CROSSING LINE

Junior Marim Abdelrazek’s feet followed the bright white outlines of the field as she sped through the laps that her soccer coach had assigned to her — punishment for using cuss words. For Abdelrazek, swearing is a normal part of conversation. However, her coach isn't tolerant of that, and after running the laps, she apologized to him.

Abdelrazek notices that her coach lets profanity go if she swears in the heat of a game. But, when it becomes a recurring event, she is faced with consequences such as running laps. Her coach also provides an alternative for swearing and tells her to use “damn” as a replacement for other swear words.

“If we’re in a game, profanity shouldn’t be used,” Abdelrazek said. “But if you’re with your friends and you’re joking, profanity wouldn’t hurt — it's what teenagers do.”

While Abdelrazek’s teammate, senior and Varsity Girls Soccer captain Ishita Pesati, doesn’t find profanity extremely disruptive, she understands the implications it may have on the field, especially since referees don’t tolerate swearing — even mentioning that profanity can lead to yellow cards.

“One thing that the refs say is that the field is an extension of the classroom, so I try to show my intensity through playing instead of language,” Pesati said.

Pesati finds that players usually swear at themselves under their breath if something regarding their play does not go their way. Assistant field hockey coach Serena Yoo agrees that athletes tend to swear if they make a mistake, although she believes that it is unnecessary to use profanity on the field.

“People decided to create some words which express strong emotions [in English], which may not be accepted in a professional setting,” Yoo said. “Profanity is just a way that people express their stress or let out emotions of frustration [in] that moment. It’s usually directed at someone or at an event that happened, like if you miss a ball or a hit.” While the Varsity Boys Basketball team also directs their swear words to themselves, freshman

Sean Foo finds that the team has a different mindset when it comes to using swear words. The team regularly uses profanity, making swearing a part of the game.

However, Foo discerns between the use of profanity to show anger during team talks and as a form of disrespect. On the other hand, Yoo has witnessed other coaches swear at the referee when there are calls that are not in their team’s favor, which often results in the coach getting carded.

Yoo hasn’t seen any field hockey players using obscene words in games to offend anyone, which ties in with the team’s sportsmanship. She finds that sportsmanship is especially important in a team sport like field hockey, and that players exhibit these qualities by conducting themselves through their actions and words.

On the other hand, in club soccer, Abdelrazek has seen her teammates get heated, and one of them swore at a referee due to a call that didn’t favor their team. The teammate’s outburst led her to face a red card — a permanent removal from the field for the rest of the game. Abdelrazek says that the teammate had better options to face the situation, such as discussing the referee’s decision on the side, but ultimately let her emotions overcome her.

“If you’re calm, then you make sense of the situation,” Abdelrazek said. “But if you’re mad, then you’re just blinded with rage [and] some people, they don’t even realize what they are saying until it’s been said. They don’t even think twice

PHOTO|KALYANI PUTHENPURAYIL

n the packed crowd of MVHS fans and opponents alike, Varsity Girls Basketball players slowly started to bring up the score. The opposing team’s crowd had grown more restless as a loss became more apparent.

MVHS players secured the CCS win, bringing their game to a close.

But, instead of feeling prideful or even relieved, parent and MVHS JV Girls Basketball coach Glenn Kimm felt worried instead. Parents from the opposing teams expressed their frustration over the loss on MVHS players, shouting sports, she decided to stick with volleyball.

“My parents are very invested in my sports career as I’ve started to improve and actually become really serious about volleyball,” Tong said. “They are definitely very opinionated.”

While Tong says some parents coach from the sidelines of games to voice their opinions, her parents voice their thoughts on the car ride home and pressure her to do better.

“I’d feel like I was never doing enough, but now, I’ve learned how to tune it out and just take the useful advice,” Tong said. “[I] ignore the tone of voice and critique and all the unusable things.” negative remarks. encouraging their own team,” Glenn said. “They would be cheering directly against our team, to the point where we as parents in the stands, were all somewhat

Tong knows that her parent’s comments come from a place of support as they know how important volleyball is to her and want to see her perform as best she can.

“The parents were vocal, they were aggressive — they would say things to our players on the court versus

“I get that it’s their way of trying to help me, and I’m not going to discourage them from helping me because it’s useful most of the time,” Tong said. “The pressure that they give me makes me play better because I perform better under pressure than I do under calm circumstances.”

Glenn saw how parent involvement negatively impacted athletes when parents they haven’t.

Sophomore Samantha Tong

prioritized cheering against MVHS. But Glenn believes that parents should support their kids in their sports and also encourage them to pick one up if

Sophomore and Varsity Girls

Volleyball player Samantha Tong’s parents were the ones to initially motivate her to play a sport as a child, and after trying out many di erent

Tong believes the role of a coach is to promote team dynamics, make sure everyone is getting along and to focus on more general things such as game strategies. For these reasons, Tong finds that her parents play a bigger role in her personal execution on the court. Although Tong doesn’t like it when parents try to coach the team from the sidelines, she believes that giving feedback to their own children gives them pressure and helps them perform well.

On the other hand, Glenn’s daughter, senior Julianna Kimm who plays Varsity girls basketball, has a di erent view — she appreciates not having pressure from her parents.

“My parents were super supportive in the way that, as long as I try my hardest, they don’t really care as much,”

Julianna said. “I think that it’s really important because there’s no extra pressure from them, but I think more so I put pressure on myself to do well.” to wait to give their kids advice until the game’s over.

72% of MVHS athletes have felt pressured to perform better because of their parents

*According to a survey of 78 people

When Julianna was younger, Glenn used to coach some of her teams, and she recalls it being slightly di cult to navigate not only their relationship as father and daughter but also as player and coach. Julianna particularly found it hard to respect her dad as a coach when she disagreed with some of his coaching approaches. Now she finds it easier to listen to his advice as a parent, since he’s stepped back and no longer coaches Julianna’s team.

“I remember I’d be driving down to a game with him, and he’d be telling me about all the stu I need to try to do and execute in the game,” Julianna said. “But now, as he takes a step back from coaching me and he’s just there to watch as a parent, I think it’s a little bit more relaxed.”

Glenn, who has coached multiple basketball teams before, says that as a coach, he would prefer for parents

“If you’re trying to coach during a game, one, it confuses your child, [and] two, you shouldn’t do it — you’re not the coach, you don’t understand the background of what’s going on,” Glenn said. “If there are issues with coaching athlete can vary based on their own dynamics and involvement.

“As a parent, it’s good to have unconditional love and support for your child when they play,” Julianna said.

Glenn, Julianna and Tong all agree that parents play a crucial role in their child’s sport, usually even being the ones to encourage them to pick it up. But the relationship between parent and