According to the El Dorado County Sheriff's Department, a 17-year-old Ponderosa junior performed a "cup check" on his 14-year-old freshman teammate following a snowboard team competition at Sierra-at-Tahoe on Feb. 12.
"They do this thing called the 'cup check,' " said sheriff's Lt. Kevin House. "It's this small group of guys that does it to one another."
A common sports gag, a cup check involves striking a teammate's groin, ostensibly to determine if he is wearing a protective cup.
In this case, the freshman was not and, according to the sheriff's report, fell to his knees in pain...
Sometime later, the boy complained to his mother of pain, House said. On Feb. 19, after she noticed her son wincing when he sneezed, she took him to a doctor, who sent him to the emergency room.
There, according to investigators, he was told he had internal bleeding and an infection, and that he could lose one or both of his testicles.
Now, as a parent (and worse, as a man), this really bothers me. It's really easy for something like this to happen, as boys are hard-wired for roughhousing. (Which is why they're playing sports to begin with.) Teenage boys are not known for their restraint and foresight. It sounds like the cup-checking thing had been going on for a long time, and that there was no real malice in it, and nobody had been injured so far.
I really hope the kid comes out all right, and I'll bet that Mr. Cup Check does, too. I also hope the older kid doesn't wind up on charges over it. We all know what happens next once the authorities get hold of it. The boys will be given sensitivity training and taught how to play with dolls. Rather than getting some sort of a healthy outlet for their male energy, the boys will be once again told how bad it is to have any. And rather than one boy injured in the stones, the whole lot of them will be required to surrender theirs.
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