In this assignment blog post for ENGL 212, we were asked to talk about a time that we experienced a lack of authority or chaos. I decided to write about middle school sports.
Sometime near the end of the season, he let me know how he really felt. During our warm up stretches, he looked at me and said,
“After the season’s over, I’m gonna kick your [trash]” (trash wasn’t what he really said).
I’ve always been a baseball player. It’s the game I love. In 7th grade, kinds can start playing on school sports teams. I decided that year to try football for the first time.
One of the biggest differences I noticed between my traveling baseball team and this new school football team was that there was a segregation of the good players and the not-as-good ones. Luckily, I had some natural athletic ability, but those who were not-as-good were picked on in the locker room.
Throughout the season, I watched one boy in particular (surrounded by his posse of “good players”) push, shove, hit, and even urinate on the other players. I remember the feeling fear that came out of pure confusion. Why would anyone act this toward another person? I felt a desire to stop it but I was greatly out-sized by each individual member of the “cool crowd” and feared that the same thing would happen to me if I spoke up.
I was relieved when football season was over and looked anxiously forward to baseball season. When I showed up to practice on the first day and saw just about everyone of those mean boys getting ready to play, I was terrified. I avoided hanging out with that group at school and chose a locker in the far corner of the locker room. I remember wondering how the coaches could be blind to what was going on and even seemed to favor the meanest players on the team.
I didn’t get my trash kicked. Honestly, I think other members of the team told him not to (I was pretty darn good). But looking back I wish I had said something to someone. False authority is a dangerous power in the hands of a 7th grader.
Kekoa Riggin 