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The MIAA simply cannot go for an extended period of time without trying to ruin a memorable life experience for a high school kid. This is an organization that has been guilty of the following in just the past year alone:
- They suspended two Beverly lacrosse players for their district championship game because two 18 year olds smoked a cigar with their dad’s after graduation.
- They pocket tons of cash from gate receipts at games and give almost nothing back to their member schools, despite being funded by your tax dollars.
- They wouldn’t allow Fitchburg Access Television to broadcast Fitchburg’s Super Bowl game, because then no one would pay $10 to watch the MIAA simulcast online.
- They refused to reschedule a district playoff game between Methuen and Chelmsford, despite the fact that BOTH teams would be missing multiple players due to a scheduling conflict with the SAT’s.
- They pay their executive director Richard Neal $213,000 a year to do a job a monkey could do.
And because they’re the MIAA, an organization that has NO REASON to exist other than to steal your kid’s school’s money, they simply HAD TO try to ruin a kid’s dreams at the State Championship Track Meet yesterday:
Telegram: Because of SATs, Worcester Tech/North arrived late to the meet. The team then was delayed at the check-in table where schools get their registration packets.
“At first, they said no, she could not compete,” Tech/North coach Jerry Snay said. “Then they called me back to the scorer’s table, and they were going to allow her to jump, which is good. I talked to the head official (Rick Kates). We certainly appreciate they let it go. It was just a logjam.”
“I cried,” Sackor said. “This was the only time I cried in a sport.”
Photo credit: T&G Staff/Paul Kapteyn
This is a girl who finished second place overall in both the long and triple jump. And the CROOKS who run the MIAA almost didn’t allow it because they had to show the world how big their MIAA schmenzer was. They just can’t go five minutes without reminding you that they’re in charge, and therefore have the power to destroy your children’s dreams.
Seriously though, where is the common sense? Why would you even want to have a meet where the best athletes couldn’t participate? Why should this girl, or any other athlete for that matter, have to choose between participating in the most important meet of their lives, and taking the most important test of their lives?
The MIAA’s statement reads, “The mission of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association is to serve member schools and the maximum number of their students by providing leadership and support for the conduct of interscholastic athletics which will enrich the educational experiences of all participants. The MIAA will promote activities that provide lifelong and life-quality learning experiences to students while enhancing their achievement of educational goals.”
So let me get this straight. Their mission statement says that their goal is to promote learning activities that enhance their “educational goals,” and they do so by trying to keep a Worcester girl out of a track meet because she had to take a test that is required to get into college? Yea, that makes TONS of sense. Good thing we’re paying these crooks to screw over our kids.
The most hilarious part is that they told Coach Snay that they were going to “allow her to jump.” LOL. Ya see what they did there? They tried to pretend like they have a soul, but at the same time reminded Coach Snay that they were still the ultimate authority. Like the emperor giving the thumbs up for the deafeated gladiator. Thank you so much MIAA for “allowing” this bright young girl to not have her dreams crushed by a bunch of crusty old men. Very kind of you.
I wanted to chime in about this as well:
Wachusett Regional, which won the Central Mass. Class A and Central/Western Mass. Division 1 meets, only scored one point.
Saturday’s graduation had the Mountaineers bringing primarily underclassmen to the meet. Senior Mariessa Ricciardi did compete in the 400 hurdles, and without really any preparation, finished eighth in 1:05.27, in an event she won last week. As soon as the race was over, she left to attend a graduation party.
“She was happy with that,” said Wachusett coach Mike O’Malley, who can only wonder what the results would have been if all his stars were able to attend.
“It is what it is” O’Malley said. “We knew that coming in. We’re just trying to enjoy our last meet of the season. We’re ecstatic with the season. We’re happy with what we’ve accomplished.”
Alright, first of all, it’s bullshit that schools make kids choose between a state championship meet and graduation. The schedule for these meets comes out a year in advance. How hard is it for Wachusett High School to pick another day for graduation? Wachusetts has one of the best track teams around and they put kids into the state championship like it’s going out of style. It is a GUARANTEE that if you schedule graduation on the day of this meet, that there will be several seniors who are put in this completely avoidable conundrum.
Nevertheless though, how do you pick your graduation over a state championship meet? That boggles my mind. Graduations are the most pointless exhibitions that have ever existed. Especially high school graduations, where you get a piece of paper for getting abover a 60 in all your classes while passing the MCAS before turning 23. The speakers give boring, cliche speeches that incorporate, “we did it” and “chase your dreams” as much as possible.
They also love to say stuff like “the class of 2015 is such a special one.” Newsflash – no it’s not. It’s just like the rest. You all just finished one of the easiest phase of your life. You are nothing less than just another person who is wearing the same gown that all your predecessors wore, and more likely than not the people who are shaking your hand as you cross will not remember you five years from now.
That is why I cannot fathom how anyone who qualified for a state championship meet would choose graduation over the meet. At the state meet you are being recognized for your greatness. At a graduation you are being recognized for your mediocrity. At the state meet you are an individual who is given the spotlight because you earned it by accomplishing what very few before you have. At a graduation you are just another person in a uniform gown, blending into a crowd while joining a see of billions of other people who have already accomplished what you did.
End the MIAA. End high school graduations.
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10 Comment(s)
How much money does Worcester pay for the “privilege” of belonging to the MIAA?
Oh god this brings me back. Not trying to brag, just making a point. I was a record holding, T&G all-star xc and track runner during the 90s. My parents had to pay to see me plenty of times. My uniform had to be IDENTICAL to the rest of the team so I couldn’t wear a t-shirt under my singlet to block sunburns unless I wanted a DQ. I missed a track season because SPM decided to report my “behavioral issues” to the MIAA after I waited for my sister in a hallway while she went to her locker because she forgot something. It was just after 2:30pm and we had to be out of the school at 2:30pm. So I got a suspension, was removed from the track team for my junior year and was reported to the MIAA as a discipline problem. I didn’t even have a detention or bad grade or bad athletic performance on my record before that but the MIAA didn’t care. They just took the headmaster’s word for it and banned me. I’m always torn though. What was worse? Worcester Catholic school or the MIAA?
And just to add to that. I only showed up to graduation to grab the piece of paper I literally never needed but thought I did at the time. We didn’t get it on stage. They held them until after so we’d behave during the ceremony. I grabbed the paper, took off the cap and gown, tossed the cap and gown in the garbage on the spot and gave my tassel to my grandmother.
Worcester is the most irrelevant and meaningless cities in the nation.
You realize that they offer SATs just about once a month from October to June, right? She was the one that decided to take the test in June as apposed to, let’s say, April when missing a meet wouldn’t have mattered. Poor planning on the kids part, not the problem of the MIAA. Honestly. I would have not let the team’s compete, great opportunity for a life lessons.
This is a good point here. I took the SATs twice. There’s lots of choices. Graduation, no matter how pointless, matters to some kids, so they have to make a choice. I would have chosen the meet for sure, especially now knowing I didn’t need that piece of paper. I don’t even know where it is now and it never served any purpose. My parents were set back like $30 for a stupid cap and gown though. I gave them the money back after I tossed in the garbage at the DCU right after the ceremony.
Really “Come On”? Poor planning by a student looking to her academic future is poor planning?
Why take a Subject SAT in April (“Come On” you are aware of the Subject SAT tests, aren’t you?), as you have proposed, if the student is learning that subject at the same time? That student should wait until the class is over, so June is the obvious choice. More importantly, if the student is a junior, and wants an opportunity to take the Subject SAT twice (Good Planning), in case the first Subject SAT grade is not high enough, then June is even more obvious, as waiting until October to take the first test leaves no opportunity to take the test a second time. In this scenario, a student has looked to their future (Very Good Planning), and made a plan by which he/she will have the best opportunity possible to improve their scores and thereby improve his/her chances of getting into the best school of his/her choice.
Wachusett books the DCU center for graduation a year in advance also (or they would never get a date in June).
Divest now!