By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON September 12, 2012 There they were, out on the field, grunting, running, stretching their limbs – more than thirty of them practicing as the Bateman High School Senior Football team.
The protesting team – from the left: John Phelps, Chad Doan, Kennedy Dyet and Chris Bishop. When the football players learned their team had been scrubbed from the football schedule they took to the streets in protest. They made their point and the football team is back on the field. Now they might have to deal with a teacher work stoppage.
They had to protest to get there – but after a part of a day out on the street waving signs and seeking support for their team – they were back in business.
No one remembers when there was a demonstration by students at Bateman before and it took courage to make the decision to protest when they learned that their wasn’t going to be a Senior Bateman football team on the field for 2012.
Chris North sent an email to Our Burlington – we ran with his letter and followed up with a visit to the school to see how the protest and demonstration went. While there, we saw some student behavior that was great, we saw kids talking in groups the way students around the world talk in groups and we saw students that were behaving – let’s be blunt about this – it was just plain dumb behaviour. We certainly heard about that from more than 45 students and the parents of students. That’s all part of an interactive process where people get to say what they think. We will comment on how that went later in the week.
This piece is about the football team – the guys that decided they weren’t prepared to see their team disappear from the roster. Chris Bishop led the group that was made up of Chad Doan, Kennedy Dyet and John Phelps. All are back at Bateman doing an additional year to upgrade their marks. All have clear plans to attend university with a pretty good idea of what it is they want to study.
Four high school football players who felt their team was wronged and took to the streets in protest. They made their point and are now back on the football field. Gotta be at least eight proud parents out there. From the left: John Phelps, Chad Doan, Kennedy Dyet and Chris Bishop.
Doan wants to study psychology. “I’m interested in the way people behave and want to learn more about that”, said Doan, which led to questions about how the school administration behaved when they decided to shut down the team.
Chris Bishop thinks he wants to study criminology and maybe look into law. Another student wants to study sports management.
The students felt they were told it would be “impossible” for a senior team to be put together and so they were scrubbed from the schedule.
“They had a mind-set and didn’t think we could field a team” said Dyet who coaches a team in the Burlington Minor Football Association.
These four young men didn’t see it that way. They believed they could mount a team but, just as important to them was the rule that would mean there would be no team playing the following year if they did not mount a team this year – and these four young men didn’t want to see that happen to those that would follow them.
Kennedy Dyet wonders why they had to protest. “We were told there was nothing they could do for us” but once the protest was underway the principal of the school met with the football players and asked how he could help.
It looks as if the Phys-ed people had given up on the students and pulled the team from the schedule. The students say they weren’t told the team was being pulled. There was clearly a lot of energy and enthusiasm on the part of at least some members of the team, which when identified, moved the administration to get behind the students. Now the football players have to get the school behind the team and begin winning some games.
On Tuesday evening there were 29 seniors out on the field – huffing and puffing through the exercises. It looked like a good workout from the side lines.
The Bateman Seniors are a Tier 3 team – they want to move to at least Tier 2 and see Pearson and Aldershot as the schools they have to beat. “We’ve got six to seven regular games in the season” explained Dyet “and then the semi-finals.
Football team protests the scrubbing of their team from the schedule. Administration changes its mind – team out practicing – next they have to win some games.
Chris Bishop feels the support they need is now there for them within the administration but also feels that it wasn’t there for them before they hit the streets with their signs. “The principal did meet with us at the Bistro and asked us what it was we wanted and we told him we wanted our team on the field. “Mr. Heffernan said he would do everything he could to help us – that’s all we wanted” said Bishop.
Kennedy Dyet added that the volleyball players are battling for a program “and we think what we’ve done will help them get what they feel they deserve.”
“We had faith that we could make out point” added Dyet “and now we have to do the hard work.”
The players commented on the new coaching staff they have. “These guys have great history commented” commented Chad, “one of our coaches was with Team Canada.”
Is there a problem with the commitment level on the part of the phys-ed staff and the school administration at Bateman? May have been. Had they given up on their students and as Kennedy put it, brought a “mind set” to the table that prevented them from seeing what the students wanted and what they were prepared to do.
Will the “no strike” legislation the provincial government has passed impact this football team that has shown it wants to be out on the field playing the game. Are teacher politics going to get in the way of the educational process the way it did in when the Mike Harris government was battling the teachers?
The young men we talked to were polite, focused, left me feeling there was a clear sense of purpose and an objective they had thought through. I came away with the feeling that there are eight proud parents out there somewhere.
The task now is to develop and condition their team and support them with enthusiasm that provides the energy and that extra bit of “make it happen” that a cheering crowd can give a team. All four young men know exactly what a cheering audience can do for athletes.
Go Wild!
So after receiving that much criticism pertaining to your offending article you decide to continue with the “dumb” comment? Why do you feel this is necessary? Have you considered apologizing and removing the article to show respect to those you offended?
Honestly, that’s what I call a cool story bro. Such a riveting tale, I honestly copy and pasted it to word, saved on my hard drive, backed it up on a jump drive, drove to the bank, put the jump drive in the safe deposit box, and will leave it there until my kids turn about 12 (when they can actually state their age, and ask what it is I’m showing them), when I will pick it up, put it in an old USB drive reader and relay this cool story to them and tell them, “kids, this is what a cool story should look and sound like…not like the stories your generation tells.”