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Fri 23 Jan, 2009 04:37 pm
DALLAS (AP) - A high school girls basketball team that beat an opponent 100-0 has a case of blowout remorse.
The winning school now says it wants to do the right thing by seeking a forfeit and apologizing for the margin of victory.
"It is shameful and an embarrassment that this happened," the head of the school said Thursday on The Covenant School's Web site. He added that Covenant has made "a formal request to forfeit the game recognizing that a victory without honor is a great loss."
Covenant, a private Christian school in Dallas, defeated Dallas Academy 100-0 last week. Covenant was up 59-0 at halftime.
A parent who attended the game told The Associated Press that 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.
"I think the bad judgment was in the full-court press and the 3-point shots," said Renee Peloza, whose daughter plays for Dallas Academy. "At some point, they should have backed off."
Dallas Academy coach Jeremy Civello told The Dallas Morning News that the game turned into a "layup drill," with the opposing team's guards waiting to steal the ball and drive to the basket. Covenant scored 12 points in the fourth quarter and "finally eased up when they got to 100 with about four minutes left," he said.
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 lopsided. There is, however, "a golden rule" that should have applied in this contest, said Edd Burleson, the director of the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools. Both schools are members of this association, which oversees private school sports in Texas.
"On a personal note, I told the coach of the losing team how much I admire their girls for continuing to compete against all odds," Burleson said. "They showed much more character than the coach that allowed that score to get out of hand. It's up to the coach to control the outcome."
Covenant coach Micah Grimes and head of school Kyle Queal did not immediately respond to messages left by The Associated Press on Thursday.
In the statement on the Covenant Web site, Queal said the game "does not reflect a Christ-like and honorable approach to competition. We humbly apologize for our actions and seek the forgiveness of Dallas Academy, TAPPS and our community."
Queal said school officials met with Dallas Academy officials to apologize and praised the Dallas Academy players for "strength, composure and fortitude in a game in which they clearly emerged the winner."
Peloza said the coach and other parents praised the Dallas Academy girls for limiting Covenant to 12 points in the fourth quarter. She added that neither her daughter nor her teammates seemed to dwell on the loss.
"Somewhere during that game they got caught up in the moment," Peloza said, referring to the Covenant players, fans and coaches. "Our girls just moved on. That's the happy part of the story."
they won, it happens
there's a weird culture from the last decade or so that seems to think everybody should win, everybody gets a participation award, and the problem is, the world doesn't work that way, i saw a report a couple of years ago on 60 minutes about young people who were shocked when they started getting poor reviews from their employers, they had received nothing but praise for years from teachers and parents
@djjd62,
I recall someone at
Sports Illustrated talked about this kind of things. There's the culture of being a good sport but at the same time there's also a culture of doing your best. I'm not saying (and they weren't, either) to rub the other team's nose in things, but shouldn't athletes, of any level, be encouraged and applauded when they do their best? This seems to go against that -- do your best except for x, y and z conditions. When does that kick in? 20 - 0? 30 - 0? 40 - 0? It's an odd little slippery slope.
I fail to see anything wrong with this... If the winning team wants to take this action based on their values, if they feel the need to apologize because their conduct didn't uphold the ideals they wanted to stand for as a team...
What is possibly wrong with this?
There is a question; Should winning should be all important for the team, or is grace, sportsmanship and regard for the feelings of others also important?
I think the team should be the ones to make this decision. If these young women want to make a statement that grace and consideration is more important to them... why would anyone think getting in the way is a good thing?
@djjd62,
Running up the score in a blowout is pretty widely considered to be poor sportsmanship in basketball.
They aren't apologizing for winning 100-0, but for the tactical plays that they called (3 pointers and full court press are named specifically) that are considered bad form in a blowout.
For example, doing their best would be resting their first team to prevent injury, and giving the second team a chance to play normal basketball. Not special tactics that are clearly designed in order to embarrass the weaker team. That they called these plays to pull off a 100-0 score isn't doing your best to win, it's showboating.
I don't think it makes sense to forfeit the game at all, but it does make sense to apologize.
And this isn't a politically correct school thing, in the NBA, if you do this to Pat Riley's team you are going to see flagrant fouls in the 4th quarter.
@djjd62,
I also disagree with the idea that courtesy is either "weird", or anything new.
I don't look at my life as a win-or-lose proposition where demolishing my peers is necessary to my success. I have done pretty well in life and career while occasionally showing compassion and grace. I haven't found it necessary to make everything about winning.
I guess it depends on what values we want to teach our kids...
@ebrown p,
i wasn't trying to say it was weird to be courteous, the story on sixty minutes basically talked to a bunch of college age kids from middle class families who had never felt like they'd ever been dealt a set back, their parents had given them everything they'd every wanted, they'd ben told they were special and could basically do know wrong, and as some said, they were really confused when they first received unflattering reports from superiors
sometimes losing helps build character
@Robert Gentel,
If you did this in the NBA in the 70s you'd have seen a broken jaw.
Just watched PTI, where Tony Kornheiser was of the opinion that the winning coach should be fired. I'm inclined to agree. Pressing in this situation is completely uncalled for at any level of basketball.
Reminds me of a story I saw in Sports Illustrated many years ago...with the title of Half Time Talk of the Century!
Seems another girls basketball game ended up with a half time score of (can't remember for sure, just faking it for this story) 38 - O favor of team A.
Team B won the game 40 -38!
It was a hell of a story...but a long time back. Wish I could find it.
@Frank Apisa,
Yes, Frank, I think we may be talking about the same article. Might've been a Steve Rushin piece.
@jespah,
So a high school wins a game by 100-0 using 3 pointers and a full court press
down to the final minutes and everyone's OK with that?
Geez Louise.
I have a problem with the school fielding a team that can't help but to embarrass themselves. The proper response from other schools is to refuse to play against them, out of compassion. Having agreed to play the hopeless team, the right thing to do is to play the starters for only a few minutes, and to then keep the score down.
@hawkeye10,
I remember a game between the Washington Redskins and my beloved New York Football Giants...back when George Allen was the Redskin's coach. They were beating the Giants by 30 points as I remember...and Allen called a time out with just seconds left to play in the game...in order to kick another field goal.
I thought he was a no-good, piece of ****, scumbag before that happened...but my regard for him plummeted after that!
@patiodog,
Yep.
Late to this thread but thought the same thing as Patiodog and Robert when I read about 3-pointers and full-court press. That's just obnoxious.
Winning isn't obnoxious, but that kind of showboating is.
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