No.162 / Mar 6, 2023
Team sports require teamwork. Unfortunately, cases of violence among junior players in the name of teamwork development have increased. Especially, seniors are known to hit juniors when the latter make mistakes in the match or do some actions that makes seniors uncomfortable. Sometimes, seniors who are reprimanded by their coaches lash out at juniors in anger for slight offenses like not greeting the senior outside campus.
We now have a national class player who is at the center of an incidence of violence: Ahn woo-jin, a six-year professional baseball player who is the first starting pitcher of Kiwoom Heroes. Although he faced the wall of adapting to professional class in earlier times, he finally recorded the league’s top-class performance in 2022. As he has shown high-quality performance, he got a chance to be chosen as national team in World Baseball Classic (WBC) understandably. However, he had an unresolved problem: a school violence case. At 19 years, Ahn faced the school violence committee in 2017. His violent acts included hitting players lightly on the head with the handle of the bat or hitting the top of the head about five times with a baseball in his hand. Because of this case, he dropped out of the youth national baseball team, although he was considered the main player. Ahn’s case is yet to be resolved, which prevented him from joining the WBC national team this year as well. Professionals have expressed reservations about his ability to handle the responsibility of representing the country in this WBC if he has a violence problem. Fans who cheered Ahn have been left disappointed. In fact, twin professional volleyball players Lee Da-young and Lee Jae-young in the Women Volleyball League were also found to have committed school violence since elementary school. They are reported to have committed atrocities like threatening teammates, extorting money, stealing, abusive language, insulting families of teammates, forcing teammates to participate in the abusive action, and forcing teammates to steal and caused them to be assaulted by the coach. They were expelled from the national team because of this case. Being key players, in their absence, the Korea national volleyball team performed poorly in international matches. However, not all people expressed dissatisfaction about the bad grade caused by the expulsion of twins, as they believed curtailing violence in sports was for the best.
Every second that a teammate is harmed by a perpetrator may encourage that teammate to abandon their career in sports. Ahn Woo-jin was disciplined by the association in the past, and the Korean former president Moon Jae-in especially ordered the eradication of violence in the sports community after the Lee Da-young and Lee Jae-young case. However, people’s resentment persists. This is because the punishment given by the association has been deemed too weak and ineffective. People argue that there are loopholes in the punishment where the perpetrator is only suspended for a few games, or years of suspension. The association should be obligated to protect careers from violence, ensure the right to maintain young players’ lives, and make a convincing judgment through a clear process. Above all, all young players should be aware of this: Being a senior does not mean having power in the team. Being a senior means that they should be a good example for others in all aspects.
By Seo Myeong-jae, AG Reporter
smj001209s@ajou.ac.kr
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