Should the coach have been held to blame for this?

[SigKapSweetie]

I agree that they should have held down their score. That said, there really should be a mercy rule. I played on the worst softball team in the league, and we appreciated that rule a whole lot!

[epchick]

Originally Posted by SigKapSweetie

I agree that they should have held down their score.

This is what I don't understand. How do you hold down a score against a team that scored ZERO points? That means the Covenant team would have to just run around the court, not shooting anything (cause God forbid a shot makes another point) until time runs out. That isn't fair to the Cambridge team.

Again I say, more of the responsibility should have been placed on the DA team coach (even the school).

ETA: I know this is a private school, but I still agree with the coach speaking out. Why should he apologize for doing nothing wrong? He coached his team to play better, and they did. Is it the Covenant coach's fault that the DA team played horribly? No, he has no control over that.

[Kevlar281]

It was the responsibility of the losing coach to prepare their team to be competitive.

[Kevlar281]

I listened to Mike and Mike rip them this morning while I was rowing. Apparently it showed poor sportsmanship. But IMO it is complete bullshit to expect some benchwarmer who rarely sees playing time to play like shit just to appease public perception. Usually it's the third stringers who play their heart out against a team that has all but given up, that leads to these situations.

Here's what I posted on another forum about this topic.

[ASTalumna06]

1.) If I played for the winning team, I'd feel bad, but I wouldn't feel the need to apologize for it. I'm good, you're not, that's life. People don't claim that college football teams aren't "Christ-like" when they beat another team 56-7.

2.) If I played for the losing team, I would hope and pray that SOMEONE (I don't care who), but SOMEONE would stop the game so that I might be able to walk off the court with a little dignity. Once you're down 59-0, who would even still want to be there? Especially if the other team is easing up on you. How embarrassing.

3.) If I played for the winning team, then yes, I would want my opinion heard, and I would be furious that I, along with the rest of my team, was looked down upon because of how we played. Especially when judging by the score, we clearly eased up at the end of the game.

4.) If I played for the losing team, I would feel guilty that the other team's coach was fired because of the game... whether it was because of how he coached it, or how he objected to apologizing. He shouldn't have to apologize for building a team back up from numerous losing seasons. And he shouldn't get fired for it.

5.) But at the same time... If I was the coach, I might have issued a statement concerning the outcome of the game and/or explaining myself, but I don't know that I'd object to the apology. I also wouldn't come right out and say that I was sorry, but I'd talk about the game, what strategy we used, what we did to ease up on the other team, etc. Because I think that him basically saying flat out that he wasn't sorry is what really got him fired.