Incidentally, it happened with the lacrosse team, too. Where’s the outrage?
If I had to guess, it happens at high schools everywhere. When my kids were in high school, some girls took the day off from school to get ready. They had appointments at the salon to, yes, get their hair and makeup done. A prom is a rite of passage and has more significance than men realize.
Jun. 4—STONINGTON — Things weren't looking particularly rosy for Stonington at halftime Friday afternoon having been outplayed by Lauralton Hall and trailing by four goals. The Bears' prospects seemed even worse when four players, including two starters, left to prepare for the junior prom...
www.yahoo.com
It happens in Academic competition as well.
I was out [did not take a medical "red shirt"] with double total hip replacement early in the "season" and did not notice that our school's prom was scheduled for the State Finals in Academic Super Bowl until early March, 2022. We had had two teams qualify for the State Finals for the last three years that a team competition had been held [2020 was wiped out by CoViD-19], so I expected to get at least 3 and most likely four teams qualified for the State Finals. Additionally, our Math coach had a significant brain bleed on MLK, Jr. day, and was out [Medically] until two days after the Math team qualified for the State finals with my limited help [Valentine's Day on].
A Senior girl who was on both the English and the Fine Arts teams made it known to the coaches that the Prom scheduled for later in the day of State Finals was her higher priority than the State finals in Academic Super Bowl. She revealed this four days before the Area competition [State Finals qualifier - like the Sectionals, Regionals & Semi-State competition rolled into one competition], which allowed me as the Head Coach to adjust my roster for the Interdisciplinary team, but this dropped the English team to two Sophomores and a Freshman for the State Finals, as she was clearly in the top four of the ten girls on the English team roster, but she was present to help the team qualify for the State Finals at Area.
Two weeks earlier [than her reveal], after verifying priorities with my other Junior and Senior competitors between Prom and the State Finals, I focused two of my outstanding girls to Social Studies [the senior was to be the Valedictorian, and the junior is in the top five of her junior class] as I had made my decision as to the starting line-ups for Math {the senior}, and Science {the junior} to free their limited time outside of serious dual credit coursework to work on one discipline which had not qualified for the State finals since 2007. They both were still qualified to medal {and did} in both of their disciplines plus interdisciplinary should have the Interdisciplinary team qualified for the State finals [as they were the defending State Champions at that point, but was a tie-breaker away from qualifying for the finals
].
My High School qualified four teams to the State Finals for the first time in our history, and they earned a State Championship in Science [all three boys [two Juniors and a Senior, who were headed to the Prom later], Runners-up in Math [same three boys plus a Sophomore], third in English [the aforementioned two Sophomores and a Freshman], and third in Social Studies to become the only High School with three or more teams qualified for the State finals to medal with ALL of their teams.
Because our students were honest with their priorities this year {early enough to make changes}, we {the coaches} were able to refocus our other competitors to effect positive line-up changes to maximize double medalists [10] in one competition, and achieve triple medalists [5] for career medals for the first time in history.
By the way, the Social Studies third place was the happiest I have ever been to finish the "season" with a third place, because they had started out the State finals competition in last place, scratched their way to fourth place by the 20th question (out of 25 questions), caught third place on the 24th question, and held it by getting the 25th question correct. It was against the High School that had beaten our football team in the State Championship game at Lucas Oil Stadium on the Saturday after Thanksgiving three years earlier on a touchdown with 10 seconds left on the game clock (4th quarter) and won converting a 2-point conversion to go up by one. Earlier that day we had beaten their Science team by three for the State Championship.
Therefore, NO outrage here, just thanksgiving for being blessed with outstanding students who are selfless, flexible, and hardworking to the Glory of God.
Although we are losing the Valedictorian (Social Studies Captain & Math) and the Salutatorian (Math & Science Captain), we still have eleven students with experience at the State finals for next year. Time to
not be complacent...
www.theday.com
