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Show M. I. A. BASKET BALL RULES DEBATED! HERE Strict adherence to bas- i ietball standards for teams and individual players in division four stake M Men competition was or dered Tuesday by the church Y M M I A officials at a special meeting here. Division four stake and M Men representatives were told that eligibility eli-gibility standards are to be enforced en-forced very strictly in stake, dis-rict dis-rict and all-church play ! that no exceptions are to be made for any -stake, ward or player, and that stake supervisors, ward bishops and coaches and district officials offic-ials are given the responsibility of seeing that rules are observed . by all players. Any violations would cause . the players to be suspended from participation in any scheduled game. General M. Men authorities and officials in attendance were George Q. Morris, general superintendent super-intendent of church M.I.A.; Le Grand Richards, member of the presiding bishopric; Dr. W. Creed Haymond, chairman of church M. Men committee; Homer (Pug) 'Warner, director of M. Men athletics, ath-letics, and John D. Giles, church youth leader. Reed Halverson, member of the Smithfield stake presidency, was in charge of the meeting. Each spoke briefly, then entertained en-tertained reactions of audience members. The problem was threshed out completely. There were appeals for the "boys who are not very bad, and who might te driven away from church if lie's kicked off the squad.'' There were contentions that the 100th sheep is "the one around whom we should put loving arms, and encourage to church. There were declarations that M Men basketball basket-ball should be used as a missionary mission-ary to convert the wayward soul, mot to drive him further into waywardness. But the end decision, written clearly before all, was that if any young man expects to. participate partici-pate in stake competition, district dis-trict competition or all-church competition, he must toe the rules. Thus this declaration can be interpreted as hand-writing on the wall, for all teams which list ineligible men. They must be dropped from the squad now. Any team which continued to carry ineligibles, and which continues con-tinues to the district tournament, will be declared ineligible to participate in the tourney. As it now stands, individual members can be dropped without the team losing its chance. It was the opinion at the meeting meet-ing that although there may be considerable repercussion at present from the firmness of this decision, in the long run it will be effective. M Men, knowing that rules will be enforced, will not "snitch" if they want to remain re-main as players. They who are declared ineligible inelig-ible may not enter stake competition com-petition for one year from the time they are ousted provided they abstain from breaking rules during that time. That is, any player who offends today must refrain from rule breaking until next February 12, when he may re-enter as a full-fiedger. Of course, during that time, he may continue to work out with the team, and play in games which are not official stake contests. As an illustration of the strictness strict-ness of rule enforcement, Mr. Warner was asked if a drink of wine at Thanksgiving time would eliminate a player. He replied: "That's breaking the rules. One cigaret, one drink is enough to Oust a man. We must stick to the rules." Superintendent Morris observed 'that the purpose of M Men basketball bas-ketball is to produce the highest type of Mormon manhood. Standards Stand-ards are of fundamental importance import-ance and take precedence over anything else they are mora vital than skill in the MM league. "Rules must be upheld," he stated. "We must hold to the rules in the spirit of good will. No transgressor should be blackballed. black-balled. But he should be made to realize that to enter stake play, he must live up to the standards which are set" Mr. Warner opined that the boy who has "slipped" should be encouraged to .live for competition competi-tion next year, while Elder Haymond Hay-mond demanded self-discipline among players. Ernest Olsen. district dis-trict M Men supervisor: Bishop Richards and Elder Giles all made remarks on the general theme as has been presented here. |