Thirteen days ago there was a Texas high school girls basketball game between The Covenant School and Dallas Academy. Both schools are private institutions, Covenant is a high end college prep school and Dallas Academy is a place that specializes in kids with learning difficulties. No one really expected much from this game as the Dallas Academy Lady Bulldogs have not won a game in 4 years. But when the dust settled and the score was 100-0, people were stunned.The box score reveals Covenant scored 35 points in the first quarter and built a 59-0 lead at the half. The score after three quarters was 88-0. Apparently they kept the full court pressure on until the 100th point. Their crowd cheered wildly as they approached the century mark. In the end, the Covenant coach called the result "unfortunate".
The aftermath of this "unfortunate" display of sportsmanship has been predictable. Dallas Academy cancelled its remaining game with Covenant this season. They pulled out of the league, and are now putting together a non-league schedule. The Covenant School issued an apology on the school web site and offered to forfeit the game, however their coach remained defiant claiming his team played "with with honor and integrity". On the flip side, the Dallas Academy team has gained national media attention and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has invited the Lady Bulldogs to be his guests at an NBA game.
I am happy to report the Girls Basketball coach at The Covenant School was fired on Sunday after he continued to defend his honor and integrity in the face of the school apology. If this guy ever gets another coaching job in the world some administrator needs to go to jail.
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23 comments:
This coach did not suddenly become Mr. Character Challenged. The signs had to have been there much earlier...and ignored.
The fact that the winning fans (parents) cheered on the slaughter reveals the ethos of the school community.
Consequently, firing the fool was not a principled decision, but rather a strategic move to salvage what's left of the school's tattered reputation. Follow the money.
As to many of my previous posts--sportsmanship is a dying discipline.
wv = decred (as in this coach has "decred" in the coaching world.)
In reality though what did you expect the winning team to do? the problem doesn't lie with the girls on the team or the coach per se but in whoever scheduled that game. Even if the winning team had played their bench people 99% of the game they would still have slaughtered them. What should they do go down the court on defense and then just stand there and let the other girls score points? That would be an even bigger slap in the face.
I don't know all the specifics and if the winning team had played their starter the entire game or not but I don't see the big deal. Sometimes this happens. The only reason it got as much media attention as it did is because the losers were a "special" school and therefore everyone is outraged. Yes the winners should have played with a little more class but there's really only so much you can do on a basketball court. There's going to be a lot of scoring.
I have seen stuff like this too much watching my kids play youth sports. I can think of specific instances in both ice hockey and baseball where my son's team was getting drilled -- and the other team just kept up the pressure. Luckily these sports have "mercy" rules to stop the insanity.
The attitude was fueled by the coach and encouraged by parents with future professional contracts twinkling in their eyes.
If you get a chance, check out the video of the Dallas Academy coach with his girls. It makes me smile.
Hamm: There is no excuse for a 100-0 game. Period. End of story.
I don't think anyone expects a good team to lay down when they are playing a weak team. But in this case, the good team was determined to get to 100 points and the bad team could do nothing to stop them. They kept the press on the entire game. They kept shooting threes. It is everything that sports should not be.
As a coach, once you get up by a comfortable margin you need to put in your reserves. If your reserves continue to dominate, then call a time out and institute a new set of rules like: 6 good passes before "this particular" person (one of the players that never plays or gets to score) shoots.
No excuse.
Whets... It is not too often that I agree with you on things, but on the topic of sportsmanship I agree 100%. I have posted comments in the past stating that sportsmanship is something that is lacking in so many areas. As a Michgan fan, I always want the Wolverines to win, but that does not mean that I have to treat the opponents or their fans badly. When tosu plays in Ann Arbor, I always strike up a conversation with any tosu fans around us. I have met some great people from tosu and other schools this way and I keep in contact with several of them and have for years now. If you ever come up for a game I will invite you to tailgate with us, give you a hard time all day, and sit and have some food and a beer with you after the game no matter who wins.
The thing about running up the score like this that is not mentioned is if the coach pulled the starters and had the 2nd or 3rd string playing. It is hard to tell the 3rd string to "not try to score" just so that you do not run up the points. It sounds like this was not the case here. Anyway, I agree with you that the school appears to have taken this action only after getting some bad publicity.
Blue Bob,
I'll wear my my Michigan hat.
Andy,
I coached all three of my sons soccer teams and a few times had the good fortune to have some good teams. I used the exact strategy you mentioned when we had a big lead. We would figure out who on the team had not scored a goal or had the fewest goals and everyone else had to try to set that person up. We also did the certain number of passes thing a few times or made them shot with the opposite foot. As I mentioned in my previous post, it was obvious this coach did not do any of that.
Whets... If you do that I will upgrade the burgers to sirloins. But please do not ask me to wear an OSU hat.
Blue Bob,
Start looking for sirloins. By the way, "Sir Loin" was the name of a steer I raised.
Last Sunday, during a three hour lay-over in DFW, I bought a Texas Longhorn hat. Figured if I can't beat 'em, I'll join 'em.
(I have a special dispensation: I was born in Texas; I did not purchase my citizenship)
Bob, I would not expect you to wear an OSU hat...
"A man's got to know his limitations." - Harry Callahan
I didn't say that it was wrong and I was on the receiving end of it many a time. Barring all the actual facts though you can't completely blame this on the coach or players. I think the majority of the blame should be on the administrator of the school for scheduling the game. I am glad that they are getting the negative publicity for it though and that they forfeited the game. Sports in general is out of control in this country. Parent's see it as their big ticket to getting their child in the door and stop at nothing to win. I had the opportunity to coach a 9-10 yr old little league team but I turned it down because I didn't want to deal with the parents. And this was supposedly a non competitive instructional league but it was just out of hand sometimes.
I feel bad for the Dallas kids because now it's all over the news that they are "special" when all they have is learning disabilities and that's it. Their now eternally classified and it's not fair to them.
Whet:
You call him Bevo. I call him burger.
Talking about hats. I was in the mall yesterday with my kids and we went into "Lids". For fun I grabbed an Ohio State hat (bright red with a block O) and put it on and started singing Hang on Sloopy. My son quickly grabbed his phone so he could take a picture. I was too fast for him.
Coward!
Don't worry, there are plenty of pics of me with buckeye stuff. You may find this hard to believe but when I was a student I used to walk around Ann Arbor all the time with an old Ohio State sweatshirt. At the time I had a collection of stuff from other schools we would roadtrip to. It was the most comfortable sweatshirt I had and it caused all kinds of people trouble.
I happen to be wearing said sweatshirt at the moment. The universe is lining up.
I will have to find a pic of me in 1988 and share it with the crowd.
Jail?! Really?!
Ok, well maybe not jail.
Andy, (regarding said sweatshirt) that is so GROSS! Have you no respect for yourself?.. Reminiscing about helmet stickers... brain confused... head... ASSPLODE!!!!!
Whets,
"This coach did not suddenly become Mr. Character Challenged. The signs had to have been there much earlier".
Yeah they were there... he was coming to work everyday in that SAME freakin' sweatshirt!
-zing!
Shorty,
Rumor has it that he's a Michigan Man.
-ricochet zing!
He's probably from MSU.
Bob,
Now, you know that "Michigan Man" is a patented term and is attached to but one University in Michigan.
I was hoping we could agree that someone like this would not be from either of the schools we support so it must be a Sparty, especially after what happened over the weekend in the hockey game. But then I guess I forgot about Woody going for two to make it to 50 points in the 1968 football game because he could not go for three. Maybe this guy is a Buckeye after all!!!!
Hahahaha...
Maybe. Of course, I made up the part about the rumor.
Slow day.
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