they excel at and love individual sports like wrestling and some track and field events. In sports like that, it's all on YOU--how physically and mentally tough you push yourself to become, how hard you train, how much you want it--it's about HEART, COURAGE, and DETERMINATION. Even when they don't win, when you see that in wrestlers or other athletes, you instantly respect it.
I've been to tournaments where kids with disabilities have wrestled, and there wasn't a person in the stands or on the mat who didn't instantly respect that kid, because they understood exactly how much harder he had to work than everyone else to get there. You seem to think that kids with disabilities participating in sports is a new thing. Did you watch the olympics this year? What about this guy? Oscar Pistorius - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In every case slight accommodations were made in coaching or in feeding information to the athlete while they were competing, but the rules of the game weren't changed. They won because they were the BEST ATHLETE--not because "everyone is a winner." They got on the mat, or on the field, or in the pool, or on the track in the first place because slight accommodations were made to give them the information they needed to participate.
Did any of you even bother to read the link? REASONABLE accommodations--not completely changing the rules of a sport. If a kid can run, how is it a problem to make it possible for him to run competitively by using a flashing light as well as a gun to start a race? You people thrive on hysteria--it's like you don't know how to function if the world isn't falling in, and if it's not really happening, you just blow everything out of proportion just in case.
The other thing that drives me nuts is this whining about how the world has turned into "everybody is a winner" crap. I have a house full of teen age boys and a husband who are all athletes and sports nuts. Winning is WONDERFUL, but that's not what they learn from sports--they learn to work as part of a team in some instances, and in others the sense of accomplishment that comes from working your heart out and having the SELF DISCIPLINE and WORK ETHIC to ACHIEVE. If you believe that it's all about the win, then you've been badly coached, probably badly parented, and I hope you NEVER play any kind of a leadership role in youth or High School sports. My guess is that you've never actually been anything beyond an arm chair athlete, because you have no concept of sportsmanship. Winning is amazing, but what it takes to get to the win, and what you learn along the way, is what matters.
My kids all play football (and they're good) because their buddies play and it's fun, but they excel at and love individual sports like wrestling and some track and field events. In sports like that, it's all on YOU--how physically and mentally tough you push yourself to become, how hard you train, how much you want it--it's about HEART, COURAGE, and DETERMINATION. Even when they don't win, when you see that in wrestlers or other athletes, you instantly respect it.
I've been to tournaments where kids with disabilities have wrestled, and there wasn't a person in the stands or on the mat who didn't instantly respect that kid, because they understood exactly how much harder he had to work than everyone else to get there. You seem to think that kids with disabilities participating in sports is a new thing. Did you watch the olympics this year? What about this guy? Oscar Pistorius - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In every case slight accommodations were made in coaching or in feeding information to the athlete while they were competing, but the rules of the game weren't changed. They won because they were the BEST ATHLETE--not because "everyone is a winner." They got on the mat, or on the field, or in the pool, or on the track in the first place because slight accommodations were made to give them the information they needed to participate.
Bravo! +1
This is to prevent a coach from dismissing, for example, a kid with mild retardation who can run dismissing him simply because of the retardation.
I think these hysterics think that right after their guns are taken away, football will be illegalized.
This is to prevent a coach from dismissing, for example, a kid with mild retardation who can run dismissing him simply because of the retardation.
I think these hysterics think that right after their guns are taken away, football will be illegalized.
Thanks--and I think you nailed this. Having a developmental delay, or a physical disability, doesn't mean that you can't be an athlete as well. I can't imagine living in a world where you're so afraid that every little thing turns into some kind of conspiracy theory or attempt to take something away--they lose all common sense or perspective. And for the record, if football makes changes, it won't be because kids with disabilities are participating. It will be because so many of the athletes--especially pro athletes--are facing disabilities and dementia because of brain trauma. The more we learn about the long term impact of concussions, the worse it looks. I'm fortunate that none of my kids have ever had one.
Thanks--and I think you nailed this. Having a developmental delay, or a physical disability, doesn't mean that you can't be an athlete as well. I can't imagine living in a world where you're so afraid that every little thing turns into some kind of conspiracy theory or attempt to take something away--they lose all common sense or perspective. And for the record, if football makes changes, it won't be because kids with disabilities are participating. It will be because so many of the athletes--especially pro athletes--are facing disabilities and dementia because of brain trauma. The more we learn about the long term impact of concussions, the worse it looks. I'm fortunate that none of my kids have ever had one.
+1 for you too...
I was a wrestler. Even 20 years ago wrestling had common sense modifications in the rules so that people with disabilities could participate. Hell, I coached a prep school team and we wrestled the NY School for the Blind.
This will eventually lead to the end of the tryouts. All it is going to take is a couple of lawsuits that little Billy or Susie didn't get chosen because the parents decided the coach thought they couldn't compete because they were disabled. Also, I wonder how they are going to handle kicking kids off teams because of discipline problems; you just know the lawsuits are coming for that one if Junior has an emotional/behavioral disorder.
The key word is "qualified". They even go so far as to explain that they don't expect game rules/play to change. If you aren't qualified to play by the rules of the game you won't play. The boy is the wheelchair, for example, COULD potentially race against runners but it's not going to change the time of the runners, which is what running and racing is all about. A wheelchair won't be allowed on a football field since it's clearly can't be accomodated in the game. Kicking kids off teams happens now for behavioral problems so I don't see how this will make any difference. They can be kicked off for grades too.
If this thread is any indication there will be challeneges to this law that will have to be settled in court, but only becasue people on both ends are a little wonky.
I was a wrestler. Even 20 years ago wrestling had common sense modifications in the rules so that people with disabilities could participate. Hell, I coached a prep school team and we wrestled the NY School for the Blind.
This is much ado about nothing.
Good for you, and you're right--it's much ado about nothing.
Wrestlers, maybe above almost every other type of athlete, probably understand this the best, because you can't even make it through the practices and conditioning unless you're tough and determined. Getting out on that mat is an accomplishment in itself, and if a kid with disabilities has the heart and courage to give it a go, it's hard not to stand up and cheer. We're in a small school district, and every three or four years it seems like a group of the boys BB players will think it's funny to give the wrestlers a tough time about wearing singlets, etc. The coaches have an agreement then--the wrestlers and the BB team switch conditioning for a day. It happens every time--the BB team is throwing up in trash cans about half way through, while the wrestlers are smiling. After that, you never hear another peep from the BB players. The special needs wrestlers go through the same conditioning as everyone else--this idea that their participation turns the sport into "everyone is a winner" is ridiculous and stupid. Going OUT for wrestling is enough to prove that you're tough...if you can compete with reasonable accommodations, there's no reason you shouldn't be out there.
Life isnt fair, and making it so is not a function of government.
I love it when people start throwing around what's constitutional or not without a clue. The Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities, among other things, absolutely IS constitutional, and it's the law of the land.
Isn't that what coaches do every time they hold tryouts? So... when does the ADA hit the pros?
As a coach before Title IX hit I keep seeing that wheel chair bound "athlete" running a fast break on the team. I guess you could let him sit on the offensive end of the court and if he could catch and pass the ball let him take part. Playing 4 on 5 on the defensive end must be what these people had in mind.
They forced special ed on the schools and at first they were separated in school with special teachers of their own and then they had to try that mixing, which didn't work, at all but never saw the damage they had done.
I worked in a district that had three high schools in it and it seemed like the special edders, as I called them, always had to come from the other schools to our school and our kids saw what kind of special attention they got. I ranted about this to the administration but, of course, those other schools didn't want to rotate that kind of program.
This last bit of foolishness says so much to me about the need to get rid of the Department of Education.
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Winning is amazing, but what it takes to get to the win, and what you learn along the way, is what matters. 
