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Sat 17 May, 2008 07:47 am
BEAVERTON, Ore. ?- Jaime Nared is nearly 6-1 and blessed with Michael Jordan-style skills. In games, the 12-year-old can more than hold her own against the boys ?- dropping three-pointers and sometimes scoring 30 points or more.
And there, according to her coach, lies the problem.
She's so good, Michael Abraham said, she makes the boys look like scrubs. So she's been told she can no longer play on boys teams at The Hoop, a private Beaverton basketball facility that runs a league in which Abraham's teams compete.
The trouble started last month, when parents told The Hoop management they didn't like Jaime playing with the boys.
Hoop officials notified Abraham that Jaime, after years on one of his boys teams, was barred. They cited a rule, in a document coaches sign when they enter teams in the league, that prohibits mixed-gender teams.
"I never saw the rule," said Abraham, who has coached basketball, mostly girls and women's teams, for 32 years.
"If I'd known about it, I wouldn't have put any of my teams in the league. Besides, she's been playing on this team since second grade, and she plays on our team when we travel around the region. There's never been any problem in any event, not one word of complaint."
Neal Franzer, The Hoop's director of operations, said Thursday that parents were "adamant" that their complaints have nothing to do with Jaime's skills.
"They said the problem was the boys were playing differently against her because she was a girl," he said. "They'd been taught to not push a girl, so they weren't fouling her hard, and the focus had shifted from playing basketball to noticing a girl was on the floor with them."
Hoop officials e-mailed Abraham to remind him of the rules.
"The rule may not have been enforced in past years," Franzer said. "We have new management this year. It's policy, and we enforce policy."
Abraham, Jaime and her parents don't buy it. "I think the complaints come from parents who don't like seeing a girl that good playing against their sons," Abraham said.
Jaime, who said she "fell in love" with basketball when she was 8, likes the boys team because they play a fast-paced game.
"I think the boys on a specific team don't like me," she said. "It doesn't seem fair."
Jaime's mom, Reiko Williams, said the issue boiled over after a particular game.
"She scored 30 points," said Williams, who garnered national attention for her daughter's predicament Thursday after taking the story to the media. "I remember one play. She stole the ball, dribbled up court and made a behind-the-back pass to a teammate. He missed the lay-in, and she grabbed the rebound and put it in. I think it was just too much for some of those parents.
"The next day, she came home and said they wouldn't let her play with the boys anymore."
Abraham put Jaime on the boys team in the first place to both match her skills and keep her with peers. He has had her play on high school girls teams, but many travel and "her parents want her to be around kids her own age," Abraham said. "How much does she have in common with 18-year-old girls?"
And when she played on same-age girls teams?
"We beat one team 90-7," Abraham said. "At her level, it's like having Shaq on a high school team."
He said the boys on his team enjoyed playing with Jaime ?- among a handful of girls to play on his boys teams over the years ?- because she helped them improve.
"If she were 4-feet-9 and no good, we wouldn't be having this discussion," Abraham said. "To appease a small minority of parents, in this day and age, is stupid. This is a decision that really targets her. She's a well-adjusted kid who happens to be great.
"I can't think of one boy that we've played against that's had a problem with her," Abraham added. "Maybe their dads do. Teach the boys how to handle her. Front her, deny her the ball. You sure as hell don't complain. Listen, she's a girl's girl, but she plays tough. She's no cupcake. She gets knocked down and takes a charge."
For now, Jaime is back playing with girls ?- on a sixth-grade team and a nontraveling high school team. Abraham appealed The Hoop's ban but was denied.
Jaime, whom he considers the best sixth-grade girls basketball player in the country, is the one who will suffer, Abraham said.
Even so, she's sure to play in college and beyond, he said. Her father, Greg Nared, played at the University of Maryland, and her older sister is headed there in the fall on a basketball scholarship.
"This argument is so ridiculous," Abraham said. "We're talking about a 12-year-old girl. She's just a kid."
I read this in my paper yesterday. Crazy.
I love this coach!
Quote:"If I'd known about it, I wouldn't have put any of my teams in the league
Quote:"If she were 4-feet-9 and no good, we wouldn't be having this discussion," Abraham said. "To appease a small minority of parents, in this day and age, is stupid. This is a decision that really targets her. She's a well-adjusted kid who happens to be great.
I say let her play!
To me it depends on the level of play in the league. I have a 13 year old very athletic daughter so I certainly approve of girls playing on boys teams -- provide the level of competition is appropriate. There is something that smells a little fishy here.
A 6 foot tall kid, boy or girl, who is reasonably coordinated would have no business playing in a 12 year old recreation level league. At 12, the athletic girls are often bigger, faster and as quick as the boys who typically are not going to hit their big growth spurts until 13 or 14. Here's what would be important to know in this situation: (a) how many other kids in the league are close to 6 foot tall? (b) is this a league where kids are looking to play high level travel basketball in their teens and maybe go on to play college, or is this a league of kids playing ball for fun and exercise on a weekend?
It really is a matter of finding the right level of competition for the kids. The article mentions that she scored 30 points in a recent game. What was the final score in that game? If you said it was 80 to 70 then I would say a kid scoring 30 points is no problem (although geez -- how about working on some defense). On the other hand, if 30 points accounted for half of the total points scored by both teams, then quit fooling around and get the kid into a competitive program. We are talking Beaverton, Oregon here (home of Nike), it's not like this is hicksville, USA. Check around and find a good AAU team or the equivalent and get her playing against kids with solid skills and similar aspirations.
this sucks so badly for this girl... and it also sucks for the children of the scumbag parents who demanded this and the administration pricks who folded. Their children are watching them and learning how to be adults.... more's the pity.
She's 12. Fun and recreation are the only reasons she should be playing.
The fact that Beaverton is not hicksville is part of the reason she should be allowed to play. I'm sure they draw from many of the Portland suburbs (which is really what Beaverton is being a 5 minute drive to downtown Portland) and from Portland itself. There isn't a shortage of talent out there.
Should guys be able to play on the girls' team? There'd have been no girls on the girls' team in any of my schools if mixed-gender school teams were allowed.
Again, I think you need to know about the real situation. I don't buy the stated excuse about boys treating girls differently. Yes, I know that is true initially, but boys eventually get over it after a game or two. The article mentions that she has been playing in the league for a few years. It may well be that she hit a growth spurt and everything kind of snuck up on the parents. You sign your kid up for a league, they have fun and learn a little so you do it again the next season or the next year.
But, let's not kid ourselves here. Per the article, this kid is 6'1" tall. Her father played for Maryland and she has an older sister who landed a full ride to Maryland. What are the odds that this is a family that takes its basketball very seriously? I am sure they know the ins and outs of the local youth basketball community. It strikes me that this is likely a situation that worked well when she was younger, but she has outgrown the skill level of the league. That does not make it easy for anyone. With my daughter playing pretty high level travel soccer, believe me, I can absolutely empathize with her parents if they were really just looking for a situation where they did not have to be driving all over heck and gone so their kid could hopefully play competitive basketball. Could they put her on an AAU team? Probably, but that is alot of travel. Unfortunately, though, that does not mean that a top level player should be playing in a lower level league -- if that is really the case here.
At 12 you do play for fun. But, it is fun to play where you are appropriately challenged. If you have a kid with the talent and ability to play at a higher level, then that is where they need to play. Most folks with kids playing youth sports have seen situations where a skilled club or travel player plays against rec. level competition, and usually it is not a pretty sight and not much fun.
newsocdad wrote:Again, I think you need to know about the real situation. I don't buy the stated excuse about boys treating girls differently. Yes, I know that is true initially, but boys eventually get over it after a game or two.
Or a shot or two. I definitely agree with this part -- I have always been more interested in pick-up than organized girl's basketball, and played against boys (and later men -- I played into my early 20's). (At the time it was extremely unusual for girls/women to play pick-up, that's changed a bit I think.) Guys would always lay off initially but would get over it as soon as I hit an outside shot or drove for a lay-up. I took my share of elbows and hard fouls.
Robert Gentel wrote:Should guys be able to play on the girls' team? There'd have been no girls on the girls' team in any of my schools if mixed-gender school teams were allowed.
I don't think there should be boys and/or girls teams but just sports teams. At a certain level you should try out and get placed where you belong.
There is a lot to be said in finding her the right level of play but I think there is a lot to be said for the fact that she's only in the 6th grade. For her to play at her level on a girl's team she would most certainly be with girls who are much older and that can certainly have it's own drawbacks.
BTW - Mo (my son) went to school with this girl last year. He was in kindergarten and she was in 5th so I only know her from seeing her around school (you can't miss her!) and she IS still a little kid, just tall.
Anyone who thinks that girls should be able to play on boys teams in the name of gender equity should therefore allow boys to play on girls teams, otherwise they're being hypocritical. That's why I don't like seeing women play in the PGA unless they start allowing men to play in the LPGA.
For example, every time Michelle Wie gets a sponsor's exemption to play in a men's tournament, she bumps out a deserving male player from competing since golf tournaments have a set number of players that can enter. Shouldn't that male player be able to play in an LPGA event to even things out?
I'm not against women playing sports. I have two daughters that have both been playing basketball for several years, and my wife has played organized basketball all her life (and continues to do so). I very much support women's sports and want to see women have as much opportunity to play as the guys. I don't want to see, however, guys start playing in women's leagues; leagues should have the right to limit participation to women only. By the same token, men should have the right to play alongside and against other men.
There are co-ed leagues that have mixed gender teams; both of my daughters have played in our Parks & Recs co-ed basketball league, and I think they've benefited from competing against the boys. However, if a women's league wants to have just women playing, then men's leagues should be able to do the same. Maybe Jaime should look for a co-ed league to play in.
Or, she should look into "playing up" a grade or two in the women's league. That is certainly allowable in most leagues, and it happens quite often in the league that my daughters play in; if a girl finds that she's not being challenged enough in her own age group, she joins a team that's a higher grade.
We have to make sure she doesn't wind up as a nappy headed 'ho -- sorry. I say let her play.
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