100-0 score leads to coach being fired

[TuffGuy84]

_ I wish I had not read this first thing this morning (Saurday here.) It has made me very sad.


You seldom hear the term "good sportsmanship" anymore, like we did when I was a kid. That concept, like so many other American values, has gone away. _

Good sports stories are there, you just have to look.

Someone else mentioned Mentioned Jason McElwain, if you dont know, the whole story is here...



How about the 2008 sportsmanship espy award, if you don't remember it, heres the video...




And then theres one of my favorites over the years. 2002, A kid named Jake Porter from Ohio had Downs Syndrome, showed up every day for practice and always tried hard. In their last game of the year, they were getting blown out 42-0 at the very end of the game, his coach called a time out and talked to the opposing teams coach. They let Jake score on a 40+ yard TD run. Even the opposing teams coach was cheering. Heres that video...



If you didn't feel some sort of emotion while watching any of those 3 videos, you have a problem. Point is, there still is some good sportsmanship out there.

[Hammer58]

_ The Coach is not sorry! Nowhere do they mention it was a special needs school.
http://highschool.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=904560 _

The coach has been fired. Note down in the story it describes the make up of the losing school. While it doesn't mention autism as Foote did onthe radio it does say it is a small school speciallizing in students with special needs such as dyslexia and ADD.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,482825,00.html

[IHateLaState]

_ I'm a big supporter of the if you don't want the score run up, then play better defense, philosophy. BUT this story is pretty classless. Your team is up 59-0 at half and you full court press and shoot threes in the second half. If i were the team that lost I wouldn't want them to forfeit the game. That's almost more of a slap in the face than the actual game score. There is no reason for a score to get that out of hand. When I played sports and the team I was on would be clearly in control of the game, as a player you kind of know when it's time to put it in cruise control. Pretty sad. _

Maybe I can buy into the "its your job to stop me" approach at some level... but in high school girls sports there can be a HUGE disparity in talent... From personal experience my daughter played on team comprised of a bunch of slow white girls..... from time to time we would play a team like Northwest that went 10 deep of quick athletic girls and the result was comparable... We lost 95-20 one time and watching them continue to press and poor it on in the 4th quarter really would p*** me off.... I am glad this dude got fired

[NOCajun]

Yeah, one of the local radio talkies this am was having a discussion about whether it was right for the school to fire this a-hole or not.


igeaux.mobi

[RCAJUN90]

_ Maybe I can buy into the "its your job to stop me" approach at some level... but in high school girls sports there can be a HUGE disparity in talent... From personal experience my daughter played on team comprised of a bunch of slow white girls..... from time to time we would play a team like Northwest that went 10 deep of quick athletic girls and the result was comparable... We lost 95-20 one time and watching them continue to press and poor it on in the 4th quarter really would p*** me off.... I am glad this dude got fired _

There should be a mercy rule. Sometimes tie breakers can and usually do come down to points for and against which might make a coach have to pour it on. If a proper mercy rule was in place then there would be no excuses. Common sense and good taste should have told this guy enough was enough. In the light that it was a special needs school makes it even more disgusting.

[RCAJUN90]

_ The coach has been fired. Note down in the story it describes the make up of the losing school. While it doesn't mention autism as Foote did onthe radio it does say it is a small school speciallizing in students with special needs such as dyslexia and ADD.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,482825,00.html _

"Dallas Academy has eight girls on its varsity team and about 20 girls in its high school. It is winless over the last four seasons. The academy boasts of its small class sizes and specializes in teaching students struggling with "learning differences," such as short attention spans or dyslexia."

Yes it on the fox article.

Sounds like a nice place for kids that need a little extra help.
http://www.dallas-academy.com/

[HoustonCajun]

_ Autistic kids playing against regular High School athletes sheds a whole new light on this. The game should not have been scheduled. The coach is a jerk. _

These were not autistic kids. Two of the players along with the coach were interviewed on the Today show last week. One of the girls was more articulate than any of us. I think there were just 8 kids with limited skills and a coach who said he doesn't coach to win or worry about who is ahead. He just wants them to have a good time and enjoy playing the game. He said it is just that, a game, and it means nothing more than that. The other coach was quoted this morning as saying he was apologizing for nothing. His kids played the way they were coached to play and he is sorry the score got so out of hand. It seems to me about the only thing he could have done was substitute the second half and not play any starters, not full court press and not take any 3 pointers. They would likely have still scored at will, but I don't think it would have been viewed the same way.

[jllanclos]

Let's not forget that there's another element that isn't being talked about. The school that won this game is a Christian school. They are supposed to be representing Christ, teaching their kids and the world around them how glorious Christ is and how awesome it is to follow Him. Jesus was compassionate, loving (to the point of death on a cross to pay for your sins and mine), and he wept for those who were being taken advantage of. He angrily turned tables upside down inside a temple of worship because people were being taken advantage of by money-hungry "evangelists". He said to do onto others as you would have them do onto you.

John Curtis is a Christian school also. A couple years ago, in the state championship game, they were up 42-6 in the fourth quarter (this was when Joe mcKnight was there). They did an onsides kick in the 4th quarter with a 42-6 lead.

In the same Superdome classic, Evangel Christian Academy was throwing deep bombs up late in the game, again up by a wide margin.

Contrast that with Kurt Warner. Many are offended at each post-game interview, when he first gives credit and thanks to his Lord and Savior jesus Christ. While he plays hard, he plays with good sportsmanship and more appropriately represents what it means to be a Christian in sports. Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith are other good examples who, in Dungy's words, are "Christian men, proving that it can be done the right way."

The point is that Christians are (to some extent, understandably) expected to demonstrate an even higher level of sportsmanship and character than those who are not. This coach, by his actions, gives people another reason to hate and despise Jesus because that's who he and his school claim to represent.

[RCAJUN90]

_ Let's not forget that there's another element that isn't being talked about. The school that won this game is a Christian school. They are supposed to be representing Christ, teaching their kids and the world around them how glorious Christ is and how awesome it is to follow Him. Jesus was compassionate, loving (to the point of death on a cross to pay for your sins and mine), and he wept for those who were being taken advantage of. He angrily turned tables upside down inside a temple of worship because people were being taken advantage of by money-hungry "evangelists". He said to do onto others as you would have them do onto you.

John Curtis is a Christian school also. A couple years ago, in the state championship game, they were up 42-6 in the fourth quarter (this was when Joe mcKnight was there). They did an onsides kick in the 4th quarter with a 42-6 lead.

In the same Superdome classic, Evangel Christian Academy was throwing deep bombs up late in the game, again up by a wide margin.

Contrast that with Kurt Warner. Many are offended at each post-game interview, when he first gives credit and thanks to his Lord and Savior jesus Christ. While he plays hard, he plays with good sportsmanship and more appropriately represents what it means to be a Christian in sports. Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith are other good examples who, in Dungy's words, are "Christian men, proving that it can be done the right way."

The point is that Christians are (to some extent, understandably) expected to demonstrate an even higher level of sportsmanship and character than those who are not. This coach, by his actions, gives people another reason to hate and despise Jesus because that's who he and his school claim to represent. _

Sportsmanship is indeed a lost art. As toughguy84 pointed out it is dying but not dead. Coaching sports especially youth sports changes some people. I've had coaches want to fight me, curse and scream profanity at the top of their lungs. All of this over Middle School sports in the Catholic League. This has happened so much that now parent coaches are suppose to take a course in sportsmanship.

In High School it should get more serious. Coaches jobs and student scholarships are on the line but when the game was well in hand, that coach could have taught his team a valuable lesson in sportsmanship and having fun. He could have cleared the bench, played people out of position and yes let the other team have some fun scoring.

We don't know the whole story. If the league has a points for or against tie breakers he may have felt the need to rub their noses in it. I had a coach calling timeouts to score in the last period in a 40+ - 7 game. I was ticked until he apologized saying they would be in a tie and showed the rule book where the tie breakers were points for and against. The next year at the meeting we changed the rule. Still there is no excuse for a 100-0 basketball game. If you have to get into the playoffs by beating to death such a small school then it is not worth it.

[NewsCopy]

 Area coaches frown upon decision of Texas coach in 100-0 blowout

Like coaches, players and fans all across the country, the alarming 100-0 girls basketball win for Covenant High over Dallas Academy caught the eye of the high school basketball coaches in the Acadiana area as well.

None that were interviewed agreed with the assessment of the fired Covenant coach that he had nothing to apologize for after his team won by 100 without giving up a point.

The rest of the story

Kevin Foote • kfoote@theadvertiser.com • January 27, 2009

[ULtimateCajun]

http://highschool.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=904726


January 26, 2009


Associated Press


MORE: Read the original story | Should the coach get fired?
DALLAS — The coach of a Texas high school basketball team that beat another team 100-0 was fired Sunday, the same day he sent an e-mail to a newspaper saying he will not apologize "for a wide-margin victory when my girls played with honor and integrity."

Kyle Queal, the headmaster for Covenant School, said in The Dallas Morning News online edition that he could not answer if the firing was a direct result of coach Micah Grimes' e-mail disagreeing with administrators who called the blowout "shameful."

Queal did not immediately answer phone messages or e-mail from The Associated Press.

On its Web site last week, Covenant, a private Christian school, posted a statement regretting the outcome of its Jan. 13 shutout win over Dallas Academy. "It is shameful and an embarrassment that this happened. This clearly does not reflect a Christlike and honorable approach to competition," said the statement, signed by Queal and board chair Todd Doshier.

Grimes, who has been criticized for letting the game get so far out of hand, made it clear in the e-mail Sunday to the newspaper that he does not agree with his school's assessment.

"In response to the statement posted on The Covenant School Web site, I do not agree with the apology or the notion that the Covenant School girls basketball team should feel embarrassed or ashamed," Grimes wrote in the e-mail, according to the newspaper. "We played the game as it was meant to be played. My values and my beliefs would not allow me to run up the score on any opponent, and it will not allow me to apologize for a wide-margin victory when my girls played with honor and integrity."

A phone number for Grimes could not be located by The Associated Press. The Dallas Morning News said Grimes did not respond to their repeated e-mail requests for a telephone interview.

There was no answer at a number listed for Doshier.

A parent who attended the game said Covenant continued to make 3-pointers— even in the fourth quarter. She praised the Covenant players but said spectators and an assistant coach were cheering wildly as their team edged closer to 100 points.

Covenant was up 59-0 at halftime.

Dallas Academy has eight girls on its varsity team and about 20 girls in its high school. It is winless over the last four seasons. The academy boasts of its small class sizes and specializes in teaching students struggling with "learning differences," such as short attention spans or dyslexia.

There is no mercy rule in girls basketball that shortens the game or permits the clock to continue running when scores become one-sided. There is, however, "a golden rule" that should have applied in this contest, Edd Burleson, the director of the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools, said last week. Both schools are members of this association, which oversees private school athletics in Texas.

The story has received national attention, and the Dallas Academy team has been recognized for refusing to give up during the lopsided contest.

[ULBaby!]

Yes - he should be fired. And the other coach should be fired too. The winner for violating every rule of sportsmanship, the second for putting his team on the floor so unprepared that they could not score at least a bucket. There should be an equivalent of the 10 run rule in a situation like that.