Enough is enough

Of course I spent my weekend watching the 3A East Regional Tournament which took place in Torrington from Thursday through Saturday. 
What else would I spend my long weekend doing?
I had printed off the brackets and was keeping up with results and scores from the games as the tourney progressed, and I’ll admit to making predictions (in pencil) of how the games would play out.
When it came to the semifinal matchup between the Lady Dogies and the Lady Bearcats on Friday, I didn’t predict an outcome because first, I know our girls can beat the Converse County team, and second, because I am a bit biased and I also feel a certain way about how Douglas plays the game.
I want to make it clear that I acknowledge that the Douglas team is filled with athletes who are good basketball players and that the school has cultivated a winning mentality and a strong basketball program over the years.
However, after playing that team three times in three weeks, and watching what the Lady Bearcats are allowed to get away with on defense, I’ve had enough.
We have a wonderful photographer for the News Letter Journal who has captured evidence of just how physical the Douglas team is on defense.
Basketball is not supposed to be a full contact sport, which is why unlike football, no protective gear is worn.
However, after watching the games - and looking at the photographic evidence - Douglas is allowed to get about as close as is humanly possible when playing defense.
That is not right, especially when bodying players outside of the paint. I say that, because there is going to be some pushing and shoving and jockeying for position when you’re under the basket, however, once you are outside that space, you should not be able to practically lie on your opponent. Defense is supposed to give offense a step which means you can’t be all up in their grill.
In that semifinal game at Regionals, three girls had to be seen by the trainer - two were from Newcastle. One of ours ended up slamming her face into the handrail of the stands and had to have her cheek taped back together, while the game was stalled for an extended period of time to clean up her blood. One of theirs ended up in a shoulder sling after physical contact caused her to fall on it wrong, which caused her to be sidelined for the remainder of the tournament.
I will say that our girls tried to give as good as they got. They fought back, but the difference is that when we knocked someone to the floor, our players were there to help them back to their feet. That did not happen when roles were reversed.
Admittedly, Douglas is not the only team who has gotten more aggressive, and as the physicality gets more intense on one team, other teams also ramp up their physicality. Unfortunately, the mindset spreads as other teams try to compete and the end result is too much contact for the sport of basketball.
The WHSAA (Wyoming High School Activities Association) and the WOA (Wyoming Officials Association) need to start to crack down on the amount of physical contact made in games. 
There was a big push a while back about hand checks, or touching with hands, so that has diminished. However, when you are allowed to body people so hard they fall over and as long as your hands are showing, there is no foul? That needs to stop.
Kids get hurt that way and we saw just that in Torrington on Friday.
I will say that on Saturday in our girl’s morning game against Moorcroft, the officials did a much better job of trying to put a stop to the physicality by calling about 11 fouls between the two teams in the first quarter. 
That set the tone for the game, because players knew what they would be allowed to do and what they wouldn’t. Granted, there were still some pretty obvious fouls that occurred in the remaining three quarters, but the difference was that they were called, where on Friday, they weren’t.
Keeping kids injury free should be a priority when it comes to officiating a basketball game. I’d like to see teams win simply based on talent rather than on pushing people around.
I’ve seen a lot of players hurt over the years, and if full contact is continued to be ignored, more will be hurt in the years to come.
Enough is enough!