Posted on 10/15/2008 3:43:57 AM PDT by prisoner6
Cool....Naples High, my wife’s alma mater...
At the high school level and below, it isn't (or shouldn't be) about winning -- it's about the process of learning teamwork, fair play, etc. In life in general, I have no problem with your attitude. I have it myself.
With children, however, the rules of the game are different. When a child plays a team sport, it really doesn't have anything to do with the sport itself. It's about character building. Whether or not your team actually wins at this level is secondary.
yes, yes....Americans suck.
Gotcha, & thanks.
You can win without humiliating someone. Since you are just out to win, what's the difference between pulling your starters, quitting calling passes, running three straight draws up the middle and winning 28-0?
You've indicated that this would be unacceptable to you. You would rather humiliate your opponent. That is not, under any circumstances, acceptable. If you don't see anything unChristian in humiliating the weak for no purpose, that's troubling.
Thanks for your post. Having a son who is very active in sports and has been invited to play at the professional level, I have to say there are times when you should take advantage of beating someone like that and feel justified. Then there are times when you should not want to humiliate another team that way.
Having watched a top tier division be watered down by redistricting schools I know there can be times when a powerhouse team must play a sub-par team. Neither teams invite that scenario but the state commissioners set these things up. I have seen class A teams moved up to class AAA due to increased enrollment and that first year or two is brutal for them.
I assure you, the winning team got no specific pleasure out of demoralizing the other team unless they were truly a strong team to compete against. If you are not playing an equally competitive team, you didn’t really win anything...you just had an officiated practice session.
Two words, “Mercy Rule.”
My pleasure. And I agree.
PA has a mercy rule (running clock) that kicks in in the 2nd half. In at least one game last year the local squad (eventual state champs) had the opposing coach agree to let it go into effect in the 2nd quarter.
They had another game where they scored 10 touchdowns on 25 plays.
I think the main difference here is this ...if I go and win 100% of a multi-million dollar contract, instead of 'being nice' and sharing the prize with my competitors where I split off a third of it, then I am being bad. From my perspective, if I have sweated night and day for weeks to ensure that barring a meteor shower that contract is mine, and I realize that the competitors have instead being taking things slow and relying on 'tradition' to carry them through, then why should I give them a scrap?
Same thing when I was in college ....I used to be in a frat, I used to do all the fun things, but I also used to study my butt off (someone told me the old adage that at university you have 3 choices: you can sleep, you can study, or you can party. However, you can only do two of the three. I chose to party and study). Anyways, that takes a toll ...a couple of times I had to quite literally study an entire night. Then I go to class and the same people I was partying with, but who afterwards had gone to sleep, tell me that I should get some answers wrong so as to not set the curve too high (consistently set the curve) ....that was, and still is, ludicrous to me! How can I do the same things they did, YET still sit at my house studying an entire night, and then I am supposed to just throw what I read out the window so as to make their 47% more likely to be 67%! Heck no ....in fact it was a badge of honor getting everything correct (meaning no curve).
Doing otherwise would be rewarding laziness, or lack of effort, or willing incompetence. Why? Because I always used to offer to help anyone who needs help, and those who did got help. Why should I tone down what I am truly capable of doing just to give people who would rather sleep an inflated grade?
In business, my first real job was at some large regional finance institution, the same one my best friend used to work for for around 2 years. She would always complain how racist the place is, and how she is always jumped over (she was African-American). I start working there, and three weeks later get inspired and write a comprehensive document on how the company can enhance its core competencies and squeeze higher alphas from its portfolios. I spend an entire weekend doing that, and on monday shoot it off to 3 exec VPs. By mid-week two of those VPs are fighting over me to join their division, by Friday the winner is carrying my stuff over to a new desk and bumping me up 3 places below him! My friend couldn't explain it ....how the 'racist organization' just promoted an African (not an African American ....African) all that way in the span of 3 weeks!
It is called hard work, dedication and discipline. The Bible says those that do not work shall not eat, thus why should I work at half speed so as to allow people who would rather bask in the sun to save face? I am willing to help, but if you do not even want help but instead want a hand-out, then why should I sacrifice my true abilities?
That is socialism ...it is not Christianity. It is simple socialism, similar to what Obama means when he talks about sharing wealth.
I am not out to humiliate people. I am out to be the best that I can be, and if that casts shadows over people who are not willing to work as hard, then too bad for them.
If I had a child, and she is great at swimming, and she told me that her swimming coach told her to swim 'slower' so as to enhance the self-esteem of some kid who couldn't swim as fast ....goodness, I would be angry. Or how in California they have banned cops and robbers in some schools, and in others do not post grades to protect those kids who do not do as well. How in goodness name do they expect those kids to perform in life? It is not all holding hands and singing kumbaya!
You call it being un-Christian ....I call it socialism. I am not out to humiliate someone ...I am out to be the best I can be, to prove something to myself. If I do my best, and you still manage to defeat me and get the deal, then that is great. I did my best, and you beat me, which means I now need to put more effort and raise my game. I would never come slinking to you saying how 'unfair' you were by actually managing to come up with such an effective business proposal that mine seemed like garbage. I would shake your hand, memorize your face, and use the defeat as impetus to light the fires beneath my butt!
Anyways, I believe in winning. I do not believe in humiliating another person, and in fact believe that in many cases it is people who humiliate themselves (e.g. like my friend shutting herself down because she thought the place was 'racist.' Her excuse when I shot up the ranks was that they were only racist against African-Americans and not Africans. We are still great friends, even though I moved out of the US due to a major opportunity, but i seldom discuss politics).
Hey, maybe I should have spent that weekend boozing and not written that report. It would have boosted her self-esteem for sure ....made it more 'fair' since she had been there for 2 years as compared to my 3 weeks.
I can understand why some people feel a coach should substitute freely when his team is killing the opponent. I don’t believe however that a coach should ever tell his players not to play hard. In my decades of competition in various team and individual sports, I’ve been on the giving and receiving end of large scores. I would never expect my opponent, no matter how bad they were beating my team, to ever play less than one hundred percent against my team. If you can be beaten by a large score, you deserve to be beaten by a large score. You learn nothing in life from someone having pity on you and taking it easy. Strong competition, even if you’re getting your you know what handed to you, is what makes a player and a team better.
My older brother was good enough in basketball to be offered a number of athletic scholarships...after he got out of the army. He was the starting point guard on a team that won the Texas state amateur basketball championship. I never won one single game against him playing him one-on-one in the hundreds of games we played against one another. One of the secrets to his success besides having outstanding athletic ability that was far ahead of mine was a desire to win that I've never seen in another player. But every time he beat me (usually by a lop-sided score), I was determined to do better the next time. I never gave up.
p.s. The only time I felt bad after a game with him was the only time I ever beat him one-on-one. Because he let me win. It was my birthday. And I knew he let me win, and it made me irritated and not happy.
Of course kids should give it their all. But coaches can avoid calling gadget plays, etc. and play conservatively on offense. It seems like this coach tried to do the right thing, but when you score 13 times on 31 plays, what else can you do? Can’t make the other team tackle better.
This is why mercy rules exist. The kids should play and play 100 %, but there is no need to belabor the point.
GVSU is currently the #1 team in NCAA Division 2 Football. GVSU has won 4 of the last 7 NCAA D2 National Championships in football.
Three weeks ago, when could have had another game like that, but the coach took it a bit off the gas after we already had 28 points in the 1st qtr.
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