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 A Home on the Field 
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Joined: Thu Aug 28, 2008 6:47 pm
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I find the school and town politics in regards to the formation of the soccer team to be absurd but true. All too often, things are not done until the "right" person comes along. In the book, the idea of a soccer team was shot down until Gary Phillips decided to speak to the superintendent. The quote can be found on page 65.

Quote:
"He would talk to Larry Mabe, the superintendent. He would ask for a favor. "He owes me," Phillips said."I stuck by him during the latest school budget and he pretty much got what he wanted."


It's very sad that the interests of children are not put first. Instead, community politics plays a huge role. It was clear the formation of a soccer team could help Latino students assimilate into American society. However, the principal was too worried about the football field and community feelings to consider the interests of these Latino students. How often do school personnel make decisions that effect students based on community politics? I am not naive to think that community involvement is not important but should it rule administrative decisions?

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Callie Grubb


Sat Oct 18, 2008 10:32 pm
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I agree with you Callie. I think too often school personnel make to many decisions based on community politics. I witnessed the same thing happen at our high school when it first opened. The soccer team, which was composed of both white and Latino students were so discriminated against. They too, were told they could not play on the football field, for fear of messing it up. They had to change clothes for practice in their cars or a bathroom, because the locker rooms were for the "football players." The first athletic event that was played at this new school was actually a soccer game on a Wednesday night. There were no special cermonies, no roster with the students' names, not even someone there to open up the press box and annouce the boys' names. However, two days later, the first football game was played at this field, and all of the bells and whistles were brought out. It was even announced as the first athletic event to be played at the new high school and the football was signed by the players and put in the trophy case. When the players ask, why the difference, they were told when soccer starts bringing in as much money as football, then we will pay more attention to it. My son, who was a senior on this team, has never forgot the lesson that this high school taught him in its first year of being a new school. Money and what the community deems important is what matters, not the students.

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Sandra Peterson


Sun Oct 19, 2008 6:29 am
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I have seen this kind of discrimination first hand, it wasn't discrimination for the color of skin, but it was socioeconomic and where the students came from. When I was coaching football my team was looked down on tremendously because of where they were from and who their parents were. My team's parents paid the same amount of entry fee to play in the league, even though it was probably harder for them to come with the money than the other teams parents, but time after time we were overlooked when it came time to buy new uniforms, equipment, etc. Coming from the same place my players came from I had grown up experiencing the same type of problems, and to see this continue made me very angry. I appealed many times to the leaders of the league and my pleas went unanswered. I really felt like my players were getting the short end of the stick because of where they were from and what their parents did for a living. I could see a lot of simialarities between the team I coached and the soccer team in the book.

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Travis Richardson


Wed Oct 22, 2008 3:40 pm
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