Posted on 01/26/2009 4:22:06 AM PST by Perdogg
The Covenant School fired its girls basketball coach Sunday, the same day he posted a message on a youth basketball Web site saying he disagreed with school officials who had publicly apologized for the team's 100-0 victory over Dallas Academy. In reporting the firing, Kyle Queal, Covenant's head of school, emphasized that former coach Micah Grimes "now only represents himself" when discussing the game, which has become a national talking point. Queal said he could not say whether the firing was a direct result of the posting and declined to answer any questions.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
ping
Fire him. Correct decision.
I’d suggest that parents fire the school.
Barak Obama should quit the presidency for running up the electoral college score. He knew he had the election won and yet he went after states he didn’t need. That was unfair of him and showed poor sportsmanship.
Those "coaches" said they didn't want to continue to embarrass the other team and I can see that but to order boys to "throw" a game so that they wouldn't do as well instead of putting in boys that never got to play?
Nuts.
I agree.
Dallas academy, your team SUCKS.
Just sayin'.
Fire a man for doing what he was hired to do. They should have the girls of various schools meet for tea and avoid all the nasty competition.
I can truly see both sides of this but one side seems to come off in very much the same way as affirmative action. If one team slacks off then the other team is far more humiliated in the end. Doing as some would have had the coach do would have pointed out that Dallas Academy was “special” in some way and were only taking what the other team gave them. They stayed on the floor and played and kept trying-———they didn’t give up-——— and if you can teach a child that you are ahead in the game.
Oh, I now see that the losing team was comprised of kids with severe disabilities. Scheduling such a game was a lose-lose situation from the get-go.
But knowing who the opponents were, it would have shown some compassion to “call off the dogs” when it reached 50-0.
There was no good reason to run up the score like that. If the losing team was not representing a school of kids with severe disabilities, i would feel differently.
You've got to play your backups. It gives the boys valuable playing experience that will payoff the following years. Plus, it keeps the boys interested & rewarded during practice - knowing that they will see some real playing time.
I can see both sides of this issue but the losing team didn’t have “severe” disabilities. They had learning problems, dyslexia, etc. Calling them severe disabilities sounds like kids in wheelchairs. I saw them on the news, they look and sound like any other kids.
Thanks for the info.
I too understand both sides, and I spent several years coaching both baseball and basketball in youth leagues and Little League.
BTW, I like your screen name, LOL. I noticed it the other day when you asked to join the Fashionista ping list.
:-)
Maybe there is another story (perhaps with a valid reason) as to why this game was scheduled. At some point, you can’t do any more than put in your worst players and try to keep it down. If you get to the point of asking your players to “throw the game” then something is seriously wrong. Playing zone defense (not repeatedly stealing and going for easy layups like this team did) would be a better option.
In high school, my team was twice ranked #1 in the country. Some of our divisional opponents were terrible (one in particular) and we won several matches 72-0 or 78-0. (There’s no way to beat somebody worse than 78-0). Some of that was due to forfeits. Wrestling is different because it’s 13 individuals competing as part of a team and they’re each scored individually. Team sports are different. I’ve seen some blowouts in football - some with class and some without. If you put in your lowest-string players and run the ball over and over and over, you can effectively run the clock out.
LOL, that fashionista thread is going to be fun.
It is one thing to do your best to win a game, it is another to keep stepping on them after you have the game won. It got to the point where the only point was to embarrass them.
What lesson are you teaching by forfeiting the game?
I played Hockey as a kid and one year we had a Post Season team that was undefeated. My dad coached the team, and instead of ever thinking of laying down, he would have us pass, counting out loud befor we could shoot on the net.
After being up by five for example, we doubled that score lead and counted that number outloud every pass before we could attempt to score.
Ha... That year was a good one. Seeing scores like 10, 14, 16 to nothin was not uncommon!
That there are consequences, often beyond your control, when you act like a d-bag. While its is not necessarily the fault of the kids as to what went on here, I would expect some kids, even middle schoolers, to question the approach of the coach when the team was leading 59-0 at the half and continuing to press in the second.
Aren’t there enough schools for the developmentally delayed in Dallas so they could have their own league to play in, much as the Special Olympics program? It’s difficult to see why such schools are allowed to compete with teams with regular athletes, who are then pilloried for running up the score. TAAPS, the TX association of private schools, needs to rethink their guidelines after this sorry episode.
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