Should the coach have been held to blame for this?
 

DALLAS — The coach of a Texas high school basketball team that beat another team 100-0 was fired Sunday, the same day he sent an e-mail to a newspaper saying he will not apologize "for a wide-margin victory when my girls played with honor and integrity."

Kyle Queal, the headmaster for Covenant School, said in The Dallas Morning News online edition that he could not answer if the firing was a direct result of coach Micah Grimes' e-mail disagreeing with administrators who called the blowout "shameful."

Queal did not immediately answer phone messages or e-mail from The Associated Press.

On its Web site last week, Covenant, a private Christian school, posted a statement regretting the outcome of its Jan. 13 shutout win over Dallas Academy. "It is shameful and an embarrassment that this happened. This clearly does not reflect a Christlike and honorable approach to competition," said the statement, signed by Queal and board chair Todd Doshier.

Grimes, who has been criticized for letting the game get so far out of hand, made it clear in the e-mail Sunday to the newspaper that he does not agree with his school's assessment.

http://highschool.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=904726

I don't know how much the coach should be held to blame for something like this. When I played baseball in high school, there was a team in our league that was horrible - just absolutely terrible. There were situations where we scored a bunch of runs, but it wasn't like we were trying to run up the score..it just kind of happened.

I'd assume that's what happened here. I think, short of just dribbling around and letting the shot clock expire on every possession, there's not a whole lot more that could have been done.

That said - it sounds like the coach was fired in a public relations move because of his email, not because of what happened in the game.

I don't understand shit like this. Why is the coach getting punished for coaching his team correctly? What are they suppose to do, end the game at half-time? The coach probably would have gotten shit for letting the game end soon and for being up 59 points.

People are sore losers, and they just can't be happy for a team that does well in a game.

The refs should have called the game for a blowout...heh...

I wonder if there was some kind of non competitive rule out there ...I mean by 50 or 60 to 0 somebody should ahve just threw in the towel...heck the coach that had the team with ZERO should have been blamed for sticking a non competitive team out there...SMH

I read that... the coach should not have run the score up like that. They were playing a 30 person school for people with learning disabilities.

The coach is a douchbag and he deserved to be fired. His team was obviously running up the score. They were taking 3 pointers and playing a full court press right til the end.

Totally low class. They schedule a game against a school for handicapped kids with only 24 girls in the school and then they run up the score.

And like the school officials said, not very "Christlike"!

According to the school's website, it specializes in teaching kids with learning disabilities like dyslexia.

DS - in my state there was a rule for baseball games (I think 10 or 15 runs); I would wonder why there wasn't some sort of similar rule in TX for basketball games, like the game ends after the first half if the score is a certain amount, etc.

As a coach, I can say that even when you play teams that aren't at the level of your own, you can ALWAYS find a way to keep the score down. It was an unfair blowout and they continued their full court press. There are always modifications that can be made -- i.e.: only dribbling with left hands, shooting after ten passes, etc. Maybe they had a team that was stacked, but there is still no excuse for this. Its poor sportsmanship and we should use sports to help these kids become better citizens, something that the fired coach obviously knows nothing about. The refs also are partially to blame as they should have done something..although, sometimes coaches don't listen to refs at all and there may not be rules in the book that allow refs to call a game in that situation.

Well that changes my opinion drastically...thank you for pointing that out. I saw that but it really wasn't pushed frontwards in the story, thus it didn't really stick.


WWJD

The kids have learning disabilities, I don't think that means they are "handicapped."

I know people with dyslexia, and other learning disabilities, and yet they can still play sports, be in theater, be in orchestra/band.

If these kids disability does inhibit their basketball ability, then I think the fault should be placed on the DA coach, not on the Covenant coach.

There is no "mercy" rule in Girl's basketball that says they have to stop the game if the score is being run up, so it wasn't like the coach broke any rules.

Being a douchebag is one thing, but getting fired for doing his job is another.

Maybe it's not so much of a rule..moreso just a matter of ethics or being polite I guess.

I am still curious to know what kept the other team from scoring not one single point...I don't think I ever heard of a team scoring zero points in basketball unless it was just that lopsided...we see someone hitting a full court lucky shot every few months and these young ladies didn't hit a basket in range?

Hmmmm....I dunno

Would you please tell this to Bob Stoopes? ;)

I think running the score up on anyone is classless, but unfortunately, it is sort of becoming de rigueur.

No longer are teams taught to win with class and lose with dignity. Now it's all about how many points (style points???) are scored. That is the measure of worth! Not, HOW you won the game...

His job is to teach his students how to play well and how to exhibit good sportsmanship. If this story is any real indication about this guy, I wouldn't want him coaching at my school or coaching my kids.


"I said a long time ago in my career that if what I'm doing is just about W's and L's – wow, how superficial! I give up my whole life to that? No, its about investing in people. If you just help one person in a small way, if they have a better life because of it, you know you've done something."

Kay Yow, 1942-2009