100-0 I’m not kidding with you
One of the biggest youth sports stories this month comes from all places, girls’ basketball. If you haven’t heard of this one you really need to get out more, the story has gone viral. While I’d much rather watch paint dry or get wood chips under my fingernails than attend a girls’ basketball game, there may be a lesson here for us youth soccer coaches. A small Dallas, Texas high school for ADD and ADHD children with only 20 female students, lost 100-0 last week. That’s right sports fans, Covenant Christian ONE HUNDRED, Dallas Academy ZERO, that’s not a typo.
The halftime score was 59-0 and the score at the end of the three was 88-0. What’s interesting about this story is that the winning team, Covenant Christian, lobbied for almost the entire game. The Dallas Academy rarely passed the ball beyond half court, turning the game into what observers called a “layup drill.” Dallas Academy hadn’t won a game in the past four seasons, not one, so it wasn’t like Covenant were up 98-0 and feared Dallas Academy was going to go on a 100-point streak of their own. In fact, as Covenant neared the century mark, Covenant’s head coach and several of his fans cheered wildly. I have a word for that, WOW. I am impressed by the score and more by the attitude and actions of the head coach and his “fans”.
no apology required
When Covenant administrative officials apologized for their coach’s actions, the Covenant head coach bullied him around the neck and said that he had done nothing wrong. He claimed that his children were playing the game the way it was meant to be played. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those Stuart Smalley types, you know the “let’s not keep score, let’s play the same number of players with all the players, drink juice boxes and sing Kumbaya together after the game coaches”. Remember my teams have gone 97-13, we’re playing to win, we’re not playing intramurals.
The value of competitive sports
Competitive sports are a great learning environment for most kids, but this coach crossed the line in my opinion. When he’s ahead, there’s nothing wrong with securing the win, working on some skills and tactics your team needs to improve on, and getting backup reps to run the base offense and defense. But when it’s obvious you’ve got the upper hand and the other team isn’t having any luck in a comeback, why keep pushing? You’d think that after being able to run the pass with an 88-0 third-quarter lead, it would be obvious that his sons know how to run the pass against a hapless rookie team. But what about working on the half court game or ANYTHING other than the press?
What did the Covenant kids get for crushing the spirit of the Dallas Academy team? Maybe the girls learned that when you’ve got someone down, kick them in the face some more and then smear concrete on their face for good measure.
So what?
Why not let it go because you can? When you’re up 88-0, it’s obvious to every player, coach and parent who’s the better team, no question. Heck, even the disinterested janitor or the doggy in mommy’s bag will know that one team was far superior to the other team. What harm would have come from not pressing in the fourth quarter or maybe playing a couple of kids out of position? Instead, Dallas Academy has now canceled the rest of its games. Was the Dallas Academy inept? Insurance. Poorly trained, probably. Were any of these girls going to play college basketball? No. But the kids at the Academy will now be deprived of the opportunity to grow as human beings and develop the deep relationships that most kids gain from playing competitive team sports. I hope Covenant’s trainer is proud of that. he maybe he can put that on his resume when he applies for the job at Duke or Kentucky.
The coach gets his due
In the end, the Pact Coach was fired a week later for basically disagreeing with the school’s decision to apologize to Dallas Academy. The Academy may have the last laugh, as Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban will host the Academy team in his Suite at a Maverick game. Let’s hope this story teaches those of us who coach youth soccer a valuable lesson about what not to do. While we didn’t have any video of this fiasco, Coach Phantom suggested this video clip as a pretty close representation of what the match probably went like. I’m sure the coaches and fans were just as excited as the ones in this video for his “HUGE” victory.
