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How to Win

Club vs. School

If you know any athletes who play both for their high school and for a club, you know that they must balance their participation.

Not at Immaculate Heart Academy in Northern New Jersey. There, and perhaps at other schools around the country, the rule is hard and fast: You cannot miss a school event to attend a club function.

And this rule has brought an end to Tara Schwitter’s high school career. In a column in The Record newspaper of Bergen County, Art Stapleton lays out a situation that brought tears all around.

Tara missed a holiday basketball tournament to attend a three-day soccer tournament that she believed was crucial to her nailing down a scholarship to Miami. IHA told her she could no longer play basketball.

“We had to make sure no one believes one kid is more important than another kid,” IHA principal Patricia Malloy said. “We just had to make the best decision for our school.”

Schwitter said, “I expected some sort of penalty, and I understand that, but to take away my whole season, I still can’t believe it.”

Discussion

One comment for “Club vs. School”

  1. Hi Mike
    How about a little compromise here.The girl in question could have been benched for a while and then work her way back.

    Total dismissal from the squad seems harsh and doesn’t help the kid in question or the team.

    A girl on my daughters college team quit the team a few weeks back asked back on and now comes off the bench and lost her captaincy

    In the end the kid and parents made a choice and if shes getting a d-1 scholarship she will be fine.

    Posted by kevin reilly | January 12, 2010, 11:48 am

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