While there was a lot of well-deserved praise for the local cohort of HSC candidates, whose results were learned yesterday, the story on our back page reinforces something we’ve always said around HSC time: it’s not always about winning.
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Indeed, the stance taken by Nowra High’s open boys Davidson Shield cricket team reinforced that old saying, “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.”
In deciding to play with one of their best players who happened to be a girl, Chantelle Downing (pictured), they knew no matter what the score they would forfeit the match (as it happened they lost against Figtree).
This is a story about true team spirit – about one for all and all for one.
Confronted with a rule that prohibits girls from playing on a boys’ team in the Davidson Shield, the cricketers met and decided that even if it meant forfeiting the match, they would not take to the field without Chantelle in their midst.
Their stance illustrates a fine sense of camaraderie. Here was a talented player who through no fault of her own had to play with the boys: there were not enough females to make up a girls’ team.
Coach Mason Keane is rightly proud of his players. They knew their stance would cost them but decided it was more important to stand against a rule they felt discriminated against one of their own. The entire community should be proud too.
History is full of examples where principled people have taken a stance against rules they believed were wrong. It can start with a sporting team and blossom into a social movement. The stance against apartheid which began in the 1970s and was led by young people targeted white only South African cricket and rugby teams and grew into global condemnation of a racist regime that expired in the 1990s.
The civil rights movement in the United States was energised by young white people, who placed themselves in great – sometimes fatal - danger to take on institutionalised racism.
Challenging discrimination is a worthy calling for young people but it is not always easy.
Defeating the “we’ve always done it this way” reasoning can be tough but it’s not insurmountable.
And, as the Nowra High cricketers have shown, you don’t give up on taking a stand because it’s hard, not if you really believe in what you’re standing for.
