Sports:

Sports Favoritism - Sports

Coach Favoritism is an unfortunate thing going on in pretty much every sport out there. Most the time itll be because the parents are paying more than the other parents to the program so they use those kids and bench the possible athlete stars. In other situations it has occured that the coach is the dad and benches anybody that is not their "star" athelete son/daughter. Many kids have been intimindated though out the years by these types of situations and it can result in athletes losing interest in the sport or anger towards fellow teamates.

Coach Favoritism Examples:

Athletic favoritism has strong impact on an individual personally. In a way, favoritism can be considered bullying. When someone feels less important, below average, or isolated, they get the idea that they don’t belong. They start to feel unwanted. It is completely unacceptable for the coach to be the one implying this feeling onto one of their recruited players. The player might even start to believe that they were put on the team just to be told that they are not good enough. Athletic favoritism is acted upon without thinking of the consequences.

Besides the obvious personal effects, it also causes dysfunctions caused to the entire team. A sports team is supposed to be supportive and understanding towards one another, but when favoritism starts spreading around, the competition heats up fast. This competition makes the team weak and inadequate. Instead of working together to defeat their opponent, the team starts working against each other to get the first place position in their coach’s mind. Within the team, little cliques start to group together. The cliques of “favorites” tend to huddle together while the “unimportants” stick side by side. This division among the group becomes apparent, and since the team is already divided, there is no one left to group everyone back together as a whole.