Frustrated, Betrayed, Ignored...

I've been steadily getting emails about the Strike situation and the Football Season that is slowly slipping away. I've included an excerpt from one email that I received that sums up a lot of the frustration and lack of communication going on. Hopefully I can do my small part in getting the information out there,

As parents we have been given absolutely no information from BCHSFA or BCSS. We have not heard one word from our coaching staff either, leaving these impressionable student athletes frustrated beyond words.

I have always taught my sons to have a plan B in their back pockets. My son was talked out of re-joining community football last month while he was still able to do so. He was told by the highschool coaches that the union had agreed "extra curricular activities would in no way be affected by this strike."

Betrayal and lack of trust are not positive virtues that come to mind when talking about a team sport such as football. Defying a B.C. Supreme Court order is also not an act that we should be supporting in front of adolescent males, I don't care how unjust they feel the laws are. The message is wrong. I wish the BCHSFA could see the damage being done. There is more at stake here than just a few lost weeks of ball playing.

I am trying everyday to find a positive and a life lesson here. I have always said, "stand up for what you believe in...as long as it's moral and legal." I have also always warned about "following blindly like sheep."

There is also much confusion about the topic of practicing. Many teams we have learned have carried on, despite being told not to. Again, doing what they believe is right, despite what the rules are. Our boys tried to organise a "captain's practice" the other day, and will try it again this week.

The boys are all clinging to the hope that the season will soon get underway, regardless of the job action. Or is the contingency plan put in place, only if the job action ends? Still confused about this.

Please continue to keep us all enlightened. The team, my son, they have worked so hard to build something from scratch. I don't want to see the great momentum that highschool football was building, slip that slippery slope.

"The justification for football is that it provides in the broadest sense a learning experience for those who play it; therefore, the game belongs essentially to the players."
BCSSFA Code of Ethics


Signed, Frustrated Football Mom


Disagree or agree, send me your take at BCSportsFanatic@yahoo.ca