Girls High School Basketball Coach Fired After 100-0 Game

[Razor Shines]

Of course it was the winning team's coach.

Girls Basketball Coach Fired After 100-0 Win

Monday , January 26, 2009

AP
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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.

"In response to the statement posted on The Covenant School Web site, I do not agree with the apology or the notion that the Covenant School girls basketball team should feel embarrassed or ashamed," Grimes wrote in the e-mail, according to the newspaper. "We played the game as it was meant to be played. My values and my beliefs would not allow me to run up the score on any opponent, and it will not allow me to apologize for a wide-margin victory when my girls played with honor and integrity."

A phone number for Grimes could not be located by The Associated Press. The Dallas Morning News said Grimes did not respond to their repeated e-mail requests for a telephone interview.

There was no answer at a number listed for Doshier.

A parent who attended the game said Covenant continued to make 3-pointers — even in the fourth quarter. She praised the Covenant players but said spectators and an assistant coach were cheering wildly as their team edged closer to 100 points.

Covenant was up 59-0 at halftime.

Dallas Academy has eight girls on its varsity team and about 20 girls in its high school. It is winless over the last four seasons. The academy boasts of its small class sizes and specializes in teaching students struggling with "learning differences," such as short attention spans or dyslexia.

There is no mercy rule in girls basketball that shortens the game or permits the clock to continue running when scores become one-sided. There is, however, "a golden rule" that should have applied in this contest, Edd Burleson, the director of the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools, said last week. Both schools are members of this association, which oversees private school athletics in Texas.

The story has received national attention, and the Dallas Academy team has been recognized for refusing to give up during the lopsided contest.

I played sports into college. I've been on both sides of blow outs. Honestly, I always felt like more of a loser if the other team stopped trying. Once the other team stopped trying, I wanted to quit.

Here is a video of what the losing team had to say:

http://www.dallasnews.com/video/dall...d=324099&shu=1

[Emin3mShady07]

I think it's horse manure that that guy is fired. The other team sucked, now they are getting a type of reward for it? total bull.

America, where they celebrate mediocrity and tell you its as good as greatness.

[Slyder]

At some point you have to take the air out of the ball. Take your starters out, work on the offense, etc. You dont have to "quit trying" but the reaction of the parents and assistant coaches egged em on from the way it sounds. I dont have the game sheet in front of me so...

Did he deserve being fired? No. The reason he got fired was this was a private christian school who was losing a pr fight. If this were a public school who didnt have to worry about getting students parents to pay directly you probably dont see half the news.

[Hoosier Red]

I think there's a difference between not trying and not pouring it on.

There are lessons of sportsmanship that can be taught in victory and defeat.

As a high school coach, more than anything you are a teacher. Apparantly this guy wasn't teaching the lessons in keeping with the school's mission and he was fired for it.

I'm curious as to what the "reward" is for the team that lost 100-0, other than the humiliation of getting crushed. Sure they've gained admiration for how they handled the defeat, and again it's good to know there are lessons that can be learned in getting thumped too.

But if you think that team "won" anything, wait until they have to face another opponent. An opponent who knows they just lost 100-0.

[BRM]

My values and my beliefs would not allow me to run up the score on any opponent

Does that mean the coach was playing his scrubs at the end?

[Blimpie]

I think it's horse manure that that guy is fired. The other team sucked, now they are getting a type of reward for it? total bull.

America, where they celebrate mediocrity and tell you its as good as greatness.

So, just to clarify, you are fine with the fact that their coach had them continue their full court press & jacking up 3-pointers--while they were leading by 60-70 points AND the other team had yet to score a point? Because that is what several outlets were reporting on this story.

By the way, what 'reward' did the losing team receive, exactly?

[BRM]

Originally Posted by Blimpie

So, just to clarify, you are fine with the fact that their coach had them continue their full court press & jacking up 3-pointers--while they were leading by 60-70 points AND the other team had yet to score a point?

Because that is what several outlets were reporting on this story.

If that's directed at me, no I'm not fine with it. This is the only article I've seen on it so I wasn't sure what was really happening at the end of this game.

[Blimpie]

Originally Posted by BRM

If that's directed at me, no I'm not fine with it. This is the only article I've seen on it so I wasn't sure what was really happening at the end of this game.

Sorry for the confusion, BRM...but it was actually directed at the person who posted the sentences I quoted.

[Emin3mShady07]

I guess it's more of a punishment (much more at that) to the winning team but it still doesn't change the way I feel. Should the winning team be blamed for the other team's failure to score at all? And by all accounts it seems they did ease up a little only scoring 41 points in the second half compared to 59 in the first. Is it morally right to kick an opponent when they are down, probably not. But by the same token is it right to take the fight out of the winning team, again I'd say probably not. Those kids were athletes, they knew the territory of the game when they started playing. Last year my high school baseball team won a game 17 - 0 in three innings, but if the game had gone 7 innings I know I would not have let up. It's the other team's responsibility to get me out, not my duty to them because they are getting the crap kicked out of them.

[BRM]

Originally Posted by Blimpie

Sorry for the confusion, BRM...but it was actually directed at the person who posted the sentences I quoted.

Gotcha. The quoted part wasn't in your post when I first read it.

[Razor Shines]

Originally Posted by Slyder

At some point you have to take the air out of the ball. Take your starters out, work on the offense, etc. You dont have to "quit trying" but the reaction of the parents and assistant coaches egged em on from the way it sounds. I dont have the game sheet in front of me so...

Did he deserve being fired? No. The reason he got fired was this was a private christian school who was losing a pr fight. If this were a public school who didnt have to worry about getting students parents to pay directly you probably dont see half the news.

I'm guessing he did have his scrubs in. I don't have a score sheet either, but I'm willing to bet that he did.

The thing is that on a team that's really good (like the Covenant team) some of the players probably don't get very much playing time at all. When they do get a chance to play, they want to make the most of it.

As far as parents and an assistant coach egging them on:

A parent who attended the game said Covenant continued to make 3-pointers — even in the fourth quarter. She praised the Covenant players but said spectators and an assistant coach were cheering wildly as their team edged closer to 100 points.

It came from one parent (probably from the losing team) who was probably a little angry that her daughter was at the wrong end of a 100-0 game. As I said before it is most likely that the players that were in the game at the end for the winning team probably don't play very much at all. If I had to guess I would say it probably wasn't "wild cheering" or anything it was probably more of encouraging the players normally at the end of the bench for doing well.

[dsmith421]

Originally Posted by Emin3mShady07

America, where they celebrate mediocrity and tell you its as good as greatness.

That is the he-man, macho, sports talk radio guy interpretation. It is also flat wrong. This coach had his kids running a full-court press up 85 points in a basketball game. When his school apologized to the other team for their unsportsmanlike behavior, the coach ran his mouth to the press. He deserves everything he got.

[BRM]

This coach had his kids running a full-court press up 85 points in a basketball game.

This is the part I was unaware of. If that's the case, it's pretty ridiculous.

[Razor Shines]

Originally Posted by dsmith421

That is the he-man, macho, sports talk radio guy interpretation. It is also flat wrong. This coach had his kids running a full-court press up 85 points in a basketball game. When his school apologized to the other team for their unsportsmanlike behavior, the coach ran his mouth to the press. He deserves everything he got.

I'm not sure what to believe. The coach says:

Grimes said in his Sunday post that his team stopped applying full-court defensive pressure after the score reached 25-0 three minutes into the game, then dropped into a relatively benign zone defense and began resting its starters in favor of its three bench players.

[paintmered]

Originally Posted by BRM

This is the part I was unaware of. If that's the case, it's pretty ridiculous.

Yep, and that's the part where I blame the winning coach. When up by any insurmountable lead, you slow the game down as much as possible and go conservative on both ends of the court. Full-court press and launching three-point shots at that point is despicable.