Throughout my life, soccer has been my main involvement and biggest interest in sport, however in high school my team was not considered the best team in the conference. We have lost many games either that be by one point or multiple, but it wasn’t always about winning because I have made some life-long friends, cherished memories, and some new soccer skills/tricks.
It was my senior year in high school and it also was my 4th year on the West High School varsity soccer team. My team and I had been playing at home against one of the two Dubuque teams in our conference on a Thursday night. During this game, I had been playing forward and once the game had reached the second half, we had been losing by three goals. During the second half, I had been at half field while standing in front of two defenders from the other team. One of the girls was a thin, tall, and had light brown hair with the most beautiful curls coming out from her wrapped up bun. The other girl was thin, short, and had short black hair wrapped up in a ponytail. They were very pretty, but they became very ugly quick with their negative comments. Both had been talking behind me; however, it had been specifically one of the defenders was doing all the talking and the other defender had been participating while listening and nodding her head in agreement. She would say stuff like, “this game is gonna be over soon because this team is so bad” or “gosh this team sucks.” She continued to talk negatively about my team and I as if I was not in front of her listening to every word. The game had shortly ended after that and I started to walk towards my bag avoiding the line to shake hands and appraising a good game to each player. However, my coach had noticed, and she called for me to come over, but I told her no. My coach had marched up to me and ordered me to be a good sport as she pointed her finger over to the line of players. It was embarrassing, but I did as I was told while not saying a word to any of the players. After our end of the game pep talk as a team, my coach had approached me to discuss what had happened. My coach became furious and then approached the head coach of the other team as the junior varsity game had been going on. I am not sure what had happened after that but, I believe both of those girls were acting and participating in a form of bullying. I am not sure if both those girls continued to behave in that manner, however my coach approaching the other head coach was acting in a higher power to cease the incident.
Therefore, there has been an imbalance of power as the players from the team had the higher power being the winning team and possible having more talented players presenting as a stronger team in this case. As for my team, we were the individuals whose power was being attacked or chipped away because we were not considered a talented team as reflected by the ending score of the game. The imbalance had been created due to the opposing team believing they had been better than my team. In fact, “athletic competition can increase self-confidence and self-esteem or, quite the very opposite, lead to confusion, doubt, and emotional pain” (p. 67).
The sports that I have been involved in have always had some sort of bullying either that be hazing, harassment, and keeping an individual out of a group, all which I have either witnessed or experienced myself. Unfortunately, bullying will continue throughout time, but speaking up or having a voice helps those who have no courage to defend for themselves in the end. However, I am one of those people who did not have a voice and had let the bullying continue while not speaking up for myself to put a stop to it while expressing a lower power acting as a bystander that could have made a difference by asking the other players to stop. However, I am reflecting from my mistakes to learn and become a person with a voice in the end.
References:
Schultz,
J., OReilly, J., & Cahn, S. K. (2019). Women
and sports in the United States: a
documentary reader. Hanover, NH: Dartmouth College
Press.
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