Letter to the editor: Miles

Letter to the editor:

My daughter has been involved with JO for the last 4-5 years. She loves the program, and looks forward to it every year. She is always great about practices and tournaments. Unfortunately, last year the big tournament in the Cities (President's Fest), was cut short for us as I received a call on Saturday night that my son was found without a pulse in his vehicle, which we found out upon autopsy was due to accidental carbon monoxide poisoning. My daughter kept to her JO volleyball practices in just days following his death. She found a lot of support in being around her teammates. The whole JO community was great and supportive. This year my daughter decided she would like to do JO once again, and I had left the decision up to her, knowing the big tournament of the season would also be associated with the loss of her brother. She was unable to try out at designated time, due to a work conflict. Every year there has been a make-up session for the skills assessment, so we enquired as to when that would be, receiving no response. A few days later, we received a phone call stating two girls had been cut from the entire JO teams, my daughter being one of them. They did not need her to try out as they were very familiar with all the girls and what spots they needed filled. I soon sent an email to each KMVB board member asking about their decision and why it was that two girls were cut, with no response. It's been four weeks and I have still not received a response of any kind, even after sending second request for response. I've read all the information on the KMVB.org site, front page/home page stating no girls would be cut. I also read on the site that each team would consist of 8-10 girls. The team my daughter would be on has 11 girls, so why wasn't another girl cut to make it an even 10 as stated? There were other questions I asked to be addressed, obviously receiving no answer to any of them, not even the promised refund for the skills assessment test, as she was never able to participate.

In summary, I'm appalled at the exclusion of two girls from the JO volleyball teams, a decision made by adults. With all that's happened in this small community, more thought should be put into what would benefit ALL of the youth wanting to participate. Bullying has been at the forefront, which often times starts with exclusion. How can we expect our youth to develop a wide circle of friends, without excluding, when they aren't taught this by example? Not to mention, the recreational drugs readily available to our school-age youth, keeping them otherwise occupied in healthy ways is a must. I wish the emphasis would be less on winning and more on all the players required to make a good team.

                     Sincerely,
                    Christel Miles