Souleymane Haydara (right) and his mother, Julie Thibodeau, and father, Mohamed Haydara, won a court case after Souleymane was cut from a basketball team. Photographed on Friday, July 23, 2010, in their Gatineau, Quebec home.Patrick Doyle/The Globe and Mail
A kid is cut from a sports team, and he or she feels the victim of a major injustice.
While the scenario is played out regularly across the country, the case of 16-year-old Souleymane Haydara has a twist: He has a ruling from a Superior Court judge to prove it.
When the 6-foot 4-inch (1-metre 93-centimetre) teenager tried out for his regional basketball team this year to play in the upcoming Quebec Games, there were no guarantees. With 60 boys at the training camp, Souleymane knew he had a one-in-five chance of representing the Outaouais in the provincial tournament to be held this summer in his hometown of Gatineau, across the river from Ottawa.
Souleymane withstood two rounds of cuts, and was among the players invited to a tournament at Carleton University to help coach Jean-François Caron pick a final group of 12 boys.
On May 4, the coach told the remaining players which ones had made the team. As Souleymane waved and smiled on the court, Mohamed Haydara up in the stands knew that his son had made the cut.
"It was in the bag," he said in an interview.
The coach then talked to the players' parents, asking for two cheques totalling $500 to pay for tournament costs and announcing that their children would sleep at the Games' facilities, just like the teams from the rest of the province. Eventually, all 12 players got their uniforms, and the Gatineau Basketball Association started cashing the parents' cheques.
Then came the twist, which transformed the regional selection process into a bigger story that will reverberate in sports federations across the country. The coach invited a player who was injured during the tryouts to subsequent team practices.
On June 3, Mr. Caron decided that the previously injured player brought more experience to his squad, and told Souleymane that he was out. Given that basketball teams can dress just 12 players at the Quebec Games, Souleymane was suddenly a reservist and would play only if a teammate left the team.
Mohamed Haydara learned of the development when he picked up his son.
"I said, 'No way, this can't happen,'" the father said in an interview on Friday.
He went to the coach, and then up the sports hierarchy. Like thousands of parents trying to get their kids onto a team, he and his wife, Julie Thibodeau, hit a wall. They gave it one last shot, going to court to get an injunction.
Ms. Thibodeau is a chemical engineer and a translator. On Tuesday, however, she represented her son in the Quebec Superior Court in Gatineau, where she examined a key witness, her husband. Mr. Justice Martin Bédard issued a precedent-setting ruling the next day.
"The coach's decision to cut Souleymane, although taken in good faith, constitutes a real injustice for Souleymane," said Judge Bédard, ordering him back onto the Outaouais team. "The boy provided all necessary efforts. He was proud to make the team. We cannot take that away without cause."
Guy Arcand, the head of the Outaouais delegation at the Quebec Games, said the case is exceptional, but that it serves as a reminder that coaches need better support and clearer rules.
"I think that coaches should be sensitized by this ruling. If they want to change their selection, they should have some very good arguments," Mr. Arcand said.