Is Winning Everything in Sports?
For some, the joy of the U.S. women’s soccer team’s victory in the World Cup over China was spoiled by the admission by U.S. goalkeeper Briana Scurry that she cheated. Scurry stepped forward to narrow the angle before the Chinese player kicked the ball. Scurry said after the game that she knew it was against the rules, but the referee didn’t call her on it. “Everyone does it,” Scurry said. “It’s only cheating if you get caught.” MARY REESE BOYKIN spoke with teens about cheating in sports.
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NITIA SMALL
18, 1999 graduate of Campbell Hall, North Hollywood; plays volleyball
Frequently, the message athletes get about cheating is mixed. Athletes learn that the best players cheat and get away with it. Michael Jordan pushed off on Reggie Miller during the 1998 NBA semi-finals; the Bulls won.
Youth sports are competitive, time-consuming and expensive. There is the fun of playing, but no one underestimates the importance of winning.
I played on my high school team, practicing three hours daily. When the high school season was over, I joined a club team. July and August are the only months that I don’t play organized volleyball.
My parents pay $3,000 a year for my club fees. When the team travels--and I take three or four trips a year--each trip costs $600 to $800. But my parents and I had a particular goal in mind: a college scholarship. I earned a volleyball scholarship to the University of Massachusetts.
Through out my volleyball seasons, I felt pressure to win. Part of my motivation was that as a black athlete in a sport predominantly played by whites, I always felt that I had to prove myself.
When it comes to sports, this is the bottom line: The greatest players have cheated and gotten away with it, so young players feel, “Why can’t they cheat, too?”
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ISMAEL PELYO
18, 1999 graduate of Hawthorne High School; plays soccer
Athletes should play because they like the sport, not just to win. Soccer is about playing with heart.
But cheating occurs in more ways than the plays on the field. League teams are based on age groups. If a team enters a 16-year-old on a team meant for 12- to 14-year-olds, that is cheating; even if the athlete is the size of the age-level players, he has more experience and can generally play better.
If coaches know referees who will favor their team--giving them more of a chance to win by calling fewer penalties--and request the referees for their games, that’s cheating.
My coaches taught me to play fair. If somebody hits you, you don’t have to hit them back on that play. Wait. Look for a good opportunity and don’t be obvious. That’s considered playing fair.
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MARIO MIRANDA
19, 1999 graduate of Estancia High School in Costa Mesa; plays football and soccer
There are lots of ways to cheat: pulling on a player’s shirt, giving a player an elbow to the stomach, talking to a player and making him feel that you are going to hurt him. But if you practice hard, listen to the coach and have good leadership skills, you don’t need to cheat. I don’t like to cheat, but there are times when I do because that is the only hope to survive, especially in a championship game.
As a goalie, Briana Scurry knew to wait until the ball was hit before moving. She moved sooner, but I wouldn’t consider her a cheater. I consider her a championship goalie, for she played her heart out.
So she cheated a little. Well, she had enough class to admit that she’d cheated. She was lucky because she didn’t get caught.
That’s life.
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JUSTIN TEMPLE
17, senior, Dorsey High School; runs track
Cheating is wrong in general. I know that young people sometimes say that it’s not cheating if you don’t get caught. It is still cheating because there is a victim. Also, if an athlete cheats in his sport, what is to say he won’t extend that to cheating in the classroom. And if a person is always cheating, then he or she doesn’t know how much they really know or how well they can actually do.
I know that it is not a good feeling to be the victim of someone else’s cheating because of what happened to me during the preliminaries of this year’s state track competition. Another runner stepped in front of me, throwing me off my pace. Startled, I hesitated. I messed up my stride and then tried to run too fast. I tired myself out and came in next to last.
I was upset at the time, but now as I look back, it’s part of the game. When he stepped in, it could have been intentional or unintentional.
After the race, my coach said that it looked as if I was cut off. But he said that I should have gotten off faster. Then I wouldn’t have been in a position to be cut off. I have put all of this behind me, and I just keep on running.
