Editor’s Notes: What happened at the state tournament?

By PATSY STODDARD Editor

What happened in Richfield at the state basketball tournament? You’ve probably heard a lot of controversy surrounding the Emery High and Summit Academy semi-final game on Feb. 26. I have put a call into the Richfield police for the police reports. They said they would send them as soon as they’ve completed the investigation and I couldn’t get them while the case was still open. I also have a call into the detective handling the case but he hasn’t returned my call.
I was at the ball game in question. The Emery Student Section was loud and supportive of their team. There are really two issues here and I think they’ve some how been blended into one.
Summit Academy is a private school that is open to players from all over. Some will even say they recruit players to come play at their school. This isn’t new to Emery fans for several years, they played Wasatch Academy, Juan Diego and their players did come from all over the world. I think the UHSAA needs to find a way to remedy this problem. Can the private schools all play in their own league?
Emery High basketball team played a good game. They were outmatched. They played tough and a good clean game. The Emery fans seemed to be frustrated. The student section at one time was chanting. “We don’t recruit, or We can’t recruit” something similar to that my old ears couldn’t tell for sure.
Vice principal Steven Gordon was called over to the student section one time in the game. I asked him if he ever heard the Emery Students say anything racist and he said no. He was called over because Emery had 19 students on the front row and they were only supposed to have 18 against the railing.
At the end of the game the student section started yelling USA, USA. I thought this was inappropriate.
After the game there was reportedly an incident at Maverik, where adults had a confrontation with Summit Academy players. I don’t know if these were Emery County people, if they were then shame on you. It was reported the Summit Academy players were called derogatory names and given the middle finger. I don’t know what went down there.
The students filed a police report. I don’t know where it’s going from there. Richfield police are still investigating.
There have been segments on the news channels upstate. The Summit Academy team is saying they haven’t been able to really enjoy their state championship because of the racial slurs aimed at their players.
This is very upsetting to me. Sports has a way of bringing out the worst in people.
I would hope that Emery County people know better than to call other people names. Racism and discrimination in any form should be addressed and eliminated.
I know of no better way for this to happen than for each individual person in their own daily lives to stop any racism they might be a part of. It is hurtful.
I think there’s probably no one anywhere on the earth that hasn’t been discriminated against or bullied in some way because of who they are. Maybe they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Have you ever been taunted because you were white, black, gray, brown or green? I am sure we all have.
It’s something you don’t forget. I remember as a young girl, we lived in a town where I was among very few white children attending a school. I was in the center of a circle surrounded by other girls and pushed around and hit simply because I was different.
This happened several times, but I didn’t become angry or mean or hateful. I lacked understanding as to why this happened to me. But, over the years now I know, I was different. Sometimes people lash out at those who are different, those they don’t understand. This is wrong. We are all God’s children he made all of us and we all bleed red when we are injured. We are all the same on the inside. We need love and acceptance. We don’t need to be belittled and harassed because we are different. But, on the other hand we can’t be so sensitive that any little thing sets us off. We need to understand that there are people who don’t understand and need to be educated that you need to treat everyone with dignity and respect.
These things go both ways. There are those still mad because their ancestors were brought to America to be slaves. There were also slaves in Africa. People stole other people from other tribes and took them to their village to be slaves. This has happened around the entire world. It’s happened in Utah, some tribes stole the children of other tribes to make them slaves. In the bible, Egypt held the Israelites captive. It’s not new, it’s not right. Is there anyway to get past this.
Like I said you can change you. You can’t change anyone else, you can try to make this world a better place. I hope you know that there is one side to a story and then there’s the other side to that story and the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
Addendum: I just returned from Las Vegas where over the weekend I went to the Rugby Sevens tournament. There were teams there from all over the world. It was a wonderful experience. People from all nations mingling and sitting together as friends. My son served a mission in the Fiji Islands where they are very excited about rugby, it’s big like football is in the United States. So he and his wife attend every year and visit with the friends they have made over the years. This year the team from Fiji won the tournament. Everyone was cheering. When the team from the United States played the whole stadium rocked. Everyone cheered for the home team. It was amazing to see.
There’s a quote from a book I’m reading called the Walk by Richard Paul Evans in it he say’s, “I see people getting so caught up in celebrating diversity that they are neglecting their commonality. I don’t see this as a good thing. The Chinese culture has survived for more than 5,000 years in part because the Chinese have embraced the same language and culture. I hope the flame is still on beneath the great American melting pot. Americans need each other and a house divided, no matter the color of its occupants is still divided and divided we all fall.”