Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Do Girls Count at Muscle Shoals?


From a Muscle Shoals Parent:

With the exception of tennis and golf, has ANYONE in administration paid ANY attention to girls sports at Muscle Shoals lately? Apparently not, since coaches still have their jobs... When a senior quits a month before the season is over, someone should take note (and two others have quit as well). Maybe their 1-22 record has something to do with it, considering this team was a winning team while in middle school and on JV under the direction of a different coach. They are playing against the same teams, the difference? The Coach. Oh and a special player or two. One that proudly states she was RECRUITED at the end of her 8th grade year at Cedar Ridge to come to Muscle Shoals her Freshman year and promised to never be on the bench. That promise has been kept for TWO years, even playing varsity over seniors. All while only attending 4 of the 30 mandatory summer workouts, leaving for a week during the season to go on vacation during a tournament, and hiding behind the dugout to text on her phone during practices. But I guess if you’re recruited then it doesn’t matter what you do, you will play anyway, even if you have 2 or 3 errors per game.

That brings us to coaching; what are the rules to be a Varsity coach? Don’t you have to be a teacher? Does a bus driver qualify as a teacher? The Varsity coach who has run this team into the ground is NOT a teacher. He has already pushed around his last QUALIFIED varsity coach that he had as his JV coach and she became the Varsity Volleyball Coach. Now, he has another QUALIFIED coach that he has as a JV coach and he pushes her around as well. Shouldn’t she be the Varsity coach since she is a teacher and he is a bus driver?

Would this help the program? Or does Administration even care? Well, when you look at the fact that Muscle Shoals is a 6A school and does NOT even have a JV girls basketball team because the girls won’t play for the coach, you’d think something would have been addressed there. The Varsity team that they did have included a middle schooler, a freshman, 2 sophomores, 3 juniors, and 2 seniors. Not enough to even scrimmage each other in a practice game. Is this a problem worth looking at?

Something needs to be done, Muscle Shoals girls sports have been something to laugh at and it’s a coach issue not a talent issue. It’s time to make the girls feel like they are a part of the faMily because it seems that the only thing that is ever talked about (besides football) is boys' sports. Just look at their Twitter. 

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We've received several rebuttals to yesterday's letter from Lexington parents. We'll be publishing them shortly, but want to give everyone a chance to answer. Again, it's merely an opinion, but school sports offer an excellent opportunity for parents to teach their children that life is not always fair. It's also the perfect time to teach children to redirect their energy into a field where they will come out on top.

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If you haven't caught Pen-N-Sword's new site, be sure to do so now. We congratulate them on the end product.





4 comments:

  1. Obviously my daughter Gracie is one of the many people you are bashing in this blog since we are the ones who moved from Decatur to Muscle Shoals so let me help you get your facts straight. Gracie was NOT RECRUITED to play for Muscle Shoals. We moved to Muscle Shoals to be closer to my work. She was NEVER told that she WOULDN'T be BENCHED. In fact, she has been benched. We went out of town because my husband had a conference. It was approved by the Principal and her coaches were aware of this trip. She was punished for going on the trip by having to sit out for several games and she had to do a lot of RUNNING. Every time she makes a mistake in a game or in practice, she gets yelled at just like the other girls so I assure you she is not shown favoritism or receive any special treatment. She is human so she is going to mess up. It has been a tough season for all the girls so you publicly bashing them does not help. I have saved your post and I recommend you never say negative things about my child again (especially things that are NOT TRUE) on a public site. If you need legal council to assist you in this, I will be happy to have one contact you. If you have a problem with something, I suggest you address it with the appropriate people and not publicly humiliate teenage girls who have no control over the situation you are upset about.

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    1. Thank you for your comment. Please remember this was a guest blog written by a Muscle Shoals parent. Our comment at the bottom sums up our feelings on the entire sports competition issue.

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  2. I'm just curious as to why all of these schools think it's ok to "punish" kids for missing games and practices? Why have we come down to this? They already have to give up their summers for workouts and practices. Miss a workout/practice you have to run extra/sit out. Go on a vacation or attend a funeral! that isn't convenient for the schedule again, punishment. What is this? It's absurd! Why is this such a priority?

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  3. Some children are always favored in sports and I don't think anything will ever change that. The coaches won't admit it and the parents can't or won't see it either. The only way to know how it feels is to watch your child practice with all the kids and work hard just to sit and watch others play the games. People are oblivious to the special treatment if it's their child. They know it's not right, it just boils down to them thinking they are entitled for some reason.

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