A controversy is brewing in Texas where a rec league has kicked a team of 7- and 8-year-olds out of the playoffs for being “too good”.
The Flower Mound Rebels are 7-0 and have won their games by a combined score of 199-6. This includes a 33-0 drubbing of the team coached by Rhett Taylor, the VP of the Keller Youth Association, which the Flower Mound Rebels joined last year. Taylor was among the five board members of the league who voted to eject the Rebels from the playoffs.
“This is the Keller league, not the Flower Mound league,” Taylor told NBC Dallas Fort Worth. “In my mind, they’ve dominated our league.”
“My team got one first down all game,” Taylor said. “And my team is good.”
Ragan Montero, coach of the Rebels, called Taylor a “sore loser” for the decision.
“He’s a sore loser. That’s all it comes down to,” Montero said. “He’s changing the rules so it benefits him.”
Taylor plainly admitted to kicking out the Rebels for the sin of being “too good”.
“They are too good. I fully admit it, absolutely,” Taylor said. “They are a select-level team. They are too good for a rec-level team.”
Montero told the outlet that 10 of the 17 players on her team were new to football this season, and criticized the message that this sends her team – that they are being penalized for hard work.
“I don’t think we can be too good,” Montero said. “He wants to play with us but he doesn’t want us to be good. I’m not really sure what that teaches the kids. Hey, try your hardest but sorry, you won’t get the end result you want?”
“It’s not fair that he kicked us out of the league for being too good,” one of the Rebels players said.
https://nypost.com/2021/11/22/texas-youth-football-team-kicked-out-of-playoffs-for-being-too-good/