In sports, I along with so many others, was taught to win. After all, that’s the main goal, isn’t it? But can winning come at a cost of humiliation? A California girls high school basketball coach is learning that, after a total blowout in a recent game. Final score, 161-2. That’s not a misprint. The opposing team only scored two points, but coach Mike Anderson pushed his players to rack up 161 points when it was all said and done. Read the full article here: http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/01/girls-high-school-basketball-coach-suspended-after-teams-161-2-win
Most sports fans are in agreement that a) this was a HIGH SCHOOL game, not a professional game, and b) coach Anderson should have put his JV squad in or just instructed them to do passing drills. But there are some who say, ‘should you ever tell a player to hold back’? Athletes are trained to win, to excel, to give it their all. So why tell them to ‘ease up’? They’ve been working their butts off for weeks, preparing for a hard match up, only to be instructed to not score. Logically that doesn’t make sense. Some may even say the main goal of a game is to have fun. Really? We’re Hoosiers and most eat, live and breathe basketball (among other sports). While we like having fun, we like winning even more. And we’re not alone. Go to any soccer, baseball, football, or athletic event at the high school level around the WORLD, and you’ll notice the competitive attitude is pretty universal. But the one thing that keeps the majority of us from humiliating an opponent with a final score of 161-2, is one word: sportsmanship. If the final score of the game in this story was 70 to 2, wouldn’t that still be an incredible win? Of course it would.
It’s worth noting that the rules governing the high school in California do not allow the referees to “call a game”, so there was no mercy rule. One would think that it doesn’t take a “mercy rule” to do the right thing~
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-Greg Browning
Morning Show Host
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