Others’ Opinion: Dance coaches pay price for not modeling basic sportsmanship
Published 9:46 am Wednesday, June 3, 2015
Star Tribune
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency
Sportsmanship, teamwork and following the rules — those are among the things young students should learn as they compete in school-sponsored sports and activities. Teaching those lessons, of course, is up to the adult coaches.
The coaches for four metro-area dance teams failed to teach even the basics of sportsmanship when they encouraged their squads to protest the winning team in a state championship competition. We applaud the Minnesota State High School League for taking the issue seriously.
On Monday, the league’s board approved the one-year suspensions of head dance coaches from Chaska, Eastview, Lakeville South and Wayzata. Those teams, along with Eden Prairie, participated in the protest in February at Target Center. The coaches and members of the five teams stood off to the side and held hands as Faribault was awarded the state title, sparking a social-media firestorm. Those protesting believed the winning routine was copied from a number performed in another state.
Before the awards ceremony, the competing coaches had taken their plagiarism concerns to league officials, who decided the routine did not violate state rules. Yet the coaches persisted with the protest, which the High School League’s president rightly called the “worst I’ve seen.”
Before the league suspensions, a Minneapolis law firm investigated the incident at the request of the school districts representing four of the teams, and Chaska conducted its own inquiry. The results of those investigations led to less-severe sanctions, including reprimand letters and much shorter suspensions. Meanwhile, five coaches from the Eden Prairie team resigned.
As a result of the plagiarism complaint and lingering controversy, the league says it will review its guidelines and work with the Minnesota Association of Dance Teams to determine if changes are necessary. “I was always satisfied with the process we used based on our current rule,” league associate director Kevin Merkle told the Star Tribune. “But we are working on a rule change, and we’ll have something for next year that will tighten the rule.”
In the meantime, the league has sent a clear message that coaches and participants must respect the process, play by the rules, and adhere to decisions made by refs, umpires or other authorities.