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Team's 100-0 Blowout Shows Bad Sportsmanship
Get Schooled
By Dom Giordano, For The Bulletin
One hundred is such a magic number to read in our lives. One hundred percent, numerically speaking, is the benchmark of perfection. For students, it is the goal they dream about before any test or assignment.
Reaching the number in a sport is always a milestone that is celebrated. Wilt Chamberlain’s historic 100-point game is viewed as one of the greatest individual achievements not just in NBA history, but in all of professional sports. In fact, some teams in pro basketball have had deals in which when the home team reached 100 points, then the possibility of fast food prizes for the fans opened up.
So why are many people upset and even outraged at Coach Micah Grimes and his Covenant School high school girls basketball team in the Dallas area reaching 100 points in a 100-to- 0 drubbing of another Dallas area team? The reasons are many and they may offer several values and lessons that may be important to parents and players and coaches.
I have talked extensively on my radio show about this situation and it surprised me that about 40 percent of my callers vehemently defended the coach who destroyed the other team. They argued that I was being politically correct and that it was appropriate to reach 100 points. They felt the coach of the losing team must do a better job preparing his girls.
I think many people are overreacting to a legitimate sense that a good deal of competition has been removed from youth sports. They are reacting to things like leagues where no score is kept, mercy rules keep one team from dominating another and every kid on every team gets a trophy.
I oppose all those things. However, no basketball coach should continue to full-court press, shoot 3-point shots, and in general, humiliate another team in order to reach the magical threshold of 100 points scored.
A coach with any iota of decency and sportsmanship would have put in the second team when the score reached 30 or 40 to 0. A coach with a modicum of integrity would have directed his team to stop pressing, tell his team to pass five times before shooting and, in general, run plays to develop skills versus scoring very quickly.
Coach Grimes did none of those things. It was one of the ugliest things I had ever heard in high school sports.
Coach Grimes was not only attacked nationally, but also was fired when he publicly told the media he rejected his school’s insistence of an apology and offer of a forfeit. On his blog, his players and some parents defended his actions by saying his teams had slaughtered other teams by huge margins and had never received a reprimand. They felt the 100-to-nothing barrier provoked all of the firestorm.
I feel this is a weak defense. The magical score of 100 to 0 exposed things that are not in line with any degree of sportsmanship and denigrate the reasons why we have youth sports. What type of lesson is this coach instilling in these kids? That it is acceptable to humiliate others? That values like integrity, fair play and compassion don’t apply to them?
Coach Grimes is not the only guilty one here. The school administration is equal to blame. This guy made a habit of running up the scores in past games and he was never admonished. The school only reacted when it encountered this national backlash.
This is not an isolated example. It runs rampant in college sports, particularly football. How many Saturday afternoons do we watch a college football team and see a nationally-ranked powerhouse run up the score in attempt to move up in the college bowl rankings? They deliberately put weak teams on their schedule so they can slaughter them like lambs. Instead of criticizing them for a glaring lack of sportsmanship, we revere these coaches.
It is possible to compete and be a good winner or loser. This game is useful to remind us of the lessons that probably can most easily be taught by sports. Let’s hope all the other Coach Grimes wannabes out there learn from this.
Teacher-turned-talk show host Dom Giordano can be heard weeknights on WPHT Radio (1210 AM). You can send questions to Dom via e-mail at askdomg@aol.com. You can also write to him with questions at PO Box 355, Lumberton, N.J. 08048.
Reaching the number in a sport is always a milestone that is celebrated. Wilt Chamberlain’s historic 100-point game is viewed as one of the greatest individual achievements not just in NBA history, but in all of professional sports. In fact, some teams in pro basketball have had deals in which when the home team reached 100 points, then the possibility of fast food prizes for the fans opened up.
So why are many people upset and even outraged at Coach Micah Grimes and his Covenant School high school girls basketball team in the Dallas area reaching 100 points in a 100-to- 0 drubbing of another Dallas area team? The reasons are many and they may offer several values and lessons that may be important to parents and players and coaches.
I have talked extensively on my radio show about this situation and it surprised me that about 40 percent of my callers vehemently defended the coach who destroyed the other team. They argued that I was being politically correct and that it was appropriate to reach 100 points. They felt the coach of the losing team must do a better job preparing his girls.
I think many people are overreacting to a legitimate sense that a good deal of competition has been removed from youth sports. They are reacting to things like leagues where no score is kept, mercy rules keep one team from dominating another and every kid on every team gets a trophy.
I oppose all those things. However, no basketball coach should continue to full-court press, shoot 3-point shots, and in general, humiliate another team in order to reach the magical threshold of 100 points scored.
A coach with any iota of decency and sportsmanship would have put in the second team when the score reached 30 or 40 to 0. A coach with a modicum of integrity would have directed his team to stop pressing, tell his team to pass five times before shooting and, in general, run plays to develop skills versus scoring very quickly.
Coach Grimes did none of those things. It was one of the ugliest things I had ever heard in high school sports.
Coach Grimes was not only attacked nationally, but also was fired when he publicly told the media he rejected his school’s insistence of an apology and offer of a forfeit. On his blog, his players and some parents defended his actions by saying his teams had slaughtered other teams by huge margins and had never received a reprimand. They felt the 100-to-nothing barrier provoked all of the firestorm.
I feel this is a weak defense. The magical score of 100 to 0 exposed things that are not in line with any degree of sportsmanship and denigrate the reasons why we have youth sports. What type of lesson is this coach instilling in these kids? That it is acceptable to humiliate others? That values like integrity, fair play and compassion don’t apply to them?
Coach Grimes is not the only guilty one here. The school administration is equal to blame. This guy made a habit of running up the scores in past games and he was never admonished. The school only reacted when it encountered this national backlash.
This is not an isolated example. It runs rampant in college sports, particularly football. How many Saturday afternoons do we watch a college football team and see a nationally-ranked powerhouse run up the score in attempt to move up in the college bowl rankings? They deliberately put weak teams on their schedule so they can slaughter them like lambs. Instead of criticizing them for a glaring lack of sportsmanship, we revere these coaches.
It is possible to compete and be a good winner or loser. This game is useful to remind us of the lessons that probably can most easily be taught by sports. Let’s hope all the other Coach Grimes wannabes out there learn from this.
Teacher-turned-talk show host Dom Giordano can be heard weeknights on WPHT Radio (1210 AM). You can send questions to Dom via e-mail at askdomg@aol.com. You can also write to him with questions at PO Box 355, Lumberton, N.J. 08048.
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