Heard about this story yesterday. Very interesting.
Two Texas private Christian schools played a basketball game. Covenant vs. Dallas Academy. Covenant beat Dallas Academy 100 – 0. That is not a typo…it says 100 – 0.
The school administrators later apologized. In response, Covenant’s coach defended his team and his actions. So, the school fired him.
Talk about a blowout!! Can you imagine being at that game? How incredibly awkward. Does anyone cheer anymore after the score is 50 – 0? What should the coach and team have done?
What would you have done?
Isn’t the question, “How would Jesus coach?” If the other team has failed to score at the 50-point mark, would Coach Jesus really go for a full-court press? Maybe Jesus would also play smash-mouth hockey, but I kind of doubt. Somewhere along the line, compassion has to go to zone.
By: The Bishop on January 27, 2009
at 2:54 pm
I have mixed feelings.
I think if the school wanted a fixed game, they should have set it up that way. Everyone had to know in advance that the other school probably wouldn’t have done well at all.
The admins of BOTH schools should not have put the teams up against each other. The other school hasn’t had a win in 4 years? Gimme a break… Put them up against an equal team. Don’t put them against a team with a solid record.
All in all, it sounds like the admin just needed someone to hang all of this on, and they chose the coach.
What would I do in that situation? I don’t know. It doesn’t teach good sportsmanship either way. I mean, don’t clobber your opponent, but if they take shots and don’t make them, how is that YOUR fault? Maybe I would have rigged the game by telling the girls to deliberately not score any more points. But, is that teaching them to play well? Really? We tell people all the time to give it their best, because we’re doing everything as unto the Lord, but… only if your team is the worse? Only if you can’t beat the other team by an ultra-wide margin? Maybe the winning coach should have swapped players to make it more fair? How far should we take it?
Tough call. Maybe we should go after the referees next for not making bad calls to help the other team. Or, maybe we should go after the parents who didn’t step out onto the court to help the kids play. It’s essentially all the same thing. And, the winning team DID scale back their scoring as the game went on. Rotated in all the bench-warmers.
It just sucks. Unfair to everyone. But, life’s not fair. We do what we can and we move on.
By: JR on January 27, 2009
at 4:03 pm
I have been reading about this since it happened. The way to solve this is to have a mercy rule. Just like in little league. In my day the rule was 10-0, the game was then called to a halt. If they have had one in place, I think that this would not be that big of a deal.
By: alex on January 27, 2009
at 5:11 pm
Good call, Alex… “…the score reached 25-0 three minutes into the game…” I think that should have been a pretty good indicator of what was to come. Calling a halt then (or soon thereafter) would have kept things from being ridiculous.
By: JR on January 27, 2009
at 5:32 pm
It doesn’t seem right to fire a coach because he won. It sounds as if the coach on the other end of the floor should be the one who got fired. His team is an embarressment. Play better and things like this won’t happen. This should be used as motivation for the losing team to pay more attention at practice; if in fact they do. Teach your kids how to play and things like this won’t happen. But the reality is that the game should have been either stopped or should have had a “running clock” where it never stopped until the end.
By: Jim Ruth on January 27, 2009
at 6:04 pm
What if you were the parent of the team that did not score? Would you have left the arena with your player and had the loser/winner conversation with your child? If you were the parent of the scoring team would you have displayed sorrow or glee? Having coached and coordinated grade school sports I know that there is much more to this than the score……Team sports teach you to be part of a team….what a concept! I am proud to be the parent of two grown children who have seen both sides of the football field/soccer field/ice rick/volleyball net/golf course…winning and losing. Back to basics – children learn the Greatest Command from many places – Love one another – win or lose – we are all champs in the eyes of God – Practice love at all costs….
By: carla on January 29, 2009
at 2:57 pm