I hate to get all “Freaks and Geeks” on everyone, but jocks totally suck :

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.

I’ve always hated the whole “macho” culture that props up bullshit like this. I am so goddamned sick of the old-fashioned idea that males have to fit into a narrow definition of what’s “manly” or that those who society deems “wimpy” or “gay” are somehow unworthy of
their own gender.

As far as I’m concerned, those coaches should never be granted a supervisory role around children again. They may think that their position gives them the right to “toughen up” any kids that don’t meet up to their standards, but the emotional scars this sort of thing causes can last a lifetime. And while this is getting some much-deserved public derision, for every incident like this there are hundreds of similar situations that are incited by schoolmates and ignored by administrators as another example of “boys will be boys”. Somebody needs to tell these people their job is to teach and protect children, not reinforce gender stereotypes.

And by the way, lemme be the first to point out the supreme irony that this all happened in Pleasantville. It seems that some in the real town are as as intolerant of diversity as their fictional counterparts. Go figure.