Two perspectives on strip basketball
COACH SAYS IT WAS INNOCENT FUN, BUT FORMER PLAYERS NOW SAY THE DRILL WAS OUT OF BOUNDS
Aformer student of teacher Martina Cain wept as she told a disciplinary tribunal of a game of “strip basketball” from three decades ago.
In Strip 21, t he girls’ basketball team took turns throwing foul shots. For every miss, they were required to remove an article of clothing, as allegedly instructed by Cain, their coach.
“I remember some of their faces and they were just horrified that they had to do it,” said Student A, whom Cain coached in La Ronge, Sask., in the 1980s.
One student removed her shorts, while another removed her bra from under her shirt. The image of a bra hanging from a basketball net was described more than once.
But Cain, now a retired teacher and principal, who spent the bulk of her career in La Ronge, remembered a different version of events.
At most, students l ost shoes and socks in a “fun” basketball drill, she said.
“Honestly, honestly the intent was just to create a bit of fun with just the shoes and socks coming off,” she said.
T hr e e decades after the events, Cain has been charged with professional misconduct between Jan. 1, 1986, and June 30, 1989 — when Student A would have been in Grades 9 through 11.
The charges are based on four allegations by Student A: the strip basketball drill; that Cain shared her bed with the student about 18 times; that Cain instructed her to steal a tray from A&W, and that Cain told her to remove her bathing suit in a private hot tub.
Roger Lepage, lawyer for the professional conduct committee, wants Cain’s teaching certificate to be revoked and have her pay half of the investigation and hearing costs to a maximum of $10,000. She could also be fined up to $5,000.
She has pl e aded not guilty.
Student A complained to the teachers’ regulatory board in March 2016, and said she reported the incidents to the RCMP in 2013.
As an adult, she “horrified” teachers and former players with mention of the game. “I realized that I had misled myself into thinking that this was just something that people did,” she said.
A second witness said Cain presented it as “a game that everybody played.”
Student C, A’s younger sister, told the hearing, “She’s the teacher. Maybe this is what happens. I’d never been on another team.”
A fourth witness opted to remove her bra from under her shirt. At the time, “I just sort of wrote it off as some stupid jock thing.”
None of the witnesses told their parents about Strip 21 — the sisters because they feared they’d be forbidden from playing basketball.
Cain admitted to a much lighter version of events.
She did lead a drill, she said, inspired by a hazing experience she had as a rookie on the University of Regina Cougars women’s basketball team, when Cain and her co- horts were required to strip for every shot they missed.
With her high school players, Cain said the game was limited to socks and shoes. If someone ended up barefoot, they’d be out.
As a devoted player, A had a close relationship with Cain. Cain testified they had a “friendly” and “cordial” relationship as they knew each other from church, school and basketball.
When A’s parents travelled to Saskatoon for her brother’s frequent medical appointments, she stayed with a trusted adult: Cain.
She had close to 20 sleepovers at Cain’s house during her time on the team, sleeping in Cain’s bed rather than the floor. There was no couch, she said.
During the sleepovers, they would hang out and cook supper. There was no drinking or drug use. They wore pyjamas to bed, where nothing sexual occurred and they didn’t touch.
“It was a friendship, that’s what it seemed like. ... It was very confusing when I look back,” said A, who realized in 2007 she is gay.
In another instance, A said Cain i nstructed her to remove her bathing suit as they shared a hot tub at a friend’s house. A third woman was present, said A.
A also alleges Cain told her to steal a tray from A&W during a basketball road trip.
The bed-sharing is the only charge to which both parties agree.
“I didn’t think it would be a problem to share a bed versus having her or myself on a cold musty floor,” said Cain, who lived in a sparsely furnished basement suite in 1986, a 24- year- old starting her teaching career in a small town.
Today, expectations and boundaries are different, she said, and she would do things differently now.
Cain denies ever having been nude or alone in a hot tub with Student A. Cain also said she had told Student A about her own regrettable experience stealing a tray from an A&W, but “I did not ask (Student A) to take a tray, ever.”
Lepage said the bed sharing, “is such a clear boundary violation t hat t here should be no contest on it.”
Jay Watson, Cain’s lawyer, said bed- sharing was the only charge that bore any weight.
He agreed it was not “best practice,” but it was not done with malicious intent.
He pointed to Cain’s “exemplary record” in a three- decade teaching career. “Does it fit that she’s putting these girls through this? I say that it didn’t happen,” he said of the strip basketball drill.
The discipline committee will render its written decision “as soon as possible,” likely within a month or two.
I JUST SORT OF WROTE IT OFF AS SOME STUPID JOCK THING.