Games Scores and Life Lesson

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By now you've all probably heard about the Texas high school girls basketball game that ended in a score of 100-0. (story here) Maybe you missed this other local story, which shows the better side of high school basketball. (click here) And hopefully you saw this one last year, maybe among the most selfless and sportsmanlike acts ever. (here)

If you've been around youth sports long enough, you've most likely been on both sides of the issue. You've seen games where scoring 100 and holding your opponent to next-to-nothing would have been easy. You've also been on the other end of the score, where your team looks like nothing more than safety cones set up so your opponent can run layup drills.

Some would argue that it's the opposing coach's responsibility to have his or her team ready to compete. But we all know that there are just some matchups that, no matter how much coaching has gone into the team, will result in a lopsided score. It's up to coaches at all levels, but especially at the youth levels, to teach young players how to compete with graciousness, win with class, and lose with dignity. How often have you seen a player walk past an opponent they've knocked down in the course of play rather than help that player up? How many times have you seen a player refuse a helping hand from an opponent? Tune into any televised game and you're likely to see it. They're learning that an an early age from coaches who are also influenced by what they see, and by the false sense of "toughness" and "competition" they learn. What's wrong with giving your best effort, displaying sportsmanship, respecting your opponent, and congratulating the other team, win or lose?

The coach of the winning team in the Texas story was eventually fired not for the result of the game, but for defending his actions in an e-mail to a newspaper a few days after the story made national headlines. He wrote, in part, "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."

I would argue that the Texas coach's values and beliefs were plainly evident in the final score. And I would further argue that the 100 is not nearly as damning as the 0. But the most troublesome part of the entire story is that he taught a group of high school girls that humiliating an opponent was playing "with honor and integrity."

What do you think?

Posted By: Jim Roynan

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