the world is a phony place. I am learning this lesson at the age of fifty. but I am having to teach this lesson to my beautiful eleven year old daughter who busts her ass in many activities and treats both her peers and adults with the utmost of respect but continues to get let down by the politics of life and the notion of who you know.
the latest example of this sickening side of society happened last week as Rylee tried out for a developmental basketball program in Orillia. yes Orillia. the shithole of Ontario but now somehow the hub of basketball training.
two months prior to this tryout her old loud-mouthed egotistical basketball coach with little knowledge of the game but much knowledge of the game of “who you know and who you blow” decided to tell his players that the only girls who would make this team would be Lauren and Morgan. a stupid thing to tell a group of young girls who only want to get better and grow in a game they love but, instead, get shot down by an old washed up has been who somehow puts fear into adults and turns them all into little tiny babies with zero opinions and zero souls. spineless maggots allowing their children to get shot down by a “nothingman”.
anyway, so this coach told the girls who would make it and at that time I figured the fix might be on but Rylee wanted to still go to the tryouts and I wasn’t going to discourage her the way many parents do with their own. life is a long journey not a short one filled with fixed mindsets and lowest common denominator behaviour where parents tell their kids to “just get a job” instead of going for their dreams.
so we make the long trek up to Orillia for the tryout and upon arriving we see that Coach Greg Firth from the U 11 Hawks Basketball team is there with his daughter and her friend whose mother just happens to be the treasurer of the Hawks basketball team. as soon as I saw Coach Firth my earlier fears of the whole thing being fixed were beginning to take shape. I gave him a fake smile and a fake “hi” and he gave me his best fake smile back. a world filled with fucking fakes getting ahead while real people with real opinions are left behind to beg the fakes for jobs.
so the tryouts begin and the so called “Elite coaches” deliver a fake filled half assed speech that encourages work ethic and team spirit and encourages all the kids to do their best. I wanted to believe in the speech but I saw Firth in his special orange jersey out on the court as one of the helpers. then I saw other coaches of other teams with their kids out there too. coaches upon coaches with both players from their teams there as well as their own biological kids on the court quickly telling me that I was right in my fears and that this whole thing was going to be one big fucking sham!!!
as the tryout wore on I saw Rylee busting her ass and performing the drills with pure conviction and drive and even being singled out by one of the coaches as someone who is giving her all. “Everyone watch number 22. that’s how you do it.” he told the other girls. this brought a smile to Rylee’s face as she has been busting her ass for two years getting real ELITE COACHING and NOT fake elite coaching from volunteers who are actually janitors and factory workers.
anyway, the first tryout ended and Rylee thanked the coach. the only one to do so which made us, as parents, very proud. we drove home and Rylee was so excited telling us how well she did and how much fun it was. she asked numerous times if we thought she was going to make it and we told her that based on the criteria of this tryout being all about skill, hard work, attitude, and teamwork then there is a good chance.
in being as unbiased as possible we saw that girls from her own Hawks team were not trying and not working hard as well as many others and, therefore, we truly thought that this would be a huge accomplishment for Rylee and something that she would be sooooo proud of and deserving of.
the second tryout came and we all drove two hours back up to Orillia. this time the tryout was going to be based on fitness testing but also some more skill testing. they put all of the girls into six specific groups. Rylee being in group five. at the time this didn’t seem fishy at all but by the end of the tryout when they scrimmaged it sure did.
Rylee, onca again, busted her ass and delivered on all the skill testing drills and delivered with conviction and passion. Rylee’s confidence was through the roof as she performed flawlessly. while other’s at the tryout were dropping balls and messing around with their peers, Rylee was super focused once again. a big smile came to my face as I was super proud of how far she had come in only two years despite extremely poor belligerent uninspiring coaching from her own team. she needed to get the elite training from Athlete Institute but she wanted it just as much as she needed it and it surely showed. two years ago Rylee didn’t know how to dribble a ball but now she was showing everyone (I thought) how skilled she was at putting the ball between her legs and behind her back while looking forward and not looking at the ball. this was different from many of the other kids who dribbled with their heads down and never got corrected by the so called Elite coaches.
there was fifteen minutes left in what we thought was going to be a major victory fro Rylee when the coach blew his whistle and brought everyone to center court. he told them that groups one and two would scrimmage on court one while groups three and four would scrimmage on court two. he then said with a lack of inspiration that groups five and six would scrimmage on court three.
everyone ran to their allotted courts and the coach blew the whistle to begin the games. as the games wore on I noticed that none of the coaches were even remotely looking at the players on court three. groups five and six were left all alone while the fake elite coaches watched the two other courts filled with the teams that were already picked well before the tryouts even began. picked by phone calls from Coach Verner and Coach Firth. as well as picked by phone calls from the other coaches who had their girls from their teams at the tryouts. it was a big game of “who you know” which is no different from the adult game of “who you know.”
we left the gym after Rylee, once again, said “thanks” but not before Rylee continued shooting by herself and dribbling up and down the court. she, like we, were positive of her accomplishment as we eventually left the gym and the school. we drove home and we were all excited for how well Rylee performed, including herself. we had never seen Rylee beem with such confidence. I still thought everything seemed quite fishy with Firth being on the court helping and with his daughter there as well as her friend. I was still suspicious of Verner telling his team that only Morgan and Lauren would make it and, sure enough, they were the only ones there, along with Ellie who is usually Morgan’s ride. I have seen this game play out many times before. anyway, I kept that to myself.
for the next three days Rylee asked us if we heard anything and our answer was always, “not yet but you have nothing to worry about because based on their criteria you will make it for sure.” while we said this I was secretly checking Nicole’s computer for the email from the coach. On the fourth day after the fake tryouts the results started pouring in. Lauren made it…of course (she worked hard and desereved it), Morgan made it…of course (she fucked around and didn’t deserve it based on the criteria), Ellie made it (she fucked around too but I wonder if she made it because Verner told the elite coaches that Morgan needs lifts and Ellie’s parents will give them). we then found out that Firth’s daughter made it of course, as well as Alana, the daughter’s friend whose mom is the treasurer of the Hawks basketball association. we waited with anticipation but did not receive an email. five hours had passed since the other girl’s had found out. Nicole asked me if she should email the coach as her stomach was becoming sick and I told her to wait for a bit. the waiting period lasted for hours and finally Nicole said she couldn’t take it and decided to email the coach of the tryouts. five minutes later she got an email back stating that Rylee didn’t make it and it was a hard decision and she should be proud of herself blah blah blah. Nicole was both shocked and sad. “I can’t tell her. she didn’t make it. I don’t have the heart to tell her.” “THIS IS FUCKING BULLSHIT!!!” I said back with extreme rage bursting through my veins. This had happened to me in the past and I knew the feeling of rejection very well. Rejection from a team that was already fixed in stone was even more infuriating.
anyway, I told Rylee and she immediately bawled. we both hugged her and told her that it was a fix and that she deserved a spot on the team. It was a hard lesson to learn at such a young age but she had already had many of these tough lessons already. the tears soon stopped and we all walked down to BVR for some lunch and then some ice cream. we were all still devastated but we ALL knew that is was a total fix and that the whole program and the people involved in the program should be disgusted with themselves. I know that they punished Rylee for Nicole and I speaking out about the coaching with the Hawks and how unacceptable it all is. instead of listening to our concerns they, out of complacency, blamed us for being problem parents. typical response from typical dull people in typical dull towns. at that point we decided we had had enough with this shitty organization and decided to play somewhere else. Rylee, still angry, had decided that she would continue training with an elite coach in Clinton (much better coaching than the volunteers at this half assed shitty program) and that she would strive to be the absolute best player she could possibly be. “I want to play the Hawks next year and kick their butt!!!” we gave her a huge hug and told her that we loved her soooo much and that we were so proud of her. we LOVE her fierce determination.
I, myself, am so sickened by the whole endeavour. to have fake coaches delivering fake speeches about attitude and trying and team work but then rewarding players who didn’t possess these traits is appalling and teaches kids the wrong lessons. plus the fact that the whole thing was fixed and was based on coaches recommendations sickened me even more. to see my daughter busting her ass for two days for what she thought was a chance at playing on some so-called elite team with elite training but then realizing it was all a fucking set up by fat assed coaches with big smiles and big guts has sent me into a full on rage and my outlook on life filled with it’s secrets and lies is at an all time low as it is all based on who you know and who you blow.
SICK FUCKERS!!!
notanotherphony. 