Kid Athlete Banned for Being Too Good: Fair or Foul?

by SodaHead Sports Posted 2012/04/30 19:00:00

Related Topics: Sports, Keeling Pilaro, Field Hockey, Southampton, Blow, Moon, High School, Mother, Physical, United States, Ireland

Read More

299 votes
Read all 263 opinions
Lightning Report View Results and Demographics + View Demographics

Loading Demographics... Click an icon to see demographic results Display unknown and private
	Fair	33 votes	11%
	Foul	266 votes	89%

Keeling Pilaro is just your average 13-year-old. He goes to school. He plays sports. He likes to have fun. Oh, he's also better than most in his age range when it comes to field hockey. Unfortunately for the young New Yorker, that seems to be a problem with some people. Rather than letting this young phenom showcase his stuff, officials are keeping the Southampton, NY high school student off the field hockey team because he's too good.

Now, while he does play on the girls team, due to the lack of a men's team, he doesn't exactly have a competitive advantage when it comes to physical stature. In reality, Pilaro is only 4'8" and 82 pounds. If he's not careful, the wind could blow him away. And Pilaro has certainly blown away his field hockey teammates and opponents, He's been the most dominant field hockey player in the area for the last two years, yet he won't be allowed to play on the team in the fall.

Both Pilaro's mother and father have protested the banning of their son for being “too good,” thus far to no avail. Pilaro is originally from Ireland, where field hockey is just as popular with males there as it is with females in the United States. Now Southampton's leading scorer may not be able to play the sport he loves, due to some insecure officials. What could have been a feel-good story for Southampton field hockey is now a sad tale about a young man not being allowed to play the sport he loves -- and is great at. Do you think the news is fair or foul?

+11

Add a comment above

the_old_coach 2012/04/30 20:03:48

Foul

+19
This isn't the first time this has happened, and as a high school coach for 31 years, makes me ill. This is all about several issues: first, "self-esteem," a phony-baloney new-age, feel-good (for some and not others?) concept that has been debunked several times but still finds its way into our sports activities, and #2, Title IX, another liberal concept that has backfired as much as it has helped: girls may wrestle on the boys team, and they may play football on the boys team, but as you can see, boys cannot play on the girls field hockey team or on the girls volleyball team. It's become garbage legislation.

When the government gets involved, everything gets ruined. You want to know why the USA is no longer competitive? It's stuff like this. "Every kid gets a trophy." SPARE ME!

>> See Replies

More polls by SodaHead Sports

blissful to Shae 2012/05/02 19:05:59

Don't know you will have to ask the school..

reply
Shae to blissful 2012/05/02 20:12:17

+1
Its just because the roles are reversed.

reply
Tara-ABO-2012 2012/05/01 04:25:50

Foul

+1
This is just wrong. He should not be punished for being better then everyone else.

reply
exsecrare 2012/05/01 04:25:21

Foul

+2
This "fairness" garbage has got to stop. Life isn't fair and nobody gets their ways... quit your whining and get over it.

reply
mark 2012/05/01 04:24:49

Foul

+3
Actually he should sue under Title IX . Most think of Title IX as being for female athletes. However , the wording in Title IX is "under-represented sex". In this case that's Pilaro.

reply
L1Z2 2012/05/01 04:16:18

Foul

+2
That's stupid. To be banned for being genuinely too good?

reply
Lisa 2012/05/01 04:08:46
BeautifulSoul 2012/05/01 04:03:51

Foul

+1
Thats dumb.

reply
Couri 2012/05/01 03:53:37

Foul

+2
If you want to be the best you have to beat the best. If I was a girl on this team I would be insulted. Women fight so hard to be seen as equal with men but because this kid is better than them they want to say oh it's not fair because he's a boy. Or worse, oh he's better than all of us. Lord if I was the person they were complaining to I'd tell them to get off their lazy butts and practice if they don't like another kid being better than them.

reply
The•Dun... to Couri 2012/05/01 09:43:31
Couri to The•Dun... 2012/05/01 20:24:08

Probably so, It was around 2AM when I wrote this and I was half asleep :/

reply
Shae 2012/05/01 03:38:39 (edited)

Fair

I want everyone on here who was an athlete in school if they would of given up their sport because it wasn't available. I know I would of played on the Boys soccer team if the girls team wasn't available.
plus this is Southampton. Southampton and Center morchies were the only high schools that had female wrestlers on the boys team that my two female friends could wrestle against. Why can they have girl wrestlers on the boys team but not a boy on the girls field hockey team?

reply
The•Dun... to Shae 2012/05/01 09:45:51
Shae to The•Dun... 2012/05/01 13:17:11

It is wrong, the screen moved when I tried to vote.

reply
The•Dun... to Shae 2012/05/01 15:58:06
Juliet 2012/05/01 03:36:25 (edited)

Foul

+2
poor kid just wants to play. how sad.
i also dont believe in boy/girl teams. when i went to school all the teams were mixed. u wanted to play soccer? anyone could play it. you wanted to play ultimate frisbee? lots of boys and girls.

reply
angel face 2012/05/01 03:35:39
tweet_tweet 2012/05/01 03:20:07

Fair

+4
Males have a natural physical advantage over females in sports. I agree with this choice.

reply
exhon2009 to tweet_t... 2012/05/01 04:47:46

Would you ban a girl from playing on a boy's team because she is physically weaker than the boys?

reply
Met to exhon2009 2012/05/01 09:43:26 (edited)

Nope, it's because her parents would sue if she gets body checked in an inappropriate manner.

reply
The•Dun... to Met 2012/05/01 09:48:11
tweet_t... to exhon2009 2012/05/01 23:04:54

Because girls are athletically disadvantaged when playing against the boys, no. If we are talking about an activity in which females have a natural advantage over males, then I would ban her from competing with boys in single sex leagues.

reply
The•Dun... to tweet_t... 2012/05/01 09:49:21
mmmholl... to tweet_t... 2012/05/01 14:44:48

They have to let girls play football......whats good for the goose is not good for the gander?

reply
Dark Angel AKA Hippiegirl 2012/05/01 03:19:51

Foul

+2
That's wrong , there a bunch of haters who should be banned from the games for picking on a 13 year over Jealousy that he was a better athlete then their child,

reply
Arse-Whole to Dark An... 2012/05/01 03:52:19

+3
read the whole story. He's not just better than their child. He's better than their FEMALE child. He's playing with girls. That's like being the tallest paraplegic. Stick him in a sport with some boys and see how he does.

reply
exsecrare to Arse-Whole 2012/05/01 04:27:36

hoe is that like "being the tallest paraplegic"???

reply
Arse-Whole to exsecrare 2012/05/01 05:04:32

+2
Being a physically dominant athlete among a group of peers that, on their best day, couldn't compete with him is irrelevent. Kind of like being the tallest paraplegic. Their height is irrelevent as they're all in wheel chairs. Girls can move up in sports if they can compete with the boys, that's fine. But boys shouldn't be allowed to move down under any circumstances as it compromises the integrity of the game.

reply
Max Power to Arse-Whole 2012/05/01 05:08:40

According to the post, he's 4'8 and 82 pounds...

reply
Arse-Whole to Max Power 2012/05/01 05:15:06

+1
And still he's dominating every game to an unfare advantage, according to the post. What's your point? I promise when I was in 6th grade I could have started for my home town girls varsity basketball team and significantly made them better.

reply
Max Power to Arse-Whole 2012/05/01 16:47:43

My point is that he has talent (or unprecedented skill) and that there apparently isn't enough interest for a male's field hockey team in the district, so he should be allowed to play for the time-being.

reply
exsecrare to Arse-Whole 2012/05/01 23:00:42

They are the ones who let him into the league. They made their bed, now they get to sleep in it. Let the kid finish the season, then change the rules.

reply
Uranos7 2012/05/01 03:03:22

Foul

+2
This is discrimination, if a girl is allowed to plaay an all boys sport on a boys team then a boy is allowed to play on a team where the only team is a girls team.
If they do not let him play then no girl should ever be allowed to play on a boys team. After all it is only fair. Problem is womens rights groups do not want 'equql' rights they want 'superior' rights. They want special consideration for females and mor resrictions on males.

reply
Arse-Whole to Uranos7 2012/05/01 03:56:20

+2
I disagree. Men are naturally better athletes than women. If a woman is good enough to move up in the ranks, let her. But don't let someone stoop down a level just because they can't fit in with their own competition. It's a backwards move, not lateral. Every girl that tries out for boys teams gets run off in a matter of weeks because they simply can't compete. That's not the case in this scenario. This kids parents need to teach him to be a man, not a glorified girl.

reply
Uranos7 to Arse-Whole 2012/05/01 04:08:50

+3
Feild Hockey is a man's sport in Ireland.
Don't be the typical biggoted American the rest of the world hates us for.

reply
Arse-Whole to Uranos7 2012/05/01 04:58:31
Uranos7 to Arse-Whole 2012/05/01 05:09:24

What are the chances he would even be able to start a team? very slim
There would be noone to play even if he did. Not in America anyway.
As a kid I enjoyed Lacrosse and it was about the only sport I was really good at.
But I could barely find enough people to play much lesss make a team, and it does not have the stigma of being a girls game in the USA.

reply
Arse-Whole to Uranos7 2012/05/01 05:32:48

Hence, the 'pioneer' aspect of my remark. He and his family could be the first. Say his family sued and won. That ruling would fundamentally downgrade the entire dynamic of youth sports in New York. All because 1 kid couldn't have what he wanted. The way this BS poll was worded voids any chance of a story of achievement and perseverence and actually encourages the vicimization of a falsely entitled kid who didn't have the right in the first place.

How many girls will quit knowing they can't win? How many other boys will cross over in other sports and effectively kill female athletics?

reply
Uranos7 to Arse-Whole 2012/05/01 06:09:21

That is a problem but they opened this can of worms when they let girls cross over.

reply
Arse-Whole to Uranos7 2012/05/01 06:23:49

No, feminists opened this can of worms when publicly funded school systems didn't want to drop millions on a lawsuit preventing girls from crossing over. Our public education system is dead. Chalk it up to another liberal victory.

reply