Coaches in Hot Water Over 'Crybaby' Award
Terence Philo with the "Crybaby Award" given to his son. The name on the trophy is mispelled.
PLEASANTVILLE, N.J. (May 4) - The coaches of a middle school basketball team who humiliated one of their players by giving him a "crybaby award" will likely face disciplinary action from district officials.
The 13-year-old boy's coach called him just before last month's team banquet and told him to make sure he attended because he was getting a special trophy, the boy's father said.
At the event, the boy watched as all of his Pleasantville Middle School teammates received trophies or certificates.
He was then called up to receive his award, and a coach told the crowd that the boy was being honored because "he begged to get in the game, and all he did was whine."
The trophy had a silver figure of a baby atop a pedestal engraved with the boy's name, which was spelled incorrectly. Family members said the teen - an honor roll student - was so embarrassed that he stayed home from school on the following Monday.
Edwin Coyle, superintendent of the Atlantic County district, said he would recommend that the unidentified coaches receive some type of punishment. He planned to address the matter at Tuesday night's Board of Education meeting.
"I was very upset and dismayed that our coaches would take an opportunity to belittle or lessen the self-esteem of our athletes," Coyle said.
the fact that they got a trophy suggests that they went out of their away, and perhapes even genuinly thought it was cute (as opposed to insulting), but the fact that they misspelled his name... perhapes that was an accident, too, but... it's getting harder and harder to see good intentions, the farther in the paragraph one reads, heh.