Blog #4

Bullying is prevalent in sports at all ages on all different types of levels. As a young kid many people are bullied if they couldn’t make a shot, score a goal, or even if they didn’t make a team. As you get older the competition begins to get more serious and that makes people much more competitive.

Just last year I witnessed bullying on the basketball court by fans and players as a sophomore in college. It was a home game and the team we were playing was not very good. Since it was a home game and the other team had to travel from three hours away, our fan section outnumbered them by many. The beginning of the game was perfectly fine, good competition from both teams. However, after half time we started to extend our lead and the other team began to lose confidence. In sports, this is a time you want to capitalize and make sure the other team can’t come back. The ball was in our court (literally) and a couple of the other teams’ girls began to pick up “cheap” fouls. They were being extremely handsy when playing defense and throwing around some elbows. This caused the referees to call fouls against them and our fans and parents to get a little upset by the way we were being treated.

At this time the other team felt like they had no power because they were losing and knew they would not be able to win the game. Our team had all the power in this game and the opponents wanted to chip away at our power in anyway they could. This caused them to show bad sportsmanship. Once they began showing bad sportsmanship the cycle didn’t stop. We had a couple cheap fouls, parents yelling at referees, fans yelling at other fans, and coaches yelling at players. I could not wait for the game to be over. I, myself, felt like I handled what I was doing well. I didn’t pick up any cheap fouls out of frustration. Even one girl in the middle of the game said “HEY 13! Want to know what a black eye feels like?” at this moment I just walked away and continued playing the game. There I was actually involved in the situation and removed myself immediately. However, at the end of the game one of the girls looked at our fan section on her way into the locker room and yelled “Don’t talk sh*t to my mom and f*** all of you!” Then a couple students proceeded to yell back to her, and she went into the locker room. As a bystander in this situation, I did not do anything. I wasn’t sure what to do and didn’t want to get involved. I felt like I didn’t have much power in this situation due to the fact my team was the reason she was so upset. Instead the person who did have power stepped up. This was her coach. The coach after the game had that girl come up to all of us as we left the locker room and apologized to us and our fans. I felt that this is how the cycle truly ended between the bullying from one player to player. Now looking forward to this year, there is no beef between our two teams, and we can look for a good competitive game.

The other team reacted this way because they were losing and felt like they had no power in this situation. Even though sports do create psychological advantages for women, they do cause psychological issues. These issues can come from times of not feeling in power. In this case, no matter the score these girls felt powerless and it caused a strain on their mentality in the moment. In Women and Sports in the United States reading it talks about how there are multiple psychological effects women can feel. This can all stem from losing that power, which I feel is what the girls we were playing against felt in that moment.