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The top players will not be around for world cup 2010 This list is up to date
ENGLAND Bobby Zamora, Owen Hargreaves, Ben Foster, Paul Scholes
BRAZIL Ronaldinho, Adriano
ITALY Toni, Alessandro del Piero, Mario Balotelli, Franceso Totti, Antonio Cassano
FRANCE Patrick Vieira, Karim Benzema, Samir Nasri
ARGENTINA Javier Zanetti, Esteban Cambiasso, Juan Roman Riquelme
GERMANY Kevin Kuranyi, Christian Gentner, Marcel Schafer and Sascha Riether

The top players will not be around for world cup 2010 This list is up to date
ENGLAND Bobby Zamora, Owen Hargreaves, Ben Foster, Paul Scholes
BRAZIL Ronaldinho, Adriano
ITALY Toni, Alessandro del Piero, Mario Balotelli, Franceso Totti, Antonio Cassano
FRANCE Patrick Vieira, Karim Benzema, Samir Nasri
ARGENTINA Javier Zanetti, Esteban Cambiasso, Juan Roman Riquelme
GERMANY Kevin Kuranyi, Christian Gentner, Marcel Schafer and Sascha Riether

The top players will not be around for world cup 2010 This list is up to date
ENGLAND Bobby Zamora, Owen Hargreaves, Ben Foster, Paul Scholes
BRAZIL Ronaldinho, Adriano
ITALY Toni, Alessandro del Piero, Mario Balotelli, Franceso Totti, Antonio Cassano
FRANCE Patrick Vieira, Karim Benzema, Samir Nasri
ARGENTINA Javier Zanetti, Esteban Cambiasso, Juan Roman Riquelme
GERMANY Kevin Kuranyi, Christian Gentner, Marcel Schafer and Sascha Riether

The top players will not be around for world cup 2010 This list is up to date
ENGLAND Bobby Zamora, Owen Hargreaves, Ben Foster, Paul Scholes
BRAZIL Ronaldinho, Adriano
ITALY Toni, Alessandro del Piero, Mario Balotelli, Franceso Totti, Antonio Cassano
FRANCE Patrick Vieira, Karim Benzema, Samir Nasri
ARGENTINA Javier Zanetti, Esteban Cambiasso, Juan Roman Riquelme
GERMANY Kevin Kuranyi, Christian Gentner, Marcel Schafer and Sascha Riether

Knowles was fired just over a year ago by Muir HS. Miguel reported on it on this blog. check out this link, its an interesting read. sounds like Mr. Knowles brought his "jerk attitude" over to M-town from Stang-town.

http://www.insidesocal.com/paspreps/2009/01/muir-track-field-longtime-coac.html

TRUE COLORS coming out?! All this HATRED and generalization towards a whole city. Maybe it's time to step back and think about what's being foolishly spewn out.

I play Basketball for monrovia and have done so for the past three years , And to say that this incident shows the kind of character monrovia coaches and athletes all posses is so far from the truth. My basketball coach has received 1 technical foul out of the 7 years hes been coaching at monrovia and that was because he stepped on the court. I will not lie and say our attitudes are just glorious but when competing at a high school level tensions run high and as a highschool student we sometimes slip up and let our emotions get the best of us but to say we are all cheaters and dirty and ghetto is utterly ridiculous The young lady is a senior and should have known better and i also understand the man has been coaching for 30 years and he should have known better than to wait for the girl to win to tell her about her braclet , But our girls have gone through the same thing earlier this year being dq'd for wearing earings and necklaces so they are no stranger to the rules wich is the point knowles is trying to make.For the people on here who call themselves coaches and parents your no better than coach knowles , you all are guilty of defamation of character , slander , being malicious and so on. our girls were deserving as well as south pas for this to go as far as it did just shows you how much ignorance is in abundance through out our community's and Local Press.

garagehero,

What the hell are you talking about? Except for hitting a batter, all the stuff you mentioned are all legitimate things to do during a game. And you don't need an injury to sit out a player, you just sit them out. Nothing underhanded was done. You're talking nonsense.

ESPN's Mike and Mike covered this story today on their nationally syndicated talk show. In my opinion, Coach Knowles wins the "Jerk of the Month" Award. What a weasel.

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Monrovia sporting teams, or more specifically, the coaches of said teams, have always been the epitome of poor winners and poor losers. I remember when my daughter basically single-handedly beat-up on Monrovia's much celebrated "FAB FIVE" for the 4 years she played against them as a South Pasadena softball player. They tried all kinds of underhanded tricks to keep her from hitting. They would shift the infield and outfield on her, sometimes on different pitches in the same at-bat. They would change pitchers when she came to bat. They would call long time-outs and converge on the mound when she came to bat. They would purposely hit her with the pitch. And the worst of all... one year, at the end of the season, when she had batted .490 with one game to play, with her nearest competitor a Monrovia girl who was at .488, also with one game to play, the Monrovia coach pulled off what certainly stands as the dirtiest trick of all time. Well, my daughter was offered to be sat down to win the regular season batting title, but she declined, decided to play, and finsihed at .487. The Monrovia girl was told by her father and the coach to sit out the last game with a fake injury. Of course, the Monrovia girl won the batting crown. But I guess these bozos never heard of Karma. On her next game, a very important playoff game, the Monrovia girl went 0 for 6 and they were eliminated from the playoffs!!! And my girl won the over-all end of seaon batting crown at .466. These Monorvia coaches are pure crumb-bums!!!

Monrovia sporting teams, or more specifically, the coaches of said teams, have always been the epitome of poor winners and poor losers. I remember when my daughter basically single-handedly beat-up on Monrovia's much celebrated "FAB FIVE" for the 4 years she played against them as a South Pasadena softball player. They tried all kinds of underhanded tricks to keep her from hitting. They would shift the infield and outfield on her, sometimes on different pitches in the same at-bat. They would change pitchers when she came to bat. They would call long time-outs and converge on the mound when she came to bat. They would purposely hit her with the pitch. And the worst of all... one year, at the end of the season, when she had batted .490 with one game to play, with her nearest competitor a Monrovia girl who was at .488, also with one game to play, the Monrovia coach pulled off what certainly stands as the dirtiest trick of all time. Well, my daughter was offered to be sat down to win the regular season batting title, but she declined, decided to play, and finsihed at .487. The Monrovia girl was told by her father and the coach to sit out the last game with a fake injury. Of course, the Monrovia girl won the batting crown. But I guess these bozos never heard of Karma. On her next game, a very important playoff game, the Monrovia girl went 0 for 6 and they were eliminated from the playoffs!!! And my girl won the over-all end of seaon batting crown at .466. These Monorvia coaches are pure crumb-bums!!!

This is just the fuel Monrovia needs to really bring out some of it athletes for Track and Field next year. All this Monrovia hatin is going to cause a lot of girls and guys who probably never thought of running track and field to come out and participate. Coach Knowles will bring out the best in these atheletes then maybe these disgruntled parents of these athletes could stop showing their true colors on this blog. This outburst of hatred seems to far supass the emotions of a track meet. I would bet that Most of the haters on here have never even been to a high school track meet anyway. GET OVER IT!

Karma is a Bi!ch

What a sad way to obtain a victory, there's no doubt the Monrovia Coach knew she had this so called Jewelry on prior to her jump. Anybody with common sense and class would've warned her prior to the event. I've personally, warned an opponent that he was in violation of a particular CIF rule prior to and event in another sport. That young man went on to compete in the State Playoffs and is now competing at the D1 level. I've also called a violation on my own player at a CIF playoff event which almost cost my team a spot in the CIF finals, but Karma is good and we still qualified..

People... relax. We all know who the better team is. And im sure coach Knowles does too. If it helps him sleep at night knowing that he got a young lady DQed for a friendship bracelet then so be it. We all know that Monrovia didn't "win" the title.

Peaople... relax. We all know who the better team is. And im sure coach Knowles does too. If it helps him sleep at night knowing that he got a young lady DQed for a friendship bracelet then so be it. We all know that Monrovia didn't "win" the title.

Just Wondering said:

Hey coach, if you have been coaching for 30 years and know a lot of rules, maybe you should dq all of your victories this year for not taking the required CIF test for all high school coaches in California. Do the right thing if rules are rules and take responsibiliy for your own actions.

I also wonder if you called the jewlrey infraction on your own girl when you lost the CIF title? Or do you just call it when it benefits you?

CIF says win with Integrity and honor. Where is the honor. Monrovia was beaten fair and square on the field. The article stated that the Monrovia boys basically conceeded the Varsity team championship to win the Frosh/Soph Championship. Is this ethical. If you are a varsity athlete why are you perforing at the FS level. Seems to show the values of the Monrovia coach.
The NFHS and the CIF have unclear definitions of jewelry. Jewelry is defined as something made of metal. Although the rules are unclear the Monrovia coach knew what he was doing. As a coach I understand the rule but to win a championship like that is not right.
Athletes inthe Rio Hondo league should be careful of Monrovia Coaches. They might start asking for doctors notes for basketball players who are wearing sleeves on their arms and legs. Also girls basketball players better becareful to make sure that their sports bras match the main color of their uniforms. Where does it end? Good job Knowles enjoy your victory.

I heard that ESPN Radio Dan Patrick covered the story on the radio today, and ABC and Channel 9 are coming out for interviews at SP campus today. friends say this was also seen on CNN and USA Today too... so the story is getting some legs....

I'll be the first to say that track is not my sport but I am familiar with both the CIF-SS and the NFHS (National Federation of High School Associations based in Indianapolis) to know what seems to be commonplace among the philosophy of both organizations.

First of all, virtually all HS sports are played under NFHS rules unless that sport does not possess NFHS rules and then the CIF (or their various autonomous Sections rules on such things).

Track is a sport that uses NFHS rules and NFHS believes that athletics is an extension of the classroom and sportsmanship must be observed. Also NFHS frowns upon when teams or individuals do things that bring attention to themselves and in most of their sports, a penalty is imposed.

In some sports, jewelry is not necessarily safe, but in all cases it can be construed that it brings attention to the person who chooses to wear jewelry during a game, contest, meet, or match. This is consistent with all the NFHS rules.

In some sports, a warning may be used and the next penalty is more severe such as ejection, technical foul, penalty yardage, or even DQ.

Now, if this were week 1 of the season, I can see being a bit lenient. However, this is late in the season and those types of issues should have been known and taken care of earlier in the season.

I have seen everyone blame the CIF, Coach Knowles, the officials and the like. It seems the blame can only go the the student-athlete for not taking off what is considered jewelry (sorry Livestrong bands and friendship bands have been ruled by NFHS and CIF as jewelry) and/or the coach for not letting the information out and checking whether his team was properly attired and equipped for the contest.

If your not cheating your not trying. The bracelete was obviously a tool they use to get less wind resistance. HAHAHAH LMFAO 8==============)-------

To Bret if anyone is a dick it's you..Now are there any young kids commenting on this issue. There have been coaches that have done a lot worst to win at any cost. Can you ignorant adults just leave this alone. Damn go up and move on..There have been things a lot worst than this. Whether Knowles saw the bracelet before or not it's not his responsiblity to say something to remove it, it was up to So Pas coach. The score was too close for all this to be going on. Both teams worked hard. So what it came down to the pole vaulting. Big deal. It is what it is. Get over it. In the real world people have lost titles because of small things. So I bet So Pas coach will check and double check all athelets before the step foot onto the track. Just look at it as a lesson learned and move on. Let it go. Yes, you lost on a D'Q. You'll know next time won't you. Coach Knowels has nothing to be ashamed of, his a great coach. Now suck on that all you idiots that don't know him. Get a life and move on it over let it go.

Is Knowles the same guy that was fired from the Muir track program last year??

I don't like victories through DQ, but is the outcome really Coach Knowles' fault? If I'm not mistaken, coaches don't have power to make official rulings. The officials interpreted the rules. Blame the umpire. Blame the rule. Blame a coach for questioning a potential violation?

For those equating this to "winning at all costs," you need a dose of reality. All costs??? Really? Again, I don't like wins that don't come through the scorecard, but I also don't like it when people dramatize a situation. All costs...right.

Just Wondering said:

If this is your 30th year coaching track and you know a lot of rules, did you make sure you took the required CIF coaches test? Maybe you should call yourself on that one and dq all of your team victories until you take care of your responsibilities.

Another question: Did you call the jewlrey infraction on your own kid when you lost the CIF title, or do you just call it on other people so you can win?

Here is a what if. If the South Pasadena coach found out about the bracelet after she had completed the jump...would the South Pasadena coach have DQ their own athlete knowing she had broke the rules?

Also, if this wasn't the last event of the day, nobody would be talking about this. If this event happened at the start or the middle of the meet, would we all be having this conversation right now? no.

Bret,
Have some class. Your last line distracts from the validity of most of your comment. It's disappointing to be reminded that your type of vulgarity has been coaching youth LAX for 20 years.

One thing that nobody is discussing here is that Laird had an aborted first run where she stopped short of the vault pit and went back to start iver. She got within a few feet of Knowles, who, like everybody else, was lined up next to the vault pit.

Its safe to say that Knowles saw the bracelet on the first run, knew he could get her DQ'd if she made the vault, and just waited.

A good sport would have said "Hey coach, your girl has a bracelet on. You might want to have her remove it so she doesn't get disqualified." But KNowles did not. He sat in the observation so he could DQ if she threatened his team's win.

I have been coaching youth and high school lacrosse for almost 20 years, and I have many times at games pointed such things out to the other coach so he could correct his players, instead of the refs doing it. Because I want to be a good sport, have a rapport with the other coaches, and win by being the better athletes, not by being the more devious coach.

Put simply, Mike Knowles is a dick. He can suck my swingbag!

This is an embarrassing way to win the title, but Coach Knowles should not have had to be in this position. Lax officiating and coaching from SoPas put Knowles into this position. The meet officials should have caught this infraction.

Track is filled with stories of victories/losses by DQ, however they typically involve an athlete stepping into another lane, or exiting the ring from the wrong side, etc. This jewelry infraction is frustrating because this particular piece of jewelry had no chance of harming or distracting another competitor. An earing could potentially fall off during a race and hinder another runner. During an individual event, this string bracelet would not distract the vaulter's competition. HOWEVER, there is indeed the possibility that this bracelet could have snagged something and caused the young lady to injure herself. For that, there is validity in the rule. A DQ after the fact? Not sure about that.

Rules are rules, huh? During the past couple years we have seen tons of rules turned upside down: mortgages, bond holders, etc. I hope you folks are consistent with your preaching of individual responsibility. Heck, the EU and IMF just bailed out Greece and broke their no-bailout provision. They did so under the cover of the natural disaster provision....stay tuned for more rules being shredded.

Knowles will regret this decision for the rest of his life. Or maybe he won't, he doesn't seem like a person who cares about anyone but himself. In any case, he is a dispicable character! He, like everyone, knows his team did NOT WIN. I read this girl will be moving on to So Cal in the fall. Good for her, I am sure she will get a good education which will allow her to become a better adult than Knowles. Of considering his actions, almost anyone is a better adult than he!

Reading the SI article, I gotta say Knowles will win at any cost. Good eye sir. Don't accept second by any means. Go for gold even if it means anything necessary. Its not about sports talent, its about making sure you are on top at the end of the day.

Knowles...for that I commend you /s

Furthermore, this Miguel Melendez, keeps stirring this mess up. He really has an issue with MHS anyway. Get a reporter that can be fair across the board and stop beating a dead horse. Let it go Miguel Melendez, we all know you don't like MHS...

To cc...If it's a piece of string or rubber band my daughter was told that she could be d'qed for having a rubber band on her wrist. Some it does'nt matter what it is. Knowles does not need to go anywhere. He is a great coach that knows the rules, and makes sure all of his atheles follows the rules. You idiots out there really need to shut up and get a grip. If anything, other coaches need to take a lesson from Knowels and check the athelets before they come onto the track, and this goes for the kids also. NOW PEOPLE LEAVE THIS ALONE YOU'RE BETTING A DEAD HORSE WHAT'S DONE IS DONE. Bow out gracefully...

To: You Knowles supporters are clowns - or dumb TSA, I believe your the one that is stupid. Rules are Rules whether it jewelry or friendship (bracelet) it's still not allowed. And Mr/Ms stupid anything one an athelets body that resembles jewelry is jewelry.

Attitudes like yours is why we have 8 million Illegals or as I like to call'em TRESPASSERS! in our country.

Why make the rule if your not gonna enforce it?

While I was typing this 50 more bracelets crossed the Borders!

Not to change the subject but if that same coach (Hernandez) were driving some of his athletes to a meet and were wearing earplugs in both ears and were to be stopped by the South Pasadena police would it be safe to say that the office would understand not to give this guy a ticket based on the fact that the time alloted to write this ticket would cost his team a track title would the Cop understand? Think not.... Rules are Rules, if we abide by them we wouldn't be having this sinceless conversation.

This would be addressed to the "rules are rules" crowd.

I think this would be a different story if Ms. Laird was wearing a gold or silver bracelet. I could almost understand it if that were the case.

This was a piece of string. This did not violate the intent of the rule which, I assume, was written to protect the athletes from cutting themselves or from losing their jewelry. And can we all stop pretending that Ms. Laird learned a valuable lesson? The only lesson learned here is that Mike Knowles is a creep and sometimes creeps get to coach.

All of the sports follow the same rule of no jewelry. Coaches and captains are reminded of this in the coaches meeting before the meet starts. The rule states that an athletes is disqualified from the event during the meet The athletes have been told from the beginning of the track season to not wear jewelry. This is an example of an individual being responsible for their own actions. The Monrovia coach was correct in pointing out a rule violation which the athlete and the coach should have caught. Incidentally the track starter had left the meet before the pole vault had concluded. If he or she had been there, the starter would have dq'ed the athlete.

Knowles needs to go.

From a purely outside picture, this looks like it was teh act of an opportunistic and entitled man. If he were at my high school, i'd watch him close and try to keep him and everyone sharing what on their mind...what are we doing and why.

South Pasadena fans: You should be putting the blame on your coach. Mike Knowles and his assistant coaches checked every single one of their athletes. Did Hernandez do his job? If he had, we wouldn't be talking about this.

Mark James: And what exactly were you going to do when you get to his house??? You are an IDIOT!!!

One of our baseball players got ejected from the game against monrovia for having jewelry on after all the players had already been warned. He should have known better. It was his own fault.

Do you mean hollow???

A punk move from a grown man. I hope you sleep well Coach Knowles.

Quit crying already!!! Did the officials agree with the disqualification? Then SHUT UP!!!

You folks who support Mike Knowles are really too stupid to know the difference between a piece of jewelry and a friendship bracelet. Seriously. What are you guys? TSA Agents?

Wow, talk about a hallow victory! Feel good coach?

I think the blame should be placed on the south pas coach, don't you think? I bet you idiots who are talking negatively about the monrovia coach would have done the same thing. I guess it's okay to give that girl a pass for violating the no jewelry rule when dozens of other kids had been DQed for the same thing during the season? Our coaches always check our athletes before each meet. Wake up people!!!

Just came from the Monrovia vs San Marino baseball game, where SM was given the Jewelry Warning and SM still had their Catcher ejected because he came up to bat with a bracelet on the next Inning.

Lesson learned? Pay Attention!

To all of you people who are saying rude things about coach knowles and that monrovia is ghetto has little minds. Who are you to judge him? He is a coach who was doing his job, obviously something south pasadena's coach wasnt. He shouldve checked all his athletes even before stepping on the track. Even I, as a first year track runner knows no jewlery is allowed, and so should she. If you have jewlery on you either need to take it off or tape it up.
And you can't say that knowles was unsportsman like because those are the rules. Last year south pas got a mhs girl DQed because she had on earring and you didnt hear mhs make this big of a deal like this. If anything south pasadena's coach was unsportsman like and a sore-loser.Sure it was unfortunate that she had to be DQed, but atleast now she knows better. A win is a win and monrovia deserved it. So to all of you who have something negative to say about coach knowles and monrovia need to get over it and get over yourselves.

To all of you people who are saying rude things about coach knowles and that monrovia is ghetto has little minds. Who are you to judge him? He is a coach who was doing his job, obviously something south pasadena's coach wasnt. He shouldve checked all his athletes even before stepping on the track. Even I, as a first year track runner knows no jewlery is allowed, and so should she. If you have jewlery on you either need to take it off or tape it up.
And you can't say that knowles was unsportsman like because those are the rules. Last year south pas got a mhs girl DQed because she had on earring and you didnt hear mhs make this big of a deal like this. If anything south pasadena's coach was unsportsman like and a sore-loser.Sure it was unfortunate that she had to be DQed, but atleast now she knows better. A win is a win and monrovia deserved it. So to all of you who have something negative to say about coach knowles and monrovia need to get over it and get over yourselves.

Publish his address and let's show him what we really think about his sorry little ...

All of you people that are putting Knowles down, calling him names and saying that Monrovia is ghetto are ignorant! Like Knowles did state that Monrovia was disqualied or an athelete was disqualified last year for having earrings on, and Monrovia didn't make a big deal about it. It was the fault of South Pasadenas coach, for not making sure that ALL athelets removed ALL jewelry no matter what it was. They should know the rules. And this is not a win at any cost, I'll say it again, RULES ARE RULES and EVERYONE need to follow them. I bet South Pas will check themselves in the future before stepping onto the track. And No they will not give it back...

In Defense of the call.
All of you making these negative calls about this man and what he did just shows us how easily we can pass judgment on a person who has taken what is given and used it to the letter. Football coach's, Basketball coach's and in every sport in America do it all of the time. What it has really done is awaken athletes to the rules that govern their sport. I feel that if the South Pasadena coach didn't notice his athlete was wearing something that could cause his team to potentially loose a championship or league title then maybe the finger should be pointed at himself. How many other meets has this athlete been told she could not wear any kind of jewelry while participating. I feel bad for the girls team as a whole but I've seen worse rules that have caused an entire team a championship or a kid not to even participate in his or her sport. This Athelete will go on to much bigger and better things in her future and this will probably help her in the long run by never overlooking the small thing. As far as coach Knowles is concerned he will still be hailed as a hell of an athlete as well as a great coach. I'm sure winning a Rio Hondo league track championship by default isn't going to make these athletes feel as though they have accomplished their goals. By the way, If Monrovia is a Ghetto I guess our world econony has picked up tremendously

Should we really be that surprised that a youth coach would wait until AFTER the athlete completes their event before stepping in and alerting the officials or the opposing coach about something like this. We like to think of the idealistic concept of a coach being a good role model, and teaching kids important moral lessons, and there are many coaches who in fact live up to that standard, and thank the Good Lord that we have them in our kids lives. I've known many of them thru the years, and I appreciate all they do. But we also have many who's egos are fueled by the achievements of the kids they direct, and a victory or league championship is far more important for them than any act of sportsmanship or fair-play. The action by this coach to nullify the achievement of the athlete by evoking this rule, even though it may well be a valid rule, is indeed petty and speaks to a larger problem in society, that winning at all costs is what's important, and morals, sportsmanship and common sense be damned. The fact is, years from now, only the individuals involved will remember how this victory came about, and the people in the gym looking up at that 2010 date on the girl's league champions banner will have no idea that in fact Monrovia High did not win the league title by winning it on the track, but by someone holding a wild-card in his pocket until he could pull it out and flaunt in in his competitor's faces, feeling smug about it and patting himself on the back about how great a coach he was. But then, the only thing that matters is victory, right? Do you really hate it, Coach, because you once lost a C.I.F. title that way? Then you should have shown true character and not pulled that card out of your pocket. Congratulations, champ.

Knowles is a glorified A-hole. Going to the girls coach and reminding him of the rule so she didn't do it again who be teaching rules. To play an insignificant rule card to capture a victory smell to high heaven. I hope this coach is shown the door as an inappropriate leader of the young. It was definitely the wrong way to teach a lesson.

PS...I completely agree with Anne. This incident is NO reflection on the Monrovia athletes, fans or community. It is purely on their coach.

I really don't understand how the Monrovia coach can look at himself in the mirror. Sure he can put a RHL championship on his resume, but hopefully he will never forget that it was due to a 17 year old girl's innocent & completely irrelevent mistake.

To those commenting about the sportsmanship in Monrovia and calling it 'ghetto'. Plain and simple, you're ignorant. Don't put the actions of one man on the entire city and school.

Anytime I hear someone say "rules are rules" I cringe - it means someone is too lazy to think; it is simpler to say "I followed the rules" and go no further. (Case in point - have you ever tried to reason with someone at a government agency?)We are becoming a society of people unable or unwilling to think and reason.

It is this attitude in our society that have five year old kids getting expelled from school for having a plastic fork in his/her lunch box ("it is a weapon - zero tolerance") or teenagers being expelled from school for having a couple of aspirin ("zero tolerance for drugs - rules are rules.")

At some point common sense needs to be called into play.

To Stay Unclassy:

You probably couldn't afford to live in such a Ghetto fool.

Wow-What an inspiring story? I'm trying to teach my kids to play baseball right now and Mike Knowles has given me a great baseline on what to preach next. That would be "Winning is great, but winning with class is greater". I hope this jerk keeps getting national media attention (virtually all of it negative). I hope the record books have an asterisk next to 2010 Track Champion Monrovia-*beaten by better athletes and coaches, but given the title after their loser coach played the crybaby card on a 17 year old girl. Class act coach, real class act you are.

Part of the blame certainly falls on the CIF for having such a ridiculous rule. A no-jewelry rule is common in various sports, usually a safety issue; however, to specify disqualification as penalty doesn't serve any purpose. In a sane system, some official would check uniforms and gear at the start of the meet, and ask to fix issues like bracelets, tuck in the shirt, and pull up the socks. Only if an athlete refuses should there be a penalty.

And does anyone really think that Knowles just happened to notice the bracelet AFTER the SP girl successfully made what would have been the winning vault? heck no!! I am sure he was keeping quiet on that little piece of information just in case SP won the event. I'm sure he would have kept his flapper shut about the bracelet if the SP girl had not made the vault.

dumb girl should follow the rules. Period.

Really not surprised. As one who competed against MHS,
always saw shi**y sportsmanship from the cats (and their fans).

The left side of my brain says too bad, the coach from the other team should have been aware of his/her teams uniform and attachments i.e. earrings, bracelets, etc. Rules are rules. Period.

The right side of my brain says what type of coach would diminish the accomplishment of a youth by pointing out such a trivial item i.e. an earring or bracelet, when it is obvious that "it" had nothing to do with that individual winning or the other team losing. A simple, "great win but remember that rule so and so specifies so and so...be careful next time." would have sufficed.

I'm stuck in between but can't help wonder what was more important; but I think it has nothing to do with a title or championship.

Laurence Todd
President
www.pasadenasportshalloffame.org

In a word- Typical. Wouldn't expect any less from a ghetto like Monrovia.

Knowles should have just let it go. I can understand if it helped her performance, but to be disqualified for wearing a string on her wrist. Knowles should be ashamed. As well as Hernandez for not taking blame, and as a coach should have been aware of the bracelet and asked Laird to remove it. Monrovia should give back the championship.