Girls team shows remorse after 100-0 win (Liberals in sports alert)

SF Gate ^ | Friday, January 23, 2009

[Perdogg]

A Texas high school girls basketball team on the winning end of a 100-0 game has a case of blowout remorse.

Now officials from the winning school say they are trying to do the right thing by seeking a forfeit and apologizing for the margin of victory.

In a statement Thursday on the Covenant School's Web site, the head of school said, "It is shameful and an embarrassment that this happened."

[Dixie Yooper]

The academy(losing team) boasts of its small class sizes and specializes in teaching students struggling with "learning differences," such as short attention spans or dyslexia

It could very well be that the girls on the losing team don't even remember the game, or might even think they won it :)

[PennsylvaniaMom]

100-0 is achievement and excellence?

No way. I have kids who play basketball; my husband coaches. Like clock management, bench management (getting your backups in the game in a blow out) is a coaching skill. Teaching your kids a zone defense when the score is up is a coaching skill. Man to man defense and repetitively getting the ball at half court and making easy layups from an obviously weak point guard...when the score had to 40-50-60 nothing, is not achievement...its plain ugly play.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

...or might even think they won it :)

They thought it was a nailbiter.

0 - 001

[Colonel Kangaroo]

The apology is not for winning, it’s for pressing the whole game. As the other poster said, the winning coach could have played zone which would still be an honest effort at playing defense but would have slowed the game tempo and lessened the unneeded feeding frenzy after the outcome was decided. A smart coach would have taken the opportunity to work on his zone and to reward and improve his younger backups who work in practice but who don’t usually get much playing time. It has nothing to do with liberals in sports but everything to do with a coach who showed no common basketball sense.

[jalisco555]

Back in the day I was in similar situations, meaning being on the winning side in a game against totally outclassed opponents. This is no fun at all. We would never run up the score like this, it’s just embarrassing. What’s the point of humiliating opponents like this?

[PennsylvaniaMom]

Oh I agree...but, as it was for some reason a scheduled game (w/real refs I am guessing) then the Covenenant coach needed to step down and coach appropriately (that’s a coaching skill every bit as much as coming back from a pt. deficit).

[PowderMonkey]

Utter nonsense. A world view which touts the benefits of the collective, and denigrates the achievements of the individual. Losing in competition also teaches sportsmanship. It serves to provide valuable life lessons and develops critical coping skills in children. Life's not fair. There's no such thing as a level playing field. Your Father-in-law is doing a disservice to his young charges. Living proof was found in the total melt-down and hissy fit of the Liberal Left when they lost the elections of 2000 and 2004. The soccer generation voted for the first time, and lost. They discovered for the first time that in the game of life scores count. Nobody gets a little gold trophy cup for just showing up for the game. Nobody gets a hug when it's over. Nobody had the skills to cope with it. Accordingly, the AMA “discovered” a new billable disorder: Post Electoral Stress Disorder. Overnight, shrinks doubled their population of billable clients. Infantile whiners all.

[Colonel Kangaroo]

100-0 is achievement and excellence?

No way. I have kids who play basketball; my husband coaches. Like clock management, bench management (getting your backups in the game in a blow out) is a coaching skill. Teaching your kids a zone defense when the score is up is a coaching skill. Man to man defense and repetitively getting the ball at half court and making easy layups from an obviously weak point guard...when the score had to 40-50-60 nothing, is not achievement...its plain ugly play.

On the money comments. It seems as if we've got some people who have never coached, played or even watched the sport.

[PfluegerFishin]

i agree........there is nothing sportsman like in a complete and utter trouncing

[steelyourfaith]

What if the players didn't have the ability to execute what the coaches taught? Do we know for certain that the winning team didn't play their scrubs once the outcome was assured?

Instead of passing the buck of blame to the coaches, I find excellence and achievement to be a beautiful thing.

[Perdogg]

I think I would be more humiliated if I knew the other let up on me. I’d rather lose 100-0 than know a team felt sorry for me.

[atomic conspiracy]

Iirc, Cumberland had contracted to play the game a couple of years earlier and subsequently dropped the sport without cancelling the contract. The contract required that they pay a large penalty if they failed to show up but promised a large payout if they did. Horrified at the possible penalty and coveting the payout, the Cumberland administration appointed an amateur coach who rounded up a scratch team around the campus. One report had it that the players were promised a cut of the payout. The resulting “team” practiced together for a day or two then went on the road to play Tech, which was one of the top ranked teams in the country at the time.

[PennsylvaniaMom]

Whoa there...(paraphrasing Freud) ‘sometimes a kids basketball game is just a basketball game.’

[PennsylvaniaMom]

I believe Colonel you are correct. It was a youth basketball game...not a political manifesto.

[PennsylvaniaMom]

Do you know what a zone defense is? Much, much easier to execute than man to man (where you are 'on' the opposing point guard as soon as the ball is inbounded.)

[PowderMonkey]

Jump rope and Hopscotch are “games.” Baskettball is a competitive contact sport, where scores count. Don’t like being drubbed 100 - zip? Learn to overcome, or stay off the courts. “THIS IS SPARTA!” ;)

[SECURE AMERICA]

Showing remorse after the game is all about the team that won and not the losing team. Yes this seems very new age/liberal/no one is a loser socialistic.
However the place that this went wrong was during the game. To score that many points the winners really had to be pouring it on likely with great glee. Usually very good teams that find themselves with an opponent that is very weak put the game out of reach and then uses their own back up players etc to keep the win but avoid the rout.
You should never allow someone to win that can not win on their own but at the same time you do not need to beat them to death...

[steelyourfaith]

I've played the game at point guard. I've played for two undefeated championship teams that trounced all opponents. I also played on a team that went 5-17.

It would be pernicious to send scrubs into a game and tell them not to try.

[PennsylvaniaMom]

SPARTA? LOL...ok. I am getting the vibe that you really haven’t watched/coached alot of kids sports. There will always be weaker, lesser skilled teams in every league. You coach around that (to keep the league going and competitive). You sit your varsity; pull up JV or even 9th graders at the HS level if you are playing that weak of a team. You work on skills (to help you when you play those better teams) like dribbling; running the zone (trying variations—a 2-3, a 2-1-2—learning to prevent outside shots; keep the ball out of the paint; rebounding skills; etc.) You don’t teach your players anything by running up the score to the level of this game. Apparently, the Dallas team never got to shoot (so how could Cov. work on rebounding or def., etc.)

[Obadiah]

No, this isn’t about being liberal. The other team didn’t even score one basket in the entire game! You don’t run up the score to 100.

I am a licensed soccer coach. In a similar situation on the pitch you tell your players that they have to shoot left footed, or they have to have x number of passes before they shoot on goal. You don’t humiliate the other team!