Good Choices (401)

A big part of sports is your skills, mental toughness, strength, being healthy, and physical ability, but that is not the only component to being an athlete. One big thing that most people don't think about is your social decisions. Do you take unnecessary risks or do things you shouldn't? Making bad decisions involving drugs, alcohol, the law, or the code of conduct can negatively impact you and your team. Typically if you get in trouble with these things, you get suspended (in school volleyball) for 30 days, which is a big chunk of your season. In club, there is no regional rule for a punishment, but each club or coach might have their own rules specific to that club or team. This is bad for you because that is taking away from your match experience when you could be playing and getting better. This also hurts your team because each person is important and each person contributes to the team, and when you take one component away, the team has to adjust to it. 

This also is bad for your reputation or image, and ruin your future opportunities. Do you think that a club will want that player playing for them if they have a history of making bad decisions? More important than that, do you think a college will want a player who makes poor choices? Probably not. 

Lastly, this ruins your team's reputation. When other people hear about your team they might think, oh yeah, the team who had a girl suspended. Even one person's bad choice can make the whole team look bad because as a player, you are representing your team and your school or club during club season. Also, this puts your coach in a sticky situation because if you are a vital part of your team it is a lose lose situation. If the coach suspends you from playing, this hurts the team's performance, but if they don't punish you and let you play, this reflects badly on them as a coach. Others will think the coach has no discipline and players can get away with whatever they want. If the coach doesn't want the players and parents thinking that they will tolerate that behavior or those decisions, they must suspend the player. Lastly, this might affect team chemistry because the other players may be disappointed or even angry with the player's bad choices.