In Scottsdale, Arizona, Salt River Highschool is in some hot water. Their girls volleyball team entered their local tournament, with a record of 9-4. They were set to play their next game away from their home court, against Caurus Academy, a Catholic Charter school a little less than an hour from them. According to witness’, the game started like any other.

But then, when a player on the Salt River team went to dive for the ball, and missed, a group of boys from the opposing team began calling her names like “Savage!”. They also mocked war cries, and imitated their dance rituals. The teasing wasn’t able to continue due to the end of the match. The name calling and mocking became so much for the players and the coach, the Eagles decided to end the game, and leave.

This story is especially controversial because Arizona has the highest population of Native Americans than any other state with a number of 300,000. After later conversation, the girls and the coaches were let down to discover that the league would not punish anyone of the kids involved.

The parents of the players even took action, and talked to the officials of the game. “Boys will be boys” is what the referee told the parents. The principle of the Catholic Charter school claimed that she recognizes that something happened, but that the game was not recorded nor was it witnessed by an administrator, implying as if there was nothing they could do. She added an apology, but is that going to change the way their students behave? 

Nowadays, sportsmanship is becoming a skill for people. In past events, I feel as thought people were respectful, and applauded one another after a good competitive game. But there are so many examples of people being rude, unnecessary, and just plain disrespectful. Sporting events should be a way for the athletes to do what they love, show off their hard work, and for others to appreciate and support those players and their efforts.