Wanna Be a Steader!

I need your feed-back about something...

Our daughters have been on a homeschool girls' volleyball team - the Golden Angels - for 3 years of the 5 years the team has existed.  (Our oldest, Jasper, graduated this past June, so Jenna is the only one we go to watch now!)  Other than those ever-occurring fund-raisers and some of the travel, it has been a GREAT experience for the whole family!   GO GOLDEN ANGELS!!!!!!! 

The Jr. Varsity and Varsity teams have been to several tournaments around Ohio, IN., PA., and to Nationals in NB.  The Varsity hasn't lost a regular season play game since the 2004 season!  They are AWESOME!  AND...they are AWESOME GIRLS!!!  Of course, there are a few personality differences, but anything like that is taken care of quickly within the team and/or families.  The girls are such great supporters of each other, it's acutally very humbling for me, as a parent, to watch. 

Now, the hard part...3 seasons ago, when our girls were first getting involved with the team, I warned the girls that just because all of the teams we play (some homeschool teams and some Christian school teams) are supposed to be Christians, DOESN'T means that they ARE Christians.  Well, they have seen a few incidents of this in the past but NEVER to the degree of a tournament we went to this past weekend!!

I will let the letter that I wrote (names excluded) to the school speak for me.  I would be VERY interested in what you would have done in this situation.  Other parents on our team have said that they will write to the school, too.

Blessings from Ohio, Kim Wolf<><

P.S.  I have yet to hear back from anyone at the school.

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Dear M------- Christian Leadership and Athletic Director,

I am a Golden Angels volleyball parent and I am writing to you to bring something to your attention.

On Friday, August 18, 2006 our JV and V teams traveled to M------ for our games.  The games, themselves, went very well, but your student body behaved atrociously.  Not only did the older high school-aged boys take pom poms from the hands of a group of little sisters of our team members - yes, right out of their hands! - but they then abused them and threw them under the risers.  I personally witnessed this and, when the game was over, asked them to please go pick them up from under the stands and bring them ALL back to me.  Of course, they looked at me like I had just come there from outer space, but after realizing that I had seen their behavior, they did what I asked...begrudgingly...not a "sorry" in the bunch. 

Not only did this happen, but these same boys AND the v-ball team girls (both teams, while their particular team was not playing) sat in the stands calling our homeschool girls "stupid homeschoolers," "fat" and other personal hateful names and remarks.  EVEN THOUGH they knew that the very people sitting next to them in the stands were the parents of those girls!

As if all that wasn't bad enough -

This past weekend, our teams took part in your tournament.  What should have been a great weekend was terribly soured by not only your students, but even some of the parents!

First, the students:  I'm assuming the far end of the gym is "the place" for the high school-aged kids to sit.  Many of them I recognized as the SAME kids (especially the boys) who bullied the little girls and abused the pom poms.  They behaved terribly throughout the entire tourney, HOWEVER, during the championship Varsity game there are no other words I can politely describe them with other than utterly heathen.  They - and some parents - were no better behaved than drunken fools at a pro football game.  When the Angels would serve they NEVER CEASED to make all sorts of LOUD distracting noises to break their concentration; they would make distracting noises each time the girls hit the ball while in play and they would yell "out!" when a ball was nearing the court line in order to trick our girls into not going after it and losing the point.  This was not done to the M------- players.  VERY bad behavior.  VERY unsportman-like.

As I said, some of the parents were not innocent either.  Behind us, against the wall, someone kept banging SO HARD on the metal risers that it absolutely jarred the whole structure.  I thought is was some of the same students who were acting disrespectful; after being jolted several times I looked in back of me only to find out that it was being done by a GROWN MAN!!  A GROWN MAN!!  A grown man - a parent - was deliberately trying to distract our players!  If I were a M------ parent, I would have been SO ashamed! 

Unfortunately, this does not let your staff off the hook.  At all the games we attended, I recognized a K--- W--- from your staff pictures.  Particularly during the tournament, I am astonished that he sat there and did or said NOTHING while all of this was going on.  On Saturday he was sitting a mere 6 feet from where we were and there is NO WAY that he did not know what was going on - unless, of course, this is what your students and fans ALWAYS act like and it was nothing new.  Shame, shame, shame.

Now as if all that weren't enough.  Might I please suggest that if you continue to have your tournament that you hire refs who are NOT from your area?  The Golden Angels have participated in tournaments in other Ohio towns, IN., PA., and the Nationals in NB.  NEVER have we EVER had to face such unruly, un-Christlike crowds; but NEVER have we EVER had to face such "hometown" refs!  They made calls that no one had ever seen or heard of before, much less took points away from opposing teams (not just the Angels) for things that M------ had done and continued to do without finding any fault.

Your teams are SO talented, why do you and your fans feel it necessary to check your Christianity at the door of the gym and ruin your testimony?  I realize that not everyone who attends a "Christian" school is a Christian - nor are all the parents - but that is not a reason to abandon civil behavior at your sporting events.

Thank you for your time and attention,

Mrs. Kim Wolf