Salado, TX – An Orthodox Jewish school that drew national attention when a Texas school organization initially refused to reschedule a semifinal basketball game that conflicted with the Sabbath is back in the state semifinals this weekend. But this time without the controversy.
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Beren Academy and its players don’t play basketball games between Friday night and Saturday night in observance of the Sabbath. That created a conflict last year when Beren advanced to the semifinals and was scheduled to play at 9 p.m. on a Friday in the Texas Association of Private and Parochial School’s 2A boys basketball tournament.
TAPPS at first would not move the game time. But after a group of parents filed a complaint in federal court citing religious discrimination, and the controversy brought national attention to the small Houston school, TAPPS relented. Beren won its semifinal game, rescheduled to Friday afternoon, then lost the championship rescheduled for late Saturday night.
“It was tough, just because it’s out of your control in a lot of ways,” Beren coach Chris Cole recalled Thursday. “I mean that from a lot of different standpoints. When so many people get involved, you don’t have any say in a lot of things that other people decide to do.”
This year, Beren will play its semifinal game at 1 p.m. Friday. Although the championship is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday, it will be moved to 8 p.m. if the Stars advance.
Cole said he’s relieved that his young players won’t be at the center of a national debate, and that he won’t have to talk to them about the likelihood of not getting to play for a championship because of their religious beliefs. The players were unanimously ready to accept that last year, saying their faith outweighed the chance for athletic glory.
Beren officials met with the TAPPS executive board in June, and TAPPS added a bylaw to its constitution to accommodate schools when the scheduling of athletics events overlaps with religious observances.
“The point of the meeting was to make sure everyone was on the same page,” TAPPS director Edd Burleson said Thursday. “There was a general consensus that accommodations should be made for those schools that required it.”
TAPPS currently has 237 schools enrolled across Texas, and Burleson said Beren is one of five schools that could potentially be aided by the new bylaw. Beren is one of two Orthodox Jewish schools in TAPPS, and there are three Adventist schools, which also observe the Sabbath.
TAPPS’ nine-member board was initially worried that making such changes would create a ripple effect of logistical challenges, with the other teams playing in the semifinals having to adjust to Beren’s scheduling conflict. The new rules leave more room for contingency plans, including lining up alternative gyms and officiating crews.
“It would just provide more advance planning for what occurred last year on the spur of the moment,” Burleson said. “It’s pretty obvious that there were some things learned, and there were adjustments made.”
That’s my team. Cole Hakavode to Coach Cole. This year without any distractions, they should pull out the victory.
what a great story i hope we can all agree, without any detractors whatsoever that this is a wonderful kiddush Hashem. in texas yet moshiach must b around the corner
#3 typical “dripping with venom” comment.
Can’t you live and let live?
If you don’t want to play basketball fine – but for those who do this is a kiddush hashem that they keep shabbos.
Keep your negative comments about other Jews to yourself and be dan lekaf zechus with an “ayin tov” – please work on your midos learn some mussar and stop spewing such hate.
You call this a product of “Torah with MaddaH” What are you a product of that you hate other yidden so badly?
The idiot savants comment again on VIN! Imagine Jewish kids in Texas picking Shabbos over basketball. Then take your stupid head out of your Brooklyn/monsey/Lakewood/Monroe cowpea of a brain and recognize the sanctification of God’s name that this team represents. The chillul Hashem is in the comments here. Not on the court where these kids play wearing their yarmulkehs.
my torah teaches me to love a fellow jew.without the venom spit out by #2 favish or the lomdeshe verter spewed by #8 . from where did u get such disdain for a fellow jew. do u ever make a brocho when u see majestic mountains, lightening , or thunder or are u permanenetly farbissen and emotionally crippled. u r the kind of jew that turns other jews away. like the idiots that throw rocks on shabbos. have u ever brought a person close to yidishkeirt by throwing rocks. F.Y.I even though its none of your busness B.H my family and i try to keep torah and mitzvos. my wife wears a shaitel our children went to cheder than yeshiva or bais yaakov and then learned in eretz yisroel for a few years. i thank the R.shO for granting us the zechus to be able to do so. Now our children are married,supporting their families and sending their children to cheder.and B.H they and their children are following the same derech.i learned from my parents, holocaust survivors. What the hell are you teaching your children. certainly not viahavta leraiacha komocha.
sorry for the long reply but . people like #2 and ^6 really upset me. u cant hate another jew and pretend to love G-D
Reply to 21
It’s the beginning of the month so your EBT and welfare check should have arrived at the section 8 house owned by your father in law or your father
“Bra Kora deavuha”
reb faivish. Fyi my wife wore a shaitel since we got married. i wont take offense as ur error is bishogeg. U must have thought your personal minhagim regarding “shaitel” are common practise or even universal truths. Not.
But i digress. You then go on to describe your behaviour as being of 2 faces .some call that bi polar. But u know now that u mention it, i think i do recognize u. pls tell me honestly was that really u knocking on my door last week? It was wasnt it.
Anyone think HKB’H enjoys listening to his children bicker over who brings kavod to his name and who doesn’t?
I hope we’re not delaying Moshiach with all this bickering