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."

[Route797]

Maybe in Sparta they like to grind the losers’ faces in the dirt but I’d like to think we are a little more civilized in America. What life lessons can you learn from humiliating an opponent? That it’s OK to take advantage of the weak and helpless? People say that kids need to learn that life is tough. Life may be tough, but it’s not a barbaric fight to the death either.

[livius]

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...

Good way of putting it.

[Perdogg]

If they are unable to play at that level (high school) then they shouldn’t be playing at all. It’s not fair to either school to match these two teams up.

[Colonel Kangaroo]

I wonder (using my sports mom skillz) if the Covenenant coach has a vested interest in that point guard. Is she the coach’s daughter? Were we running up the score to build up some stats (for college recruiting). No way a starter should still be in (w/four minutes left and 100 pt lead) after scoring 48 easy points. 24 lay ups? That’s skill? No way.

I got a chuckle out of a posting above that admired the winning team because excellence is to be respected. Once when I played, I was matched against a guy who was a terrible ballhandler. I was an awful player but the guy was almost handing me the ball, so I was coming across like Jerry West or Walt Frazier. Some excellence! But MY coach saw no purpose in needless running up the score points from his no talent, point greedy, point guard. :)

I do not blame the 48 point scorer for doing her best. All on the coach. Surely no college coach would have been decived by the big point total. And it would not have done the girl's future any good had she hurt he knee going up for one of those layups after the game was decided. But this coach seemed to have left his thinking cap at home in so many ways that day.

[Perdogg]

I guess in Obama’s America we will have charts showing how much a school is allowed to win by or lose federal monies.

[Route797]

I remember playing inner city teams in football and basketball and my experiences were the same as yours. They were very talented and very gracious. I also remember the rare occasions when we would play a totally outclassed opponent. I felt bad for the really bad teams and players. I guess that makes me a flaming liberal.

[Colonel Kangaroo]

Maybe in Sparta they like to grind the losers’ faces in the dirt but I’d like to think we are a little more civilized in America. What life lessons can you learn from humiliating an opponent? That it’s OK to take advantage of the weak and helpless? People say that kids need to learn that life is tough. Life may be tough, but it’s not a barbaric fight to the death either.

Life is tough when the other guy is the fellow taking the beating, but when we're the one taking the beating, life is cruel and downright unfair!

There's a lot of rugged individualists around. Let the other guy have to be rugged and I'll be an individualist.

[Route797]

You’re right, it was unfair. Yt was like having Sonny Liston fight Daniel Powter.

[PLMerite]

“This begs the question; why are they playing at this level?”

Knowing next to nothing about the situation, let me hazard a guess: money.

Who wants to bet that there's some state and/or federal money allocated for Title-whatever that means this school gets bucks for having a team? Or, actually requires it?

And if it turns out they only play because they want to - and if they're winless after four seasons, that must be it - that's okay, too. There's something to be said about perseverance when you absolutely know you're going to lose but you show up anyway.

[Non-Sequitur]

In all fairness, the other school was apparently a small school for kids with severe learning disabilities. It was probably fairly easy to rack up points against them, and I doubt that it will give them much to boast about.

Then who the hell scheduled it? It'd be like Florida scheduling a middle school football team as one of its out of conference games. What were they thinking? Let's go play the handicapped kids, they're fun to watch?

[cyclotic]

I heard a great sportsmanship story on the radio in Detroit this week. Seems two high school football teams were recently playing. Late in the 4th quarter, it was apparent that one team would win. The coach had a kid on the team who has Down Syndrome. He’s on the team, shows at every practice and gets very litle play time. He generally played defense but had recently told the coach he wanted to try to be a running back. With 2 minutes to go, the coach put him in and he made two plays with a toal gain of one yard.

The opposing (losing) teams coach saw this new kid and could tell that he wasn’t very good. He asked someone on the sidelines what the deal was and found out about the kid with Down Syndrome.

He said “If this kid worked all that hard to gain a yard, he deserves to get a touchdown.” Then he called a time out and called his team together and told them to make it look real but that kid was going to score.

[PennsylvaniaMom]

Well, depending on how they do school leagues in the area, it might be something that is just scheduled by the state or conference governing organization. It goes to coaching again. The Covenenant coach had to be aware of the poor quality/skill of the Dallas program and coached accordingly (ie, bring up your 9th grade or play JV only). This coach kept their star point guard in, and played an agressive defense (a half court press?)

[JoJo Gunn]

"It is shameful and an embarrassment that this happened."

A stunning example of bedwetting. 

[PennsylvaniaMom]

That is a nice story that you posted...but I really, really want to comment on your tagline. I get it!!! And yes, she is angry enough to be Rita X (you gotta email that to elRushbo)...LOL

[cyclotic]

Thanks,

Rita X used to be known as Rita from Detroit when she would call a local host here.

She caused quite a stir whenever she would call to tell us that the prophet Elijah Mohammed himself to told her that white babies were born with tails that the white doctors would remove. As proof, she sent a drawing of a Ripley’s Believe it or Not! magazine.

Yup, sounds like our Shelly.

[bronxboy]

I agree.

[PowderMonkey]

For those of you who missed it, my reference to Sparta followed by ;). That means I was being facetious. Losing 100-0 isn't a “barbaric fight to the death” either. They simply lost the competition. This is precisely what I meant by “infantile whiners” in my previous post. Nobody got hurt. Nobody got “their faces in the dirt.” The losing team simply accepted a challenge, arrived on the court, and never got in the game. I'll emphasize this for those thick between the ears...they never scored a single point. They weren't there, and should not have been. Everybody's still alive, and gets another shot at it the next go-round. Anybody need a hug from mommy?

[Colonel Kangaroo]

I think an apology was very much in order. Not for the final score as the article indicated, but for running an especially aggressive defense long after the outcome was decided. Even the most aggressive pressing coaches in the college game like Mike Anderson and Bruce Pearl will generally go passive when the game is won. But not this guy, he smelled blood and he went for it!

[Centurion2000]

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.

This has to be one of the dumbest things I've seen all week. It's a SPORT, a comeptition, you are supposed to seek victory.

[steelyourfaith]

Right. And players on the field or court should be taught to make an all-out effort all the time, win or lose. Period.

Liberalism suggests that sport competition can be harmful to the gentle psyche of losers. Hogwash. Sure, it feels real good to win, and not so good to lose, but one can learn more and grow stronger when motivated by defeat, analyzing how to improve. It is a great life lesson.

There are a number of news items in recent years condemning individual winning sports teams for youth, and suggestions of how to thwart them with rules changes. This is absurd.