It’s more insulting to start taking it easy on a team than it is to run up the score. I don’t think it’s ever appropriate to tell a team to stop playing hard. If you get blown out, you get blown out. That’s part of life. If you don’t want somebody to run up the score, stop them. I don’t like the kind of vaginalization of kids’ sports that says you’re supposed to apologize for kicking somebody’s ass. There’s a lot to learn from losing. There’s a lot to learn from failing. There’s nothing but humiliation in having a team stop trying against you. It’s also unnantural and inappropriate as a coach to tell players not to try hard.
Actually, now that I think about it a bit more, I think if I were coaching the losing team, I would first ask the players what they wanted to do; keep going or forfeit. And if they wanted to keep playing, I’d tell 'em to go out there and try their best.
That’d be more than a little patronizing, so I’m not sure. ETA: The second version is better.
Yeah. Now, if the winning team is showboating and rubbing it in, you’d have a good case that something is wrong. But we don’t know that that happened here, and taking three-pointers isn’t enough to convince me it did.
I think that this is one of those cases where there are two camps, and neither will ever understand the other.
Camp #1 - Sport is really important. Winning at sport is the most important thing there is. If an NFL team turned out against a pee wee football team, they should try to run up at least 400 points.
Camp #2- Sport should be fun. Results are not important. I know Timmy is in a wheelchair, but let’s give him a shot at playing QB just to make him feel good. And the boys should be made to wear dresses Or something.
If you were in any kind of race (running, skiing, etc.) and you were winning by a huge amount of feet, would you be expected to slow down so that you barely won the race? What’s the point? Why should you have to “dummy down?”
I used to get embarrassed (when I was a stupid little kid) when my parents would sing so beautifully and (to me) loudly in church during the hymns. Should they have sung poorly on purpose so as not to “show up” the other not so talented members of the congregation?
I know, not really the same, but I feel the same way about that situation.
What if a team “dumbs” down or doesn’t play to its fullest ability and then ends up losing?
I, too, feel that it’s condescending to the other team not to keep doing their best. The losing team should’ve been given the option of opting out if they so chose.
According to this they went all out till they got to 100 with about 4 minutes left, then didn’t score again. Says the players were fine but an assistant coach and the spectators were cheering and all.
I agree that you should still teach the kids to play with respect – no taunting, or hotdogging or rubbing it in – but still going all out. I actually think playing hard to the whistle IS showing respect, even if you’re way ahead.
It’s more insulting to play with pity. Play controlled, and show utmost sporstmanship, but don’t sit on the ball.
Seriously, what a joke! IMO, it’s the administrators who are dumbasses/jerks. The last thing I would want my kid being taught is that when you are competing, try to suck just slightly less than your opponent.
I had to laugh at that video with the blonde girl saying grimly, “We play to have fun.” Not a smile. Was she being ironic?
Girls need to learn this lesson: It’s more fun when you win. It’s considerably more fun if you at least try. They didn’t get one point? Nobody got fouled and made the free throw? That is sucking pretty badly, for sure.
Another lesson: Nobody is going to hand you anything.
Everyone may be in two camps but no one is in either of those.
The account I read stated that the ‘winners’ were running a **full court press **through out the second half of the game.
I was involved in a similar situation in high school. I remember the other team making a few baskets, but by half time we were way, way ahead. So the coaches got together and had us pick two new sides, mixing up the rosters from the two schools. Then we played a half just for fun and showed the other players some of our set plays and practice drills.
I can’t really blame the players for playing, but if by halftime one team hasn’t scored a single basket it’s just ridiculous to play the whole game.
Been there done that.
In my sophomore year of high school, a brand new high school scheduled a game with us for the next year.
Well the planets were in close alignment that year, and our team (1-8 the previous year) beat them 63-0. By the end of the second quarter we had the third string in. In the 4th quarter my coach was ready to send in the water boys and the cheerleaders. What do you do when your third string can score on the other team?
The following year we played them again. They had gotten better, but we had gotten a bunch better (at one point that year we we rated 3rd in LA city) we only beat them 48-0.
As far as running up the score goes, there was another school in our league that had a hot shit quarterback. I went to one of their games where they were playing a very weak opponent. After scoring they would do an onside kick. WTF? This was so their offense would have a longer distance to the goal line for better stats. :rolleyes:
The fired coach is responsible for running up the score, based on what I have read.
After reading the story, and this thread, I literally feel like an alien in his first day on planet earth or something. What’s the story here? Can someone explain why this is a news story, much less one that was on the CNN frontpage? Why was a coach fired because his team beat another team? I guess I’m completely ignorant of sports and scoring and stuff, because I just have absolutely no frame of reference for what’s going on here. Is the problem that this is some sort of official score thing, so it’s like the coach has unethically (because his team was too good) padded out his team’s statistics for this season, and will unethically benefit from doing so?
I don’t understand why there’s anger and even a firing because one team was significantly better than their competitor in a sports match. Isn’t that the goal? 
The account I heard only said that the mother of one of the girls on the losing team said that the winning team used a full-court press in the second half and shot three pointers. It didn’t say that they used the press “throughout” the second half. Maybe they did, maybe they didn’t. Does anyone know of a video of the actual game? Upset mothers can sometimes embellish the facts with their own interpretation. I’d like to see for myself what actually happened before I hang someone in effigy.
Look, normally I absolutely despise competitive sports (with the exception of Cricket, which at least manages to be civilised for the most part), and even I think that the losing side should have simply forfeited at half-time when it became obvious that not only were they losing, they were spectacularly outclassed by the other team and never had a chance of winning in the first place.
The winning team shouldn’t have to nobble their own performance just so the losers don’t go home and have a QQ about how much they suck or their self-esteem gets hurt or something equally touchy-feely.
Deliberately playing badly would just be mocking the other team (“You suck so much you still can’t beat us even when we deliberately drop the ball, miss shots, and play as badly as possible!”) and, if the losing team wasn’t prepared to forfeit at half-time, what was the winning coach supposed to do? He can’t pull the pin because then his team loses (when they’re so far ahead of the other team that the word “pwning” becomes appropriate, IMHO), and if he keeps playing and his team thrash the losers, then he gets fired because his team was playing a team who shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
Hardly sounds fair to me at all.
So the fuck what? They were playing their best game. I’m still astounded that there are people taking up arms against the winning team and coach here.
You know what I think? Barack Obama got too many more electoral votes than McCain in the recent election. He should have let him have a few more votes in order to make it a fair race. :rolleyes:
Everyone in this thread sympathizing with the losers and the school’s position has been pussified to the point of no return. Clearly the terrorists have already won.
FUCK!!! We didn’t even THINK of the terrorists! SHIT!!!
They were not ‘playing their best game’ by any streach of the imagination. You think pounding a team you’re way better than is ‘the best game’?
Full court press is a tactic in basketball, ususally employed in a close game, not when you are up by sixty.
So you scored 100 points against the worst team in your league. That is not impressive. That is being a bully.
The winners were from a Christian school. Perhaps the school’s adminstration don’t think that Jesus would play that way and so the need for a new coach.