Do you think this is fair?
They way I understand the article is, the problem wasn't that the team won. But rather that they kept running up the score, even though the league's handbook forbidds this... or at least strongly discrourages it.
Edit: And he was not kicked out, the coach was suspended for 1 game.
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“Sacred Heart Academy values the lessons taught and cultivated through athletic participation including ethical and responsible behavior, leadership and strength of character and respect for one’s opponents. Last night’s Girls’ Basketball game vs Lyman Hall High School does not align with our values or philosophies,” Sacred Heart Academy President Sr. Sheila O’Neill said in a statement released by the school.
:thinking:
So they should have played with the kid gloves on and that would have been respectful towards the opponents? How much must one belittle one's opponent before that ceases to be respectful?
I get that the trouncing was, well, let's maybe call it unnecessary, but that statement honestly reads like sarcasm.
Edit: I'm adding this for clarity, but I don't agree with that much of a trouncing. There are ways to win -- even by a landslide -- without making it downright horrible. I'm just questioning the way the message here is worded.
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I agree with you in principle, but the coach does know about the league's handbook. Those are the rules, he chose to coach there and therefore should have abided the rules. He did not and therefore got the suspension. Not suspending him might encourage coaches to ignore other rules, too.
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which rule the stupid one that says when your winning by a certain amount - just stop playing - or maybe just let the other team back in the game how does that help anyone what if Man United were 6 or 7 -0 up against say Liverpool and then had to stop and allow them to score to continue? what would be the point
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The CIAC handbook, under its “Class Act” Sportsmanship Standards, states: Coaches will be aware of the competitive balance of contests and will manage the score in a manner that is sportsmanlike and respectful of opponents.
Under this, the rules consider unsportsmanlike to thrash the opponents. If you're winning by a landslide, they tell you to hold back a little.
Whether playing with the kid gloves on is more or less respectful or sportsmanlike than kicking the opponents' asses to the moon remains to be seen, but that rule does say that at some point you gotta put the kid gloves on. :)
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Oh, definitely -- the rule is there for a reason and it must be followed. And I also agree that it's not good sportsmanship (and thus not only against the rules but worse, a bad way to raise children/teenagers) to trounce one's opponents that way. It's just that the statement reads as though holding back against a clearly inferior opponent is somehow respectful to them, when all it really does is flaunt just how much better the superior team is.
In fairness, when you're that much better, merely competing is sort of disrespectful in and of itself. Holding back is disrespectful, but if you don't, you get a complete thrashing, which, yeah, I don't suppose is exactly terribly respectful. It's a side effect of having small leagues, especially in the environment of school competitions, where the power balance can shift dramatically in just a couple of years depending on the recruitment of players. I mean, consider: Lyman Hall, the school that lost this badly this time around, had beaten Sacred Heart in their last game, in 2017.
(I love how many people are voting "I am that coach" btw lol)
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so you would tell your children to win but only if you do it by the bare minimum
Let me ask you do you watch women's football at all because this happens all the time here is a great example of that
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y96ZMhz0SHI - and it should have been more
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So when it's clear to you that you're better than someone at something, and you've already decisively proven that to them, you should... what, exactly? Keep doing it over and over, just to hammer home how much better you are and how much they suck compare to you? Maybe do a little dance, or teabag them if it's an online game? Try hard to "get in their heads" and make them want to give up, even when it isn't some NBA game or big tournament? Treat every competition as a matter of life or death?
I'd tell my kids, "Always play to win, but when you see you've won, don't go out of your way to rub your opponent's face in it. Show respect for them putting in effort and not throwing in the towel when they're clearly outmatched." It's possible to be competitive without being a complete dick.
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I think Tellaerin made the point better than I could. You can win by a large margin without making it a humiliation that just looks meant to crush the opponents' spirit and toy with them. If it was a professional sport, that would have been one thing, but those are kids playing a school thing and they shouldn't be expected to have the emotional capacity of taking that horrible a loss in stride. And echoing Tellaerin's other post below, I wouldn't be surprised if half the kids in the losing team quit the sport on the spot. And I wouldn't want my kid doing that to other kids. It's not healthy for anyone involved.
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if your not s good as them then you should lose or if your better than them it's not your fault if your better and show it
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When one side has clearly demonstrated that they can't compete, going hard to run up the score against them like that is just rubbing their faces in it. There's nothing "respectful" about that.
I feel like modern culture has lost sight of what friendly, healthy competition means. Not everything has to be a battle to the death to destroy your opponent, physically or psychologically. That's what this felt like, an attempt to crush the other team's will to compete. (I wouldn't be surprised if some of these kids just gave up on basketball altogether after this.) You see the same sort of toxicity in online games. So I can understand why a school would want to try to discourage that kind of thinking in kids, at least as much as they're able to.
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I agree. I don't think the alternative is terribly respectful, either (in my opinion, holding back also rubs it in very much), but I still think it's less disrespectful, and that's beside the point anyway. It's the way that statement reads that bothers me. I might be wrong here, but I think the way it reads just makes it seem like kid gloves is super respectful when imo it's... not.
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if their not good enough they should play should they that is why most sports have league levels
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"running up" isnt 90 a low average for a basketball game. are they supposed to tank their individual stats just because their oponent has not fight but is unwilling to forfeight. what about the audience who paid to watch, are they supposed to just watch 2 teams standing around
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In a girl's basketball team there can be huge differences. It's not a professional league. It can be simply that a few girls got the flu, and now they are playing with the reserves
Now, imagine watching your girls, that just play for fun, getting destroyed by girls that have been specifically scouted and are going to eventually going to the national team. Imagine getting in the national record of the biggest difference, as the losing side. How would you feel as the winner? It's (in high school) that much important? Now imagine leaving the match as the losers. It can actually be the last match for some of the girls, after being destroyed like that.
Sure the girls winning would love to keep playing till 932-0 and make them weep. But sometimes you need an adult in the room
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Things like that do not prepare kids for life beyond high school, it's not about respect at all. When they finish school and get a "real job" chances are pretty good they're going to get their faces rubbed in "it" repeatedly by circumstances, other employees who see them as a rung on their ladder to success, or a dbag boss. Coddle them and the experience is a lot worse because they have no idea what to expect. The school of hard knocks is more effective the younger the student.
Is it fair? Hell no. But shit happens regardless, and you either learn to deal with it or you get buried under it.
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https://www.ctinsider.com/gametimect/girls-basketball/article/Sacred-Heart-Academy-apologizes-suspends-coach-16749376.php
the coach was kicked out because his girls' basketball team defeated opponents. Do you think this is fair?
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