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Too bad the darned girls on his team kept putting the ball thru the hoop. How dare they do something like that in a basketball game?

The same team that won 100-0 lost a game 82-6 a few years before. Did their opponent have to apologize?

If I was on the team that lost, I’d be embarrassed, no, humiliated. NOT that I’d lost 100-0. But that this stupid story has gained national attention and that public pressure is trying to pile guilt on the better team for… being better.

So next up, we have those inane “everybody’s a winner!” basketball tournaments, where everybody gets a trophy just for showing up? How is this different philosophically from liberal economic policies designed to redistribute the wealth? It’s taking from those who work hard and deserve victory and giving to those who don’t.

If these girls are really that fragile (which in interviews they do not seem to be), then the people at fault for this are the ones who scheduled the game, and the coach who didn’t throw in the towel when his team was getting drummed. But the whining and blame-throwing, and ESPECIALLY the national media exposure for something as STUPID as this is doing absolutely nothing to boost these girls’ self-esteem.

The winning team’s coach has been fired, so it seems the sportsmanship argument had some merit.

chunderroad on January 25, 2009 at 11:07 PM

Man. This is some different world. Are these high schoolers or elementary school kids? And even if they were in elementary school this would be crazy. So one team took an awful beating? Big friggin’ deal.

I guess they started making kids out of glass at some point.

The winning coach has been fired:

Deservedly so.

MikeknaJ on January 25, 2009 at 10:47 PM

I disagree. It was only one game. No second chance? Forgiveness? Redemption? A chance to make amends? No one was harmed, no crime was committed. The principal or athletic director couldn’t have sat the coach down and say “don’t do that anymore”?

This man just lost income for winning. Think about that.

And I don’t think these girls would be delighted at being portrayed as 5 year olds. Think about it.

progressoverpeace on January 25, 2009 at 2:07 AM

I never portrayed them as 5 year olds. They were obviously quite unevenly matched or the issue of starters and a full court press would not be an issue. The winning team’s coach has been fired, so it seems the sportsmanship argument had some merit.

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/28845363/

Deservedly so. It’s a pure sportsmanship issue and the coach was blatantly on the wrong side of it.

Judging from the story, it sounds like the coach at Covenant thought “I wonder if we can hit 100?” and kept his starters in until he reached his goal. It was thoughtless. It’s probably going to take him several years to live down the embarrassment at his own school.

There are no wider cultural issues here. End of issue. We can all go home.

The point was that it was obvious how bad Dallas Academy was. The other team got on the court and behaved horribly.

We don’t know that they behaved horribly. All we know is that they played strong and fairly from start to finish.

It was like playing horse with your 5-year-old niece.

But this is the point. They are not 5 year olds, so stop treating them like they are. They are high school girls. People in high school go to the Olympics. High school competitions are supposed to be real competitions, not love fests or opportunities to just have fun. That’s what intra-mural sports and scrimmages are for.

You let her think she’s winning a little and make sure she’s having fun. You don’t shoot 5 (H-O-R-S-E) baskets in a row, turn around to her and go, “YOU SUCK LITTLE GIRL! EAT SHIT!”

chunderroad on January 25, 2009 at 1:11 AM

Now, that would be taunting during play and acting badly afterwards. Go read my post again, because I specifically said that that was bad sportsmanship. Nothing in the articles said that the winning team did anything but play hard and fair. They made no mention of fouls or taunting or anything of the sort. The only complaint was that they kept their starters in and played a full press for the whole game or something. As long as it was by the rules, good for them.

I also explained that, if the losing team felt bad, they could have forfeited and stopped things, or asked the other coach to use his 3rd stringers and if he said “No,” then forfeit. They didn’t.

This is high school. These are not 5 year olds. It was league play. If they’re not up to the competition then they can scrimmage (my 50000th time saying it) but it is unfair to place restraints on winners because of the sensitivities of the losers. Do your best, be fair and treat people as equals if they are sharing the competitive field. That is always the best policy. If they need your help with something, they can ask for it.

And I don’t think these girls would be delighted at being portrayed as 5 year olds. Think about it.

progressoverpeace on January 24, 2009 at 8:54 PM

The point was that it was obvious how bad Dallas Academy was. The other team got on the court and behaved horribly. It was like playing horse with your 5-year-old niece. You let her think she’s winning a little and make sure she’s having fun. You don’t shoot 5 (H-O-R-S-E) baskets in a row, turn around to her and go, “YOU SUCK LITTLE GIRL! EAT SHIT!”

C’mon, that’s not how the world works. COMPETE America! Or lose to the Japanese, Chinese, and Indians in global markets and to the Chinese, Russians, and Muslim terrorists on the battlefield. Too many Americans want to wish away the realities of the world. Competition is reality, and losing can be very brutal. Maybe that’s a tough lesson to learn, but not learning it will be much tougher with more profound and lasting consequences.

Buckaroo on January 24, 2009 at 8:49 PM

Yes, we disagree on this. For me, being a gracious winner is all about not taunting during play and being decent to the loser AFTER the competition. During competiton, though, people should always play their best or not play.

As I said many times before, teams as bad as Dallas Academy should restrict themselves to scrimmaging (which is still playing) until they are good enough to provide some competition and not be a burden to their opponents.

Buckaroo on January 24, 2009 at 8:33 PM

But that’s not the point. At halftime, with the score 40-0 and it being pretty clear that the winning team was not going to ease up on the throttle (which is fully their prerogative, as sportsmen) the losing coach was obliged to say to her team, “It looks like this is going to continue. Do you want to keep playing or should we forfeit the game now?” If her team was crying and said that they didn’t want any further embarrassment, then she should have forfeited. If her team said that they didn’t mind, then play continues and no one complains about the better team not easing up. That is sportsmanship. It is encumbent on the loser to stop the game if they cannot handle it, emotionally, not on the winner to ease up.

There is no shame in admitting that one is not up to competing on a certain level. There is shame in pretending that one is, when it is painfully obvious that it is untrue. There is nothing but shame in complaining afterwards.

my thesis has been simple — at halftime, with the score 40-0 [or whatever it was] the winning team could have simply used only its least experienced reserves, stopped pressing completely, or any of another dozen ideas to ease off the throttle. it would surely not have changed the outcome of the game, it would have, however, demonstrated a LOT more character on that side of the ball …

Life is hard, making the losing team feel good by wanting to forfeit is a bad lesson.

Before I get flamed, I don’t have kids nor am I involved in any youth sports programs.

missing.
the.
point.

The objective is to win the game. they accomplished that with their first basket. the twin objective is to be a good sport. they get a massive FAIL for the exact reasons I outlined, none of which you even remotely refuted …

/hoping like heck you aren’t actually a parent, also that my kids won’t ever be in a situation where they would be subjected to your crappy “coaching philosophy”

Clearly a team that operates by the credo “We don’t play to win, we play to have fun” is only capable of playing other teams using the same credo.

DING DING DING!

At least the winning team had the class to admit they were wrong and publicly apologize. Class act.

Now it is the losing school’s turn to apologize to their students for running such a piss poor varsity basketball program.