Girls' Softball Team Got Gift Bags Instead Of Trophies For Championship Win

Parents in a Florida community are outraged after a girls' softball team didn't get trophies for winning a championship tournament.

The incident comes after the Florida State Babe Ruth Softball Championship in Oveido, according to WESH 2. The Oveido 6U all-stars girls' team won every game for the championship title. But instead of getting a shiny trophy for their victories, they instead got a goody bag, a commemorative softball, a bag tag, and batting gloves, the parents told reporters.

"The Babe Ruth League really did a disservice to them," parent Ashlee Partin said. "They thought they were getting trophies, they thought they were coming home to family and friends, that, 'here's my trophy, here's my proof, I just won state,' and unfortunately, that wasn't the case."

Partin even said the championship boys got 14-inch trophies on top of three-and-a-half foot trophies for each member. Since the tournament is run at the state level, Oveido Babe Ruth has no hand in the operations -- but they did step in.

"I don't think we should be sending the message in today's world that the girls don't deserve the same recognition as the boys for the same accomplishment," Jim Brashear said, president of Oviedo Babe Ruth.

After reaching out to the State Babe Ruth leadership, this is what Brashear learned: "Their response was very much that the awards had the same dollar value as the trophy anyway, so there was no inequality, but that's not the point. I think it was going over their head," he told reporters.

To even the playing field, the head of Oveido Babe Ruth Baseball arranged for trophies to be made for the girls. The ceremony will be Friday evening (July 16).