Protests, Forfeits, and Pluralism: a High School Soccer Anecdote

On Monday, my daughter's school soccer team – the Goddesses of the Girls Academic Leadership Academy -- traveled to South Los Angeles to play the Locke High Saints. When players, coaches and parents arrived, we noticed that the field was empty. No sign of the Saints.

Our girls began warming up anyway. Perhaps the entire Saint squad was taking a test, or warming up somewhere else? Finally, two minutes before the scheduled kickoff, Locke’s athletic director jogged onto the field. “I’m sorry,” he told our coaches, “most of our team went to the protest. We’ll forfeit.”

”It would have been nice to know that earlier,” our coaches replied, and the Locke AD admitted it was so. Since our girls were already there and kitted up, we had a scrimmage on the field – JV against varsity – then packed up and went home.

Monday was indeed a day of protest across Los Angeles. Thousands of students in the nation’s largest school district walked out of class — and in some instances, straight onto freeways. In this deeply blue city, there is equally deep anger at Donald Trump’s immigration policies. Many people are frightened about what is to come. Like almost every LAUSD campus, Locke and GALA have high percentages of students from immigrant families. Yet despite these demographic similarities, when it came to skipping school and sports for the sake of remonstrating with the federal government, Goddesses and Saints made different choices.

On Wednesday morning, Locke’s Athletic Director called our coaches. He asked if we would be willing to “reverse the forfeit” and play a makeup match the next day. Would we consider making a second trip down to East 111^th Avenue? (The real estate agents call that neighborhood “Green Meadows,” but in all respects, Locke High is in the very heart of what is more commonly known as South-Central. Then again, whatever you think of when you think of “South Central” is almost certainly dated.)

Our team took a vote. They voted unanimously to play the makeup game. And so yesterday, we made that second trip — and in the mist and the mud and on a very poor pitch, the Goddesses prevailed 7-0 over the Saints. Heloise (one of the few sophomores on varsity) had a pair of assists. Both teams were aggressive, and the referees reached for the cards in their pockets more than once. The Goddesses gave at least as good as they got, and came off those “green meadows” covered in grass and glory.

In seeding for the playoffs, forfeits only hurt the forfeiting team. We had the win secured, and as the postseason approaches, are ranked 6th out of 129 teams in the city section. There was no need for us to agree to reverse the forfeit.

Here’s the point: the Locke Saints chose to forfeit a match in order to participate in an historic protest. The GALA Goddesses chose the game over the walkout. (As a parenthetical, ain’t those two great mascots for public schools? So boring to have everyone be a Wildcat or a Warrior.) You may have your own views about which constituted the correct course of action, given your feelings about the exigencies of the current moment and the comparative sacredness of high school sports. What pleases me is that when the Saints asked the Goddesses for a do-over, the Goddesses immediately agreed.

This is a lesson in pluralism. One may not always wish to join a protest. One may even disagree strongly that a protest is required. One may feel that wandering onto highways to impede innocent motorists is disgraceful. And yet -- one should always be accommodating to those who do feel compelled by conscience to play truant and engage in civil disobedience. Honor their courage even if you are ambivalent about the commitments that made that courage necessary.

Reschedule! Make that second trip down the 110 to see the Saints! And then, thrash them. This is the way.