100 - 0

What Happened?

In case you missed it: 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."

On its Web site last week, the Covenant School of Dallas, 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 Kyle Queal, head of school, and board chair Todd Doshier.

This is tough because I feel for both sides. The coach preaches to his players hard work, hard play, hustle, integrity of the game. On the other side you have to have compassion and mercy for the kids on the other team. 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.

If that is true, cheering wildly for 100 points on a team that can't make a shot! That's wrong. But according to others at the games the coach did sub in bench players and told his team to hold the ball to not score so quickly as a way to run the clock faster and end the game.

My questions is what else could he have done? You can't tell you team to miss every shot from here on out and you can't make the other team make theirs. You bench players don't get to play that often and when they finally get their opportunity you tell them to play soft and not try. That's not fair either. Just because their on a better team, they get punished in play.

Like I said, there is no right or wrong, there just is. I feel for the team that lost 100 - 0, but I praise them for finishing the game. If I were that school I would look to play in a different league or conference with schools who match them in size. Dallas Academy has eight girls on its varsity team and about 20 girls in its high school. It is win less over the last four seasons. Covenant on the other hand is a much larger school.

Carlos