Dilemma: Right vs. Right
The Rules of the Game
The mood at Baileyville High School is tense with anticipation. For the first time in many, many years, the varsity basketball team has made it to the state semifinals. The community is excited too, and everyone is making plans to attend the big event next Saturday night.
Jeff, the varsity coach, has been waiting for years to field such a team. Speed, teamwork, balance: They've got it all. Only one more week to practice, he tells his team, and not a rule can be broken. Everyone must be at practice each night at the regularly scheduled time: No exceptions.
Brad and Mike are two of team's starters. From their perspective, they're indispensable to the team, the guys who will bring victory to Baileyville. They decide--why, we'll never know--to show up an hour late to the next day's practice.
Jeff is furious. They have deliberately disobeyed his orders. The rule says they should be suspended for one full week. If he follows the rule, Brad and Mike will not play in the semifinals. But the whole team is depending on them. What should he do?
Note: This and other dilemmas on this site come to you without their real-life resolutions. We encourage you to think for yourself about how you might resolve them, since the nature of each dilemma is highly individualistic. In sharing these dilemmas, we do not endorse them in any way, but rather offer them for your consideration.
