a 100-0 win...what would YOU do?

Bad sportsmanship is worse than cheating.

 

Your analogy assumes two professional boxers. A better analogy would be the World Heavy Weight Champion getting in a street fight with a teen age heckler and killing him.

Now you could argue that the kid should have known better. You could argue that the smaller school should not have tried to play the larger one. But the court would send the boxer away. They would say that he should have known better.

Once upon a time I played football for Bill Curry, a great coach. I remember one time him explaining to us that because of our size and conditioning more was expected of us. If you go out to a bar there is eventually going to be some drunk who wants to pick a fight. And for some reason they always want to pick a fight with the biggest guy they can find. When that happened we had to be the bigger man and walk away, even when we did nothing wrong, even when we could squash them like a bug, even when we were not the ones causing trouble. Because we were bigger and stronger it was more important that we walk away. And if we didn't we could expect to be off his team, out of school, and possibly in jail.

It is always the responsibility of the stronger team to show restraint and sportsmanship. This coach deserved to be fired. I would take it one step further and disband the team for the rest of the season. What they have learned from this poor coach needs to be corrected or those girls will be bullies their entire lives. I know some of you will say it was not the girls fault but they should have known better. It would only have taken one girl on that team to stand up and say, "This is not right" and it would have stopped. It would have only taken one parent. If I had a girl on that team I would have pulled her off the court and if I was not there I would have expected her to do the same.

100-0 is not a game, it is not sports, it is certainly not sportsmanship. It is bulling plain and simple. I don't understand a parent or athlete who cannot understand that this is wrong.

 

Spot on! He openly and publically disagreed with the decision of his boss which an absolute no-no. I set the same standard for my staff, they can challenge any decision I make in a staff meeting or in the privacy provided they are "respectable". Should they challenge me pubically, that is at the very least a conversation behind closed doors with that individual hoping to have a gentle teachable moment.

However, chucking the boss under the bus in a public forum like a newspaper is deserving of termination (fired not killed).

 

Very well said, North Carolina Tentmaker.

As one who was on various sports teams in his younger days I agree completely. I suspect that some of those who are disagreeing and standing up for this "macho," unsportsmanlike coach never participated in team sports. They just don't seem to get it.

 

Thanks John, I just don't know about this board sometimes. Between this and the waterboarding thread I have been pretty discouraged lately.

I am sure your right about participation in team sports, but what is sad to me is that several of the posters have participated and they still don't get it. And then I think of the girls on that winning team. They won't get it either.

Most of us can look back at youth leaders who took time with us when we were young and we can now realize the impact they had on our lives. But that impact can be good or bad. The potential is there when working with youth to really help and make a difference for the better, but the potential is also there to really mess a kid up. It is a big responsibility.

I think I am going to go write a note to my old youth director.

 

It was just a game, guys.

 

But a game always reflects the principals of those who participate. One can and should demonstrate good sportsmanship for the sake of a good testimony especially that of a Christian school. They blew it in this case and by that gave more fodder to the enemies of Christ to say that Christians are no different than them. Especially considering that almost every public school coach would have put in his subs, played less aggressive defensive and cut back on the threes.

 

Very good post brother- that about sums it all up.

 

Then let's see how Dallas responds to the firing. They may not have any more class than Covenant.

 

Just an aside: My dad said that Jack Demsey said that the worst beating he ever had was when he got into a fight with a fellow in a bar ... and that was when he was the heavy weight boxing champion.

Fellow in my platoon, who was a boxer, said that his hands were legally considered weapons when he was outside the ring.

 

I agree - I think a good coach, especially at schools level, is also a teacher. A teacher teaches.

What did the coach in question teach his team?

 

Exactly right! It's just a game, so the coach could have used it as an opportunity to teach Christian character instead of what he did.

As I said before, I learned some great character lessons from my secular wrestling coach. I remember those lessons to this very day, but don't remember at all what our team record was or what the score was on any of our meets or tournaments, or even what the scores were on my matches--except the one time in my life I actually pinned an opponent!

 

They should have had your football coach or my wrestling coach! :saint:

 

Wow, John of Japan, North Carolina Tentmaker, and several others. I am sorry I just do not get it. And that this is a test for several of you for being discouraged at the kind of people there are on the Baptist Board.
Maybe it is just a discussion, in which if we dispensed with the character aspersions, more people would participate, and we could have a better discussion. I am willing to learn. And my perspective has changed more towards yours since reading the whole thread.

Are you willing to learn from any other perspective also?

I don't play sports, and I don't care about sports. But I did care for a short time.
My oldest was on a Christian school basketball team for several years.
It was just starting out. Sometimes including the homeschool kids they recruited, there were only 5 players that showed up. There was no real school gym. Facilities to practice in were rented and patchwork.
Then during the real game, when, not if, somebody fouled out, always from lack of experience, there were only 4 players. Sometimes by mutual agreement, that person got to stay in. Sometimes they just played with four. Sometimes a girl was put in who had played in an earlier girls' game. Once in a while when two people fouled out, someone was put in from the other team.

The thing many of you think is so necessary, the other team putting in its second string, wasn't always so wonderful. A new group of well-rested ones went in against our 4 or five.

There were many, many times that we lost by a margin of 50 to 80 points.
But our team was always told that the main point was playing the game, sportsmanship, doing your best, learning the game, a whole host of things.
I don't think it injured my son that he did his best and played against other people playing their best. And the team did greatly improve over the years.
I don't deny it was often discouraging for my son, who was a reasonably good player.

My husband and I did complain on the few occasions that we witnessed a player intentionally try to hurt another player. Referees don't catch everything.

Many coaches of such teams are parent volunteers. Even if they are paid teachers, perhaps there should be more communication between the school and its coaches about the goals of the school in sports.

But all in all, this Texas game sounds like a lot of games I witnessed in which my son played. Guess that makes me a bad parent in your eyes, because I never complained that another team ran up the score.

 

Sorry Karen, I don't know how you could have dug up the suggestion that you are a bad parent from this thread.

The winning coach had a lot of teaching opportunities here - he just 'blew it' in the excitement.

 

It is just a game which means it's just a vain, empty activity. A vanity of vanities. Project all the "worth" into it you want. You might care about it, but God doesn't.

In fact, if we're going to project Christian morality into the deal, then the Covenant coach should have let Dallas win.

 

Karen, I am sorry my comments were taken as a personal attack on you. That should not have been my contention. I do not believe that you are a bad parent.

The coach of the loosing team did nothing wrong. In fact I think he showed remarkable strength of character staying in the game. From the articles the loosing team showed grace and strength of character in their loss.

It is the coach, players, and parents of the winning team that I take issue with. Both coaches had an opportunity to teach their players something. Both coaches had an opportunity and made a difference in their player’s character, but one made a good difference and one made a bad difference.

Initially I thought, wow this was a really mean thing to do, and I had initial sympathy for the girls who had to endure the humiliation and pain of a 0-100 loss. But reading the links I realize that the girls who lost really came out the winners.

They learned and grew as a result. And later in life when the trials of this world have them down, when they feel stupid because they can’t learn something, when they have kids of their own, when those kids are sick, they loose a job, their spouse walks away, or any of the other 100 bad things that might happen in this life occur they may remember this. They may remember that once they were down, once they were being beat 100 to nothing, but they did not quit, they did not walk away, they did not give up, they kept playing and kept trying. This loss may make all the difference in the world to one of those girls someday.

It was the winning coach that lost his opportunity.

 

Yea its just a game, and if that is your attitude then you should not play. But they are human souls. The game, like everything in life, prepares us for what is ahead.

No God may not care who wins or looses, but you better believe He cares about the lessons learned. You better believe He cares about those girls on both teams.

You might as well say its just education, or its just training, or they are just children. Why do we try to teach our children anything anyway? Why should I bother studying God's word, after all its just vain activity until I put it into practice. Why should I labor ahead of time over a sermon? After all, no one ever got saved while I was studying.