A seven-year-old Canadian boy, Grayson Powell, had just bowled the game of his life en route to helping his team win a title in St. Johns. Then came the crushing ruling that he would be disqualified and that the championship would be stripped.
Did he eat a banned breakfast cereal? Did he get caught chugging juice before the tournament? No, the reason Powell was disqualified had nothing to do with performance.
Instead, he was penalized after the fact because the black jeans he wore weren’t black enough.
Child stripped of bowling medal after pants found not to be black enough https://t.co/Tbt9T57yPM @AnthonyGermain @KrissyHolmes pic.twitter.com/T2Q90zn8Lu
— St. John's Morning Show (@sjmorningshow) March 1, 2017
Making matters worse, Powell was lined up with his teammates, ready to accept their trophies, when the ruling was handed down.
He had warmed up for 15 minutes before bowling, per CBC News, then bowled the best three games of his life, all the while wearing the same pants that were later ruled not dark enough.
Even worse still is the fact that the person responsible for the ruling, Youth Bowl Canada provincial director Gordon Davis, is the one who pulled Grayson’s mother into an office and disqualified the young bowler. Davis coaches the two teams that finished second and third before the ruling.
Not surprisingly, Powell’s parents were furious.
“Parents ruin it for kids,” Todd Powell, father of Grayson, said. “If this is what sport is about when it comes to kids…shame on them.”
“He should be ashamed of himself,” the senior Powell said. “For [Davis] to go back to Corner Brook saying that, ‘We won a provincial medal’ — no. The three individuals that bowled on Saturday, they are the ones that won that medal.”
Powell also said Davis owes the three young boys who were disqualified a written apology.
We’re in Powell’s corner on this one.