Unsportsmanlike Conduct

In lacrosse and I would assume many other sports many one on one situations are forced in the attempt to up the score. When athletes,  myself included, look to force these one on one situations many factors are scouted out. I am a taller girl who is considered ambidextrous in my sport, which is sometimes a strange thing to come by. When I look to force one on ones I tend to look for people smaller than me, with less stick skills and for someone who looks like they dont know whats going on. This is a normal occurrence in the sport. Forced one on ones that lead to goals. 

On almost every team I have played on over the years, there is a name/phrase we use to alert our team that we want to isolate the weakest link on the defence. The call is always “Nemo!” or “Bambi”, which as we all know from growing up watching disney movies as weaker animals. Nemo had his bad fin, and Bambi was an extremely small deer who was an easy prey. Although this practice alone may seem not like bullying, it's usually what happens after that is the issue. Another normal aspect of the game is one's competitive edge. Everyone wants to win, so when you or a teammate score a celebration is in order. 

The St. Ambrose women’s lacrosse team is usually applauded on our good sportsmanship, and it's something our team as a whole takes great pride in. Unfortunately one game last season this was not the case. We were playing a conference game against a team that was not as good as us skillswise, and this was something we all knew going on. One of my teammates took advantage of our nemo call on many occasions and it was always against the same player on defense. The defender that was being repeatedly called out was clearly upset and her team was taking it out verbally on her. My teammate was also having a field day taking advantage of this girl. After my teammate scored yet another goal on this defender she started to cry and instead of reading this as a sign to stop, my teammate, whose name I will not use, got in her face and said something along the lines of “this is part of the game and if you can't handle it, you shouldn't be here”. 

A lot of people on the field missed this encounter, but as someone who heard it first hand I was worried and didn't really know what my place was in it. After my teammate had walked away I went over to comfort the upset defender but had no idea what to say, her teammate was still yelling at her. I waited for the field to be reset and made sure that I was the defenders mark the rest of the game, to insure that my teammate didn't have the opportunity to utilize her weakness again. 

I wish I would have known what to say or had pulled my own teammate back when she started going at her, but in this situation as a bystander I feel guilty for not having stepped in to do the right thing. Bullying in sports to me is seen as unsportsmanlike conduct. With this being said though I think there's still a way for us as athletes to maintain our competitive edge without becoming a “bully”.