In girl’s basketball at that level, it is that unusual. When I first saw the score it was the “0″ that jumped out at me. But wading through a bunch of scores, a team scoring fewer then ten points wasn’t that uncommon. A team scoring over 80 was quite rare. In TDA’s other games (that I could find), they allowed 55, 66, and 49 points.

That being said, I have come around to the belief that Covenant could have scored well more than they did if they’d wanted to. I’m not convinced that they couldn’t have scored less without resorting to intentional misses. I find it unlikely that his team made much of any attempt to run down the clock as he suggests.

Which isn’t to say that I think that the coach should have been fired for the game performance alone. I agree with Doc that the real problem was his open rebellion. Not that the school didn’t have it coming with their open condemnation of the team, but it made his continued employment unworkable.

Also, there was a reason that this game was scheduled: these two teams are in the same district. And except for girl’s basketball (and maybe other girl’s sports), they deserve to be. The Academy’s boys team beat Covenant’s twice this season. TDA has lopsided enrollment with a lot more boys than girls, which leaves their girls in an unfortunate situation.

Scheduling and districting at private schools is a tricky business because (a) there’s a scarcity of schools and (b) enrollment and gender balance can (apparently) vary wildly. With that in mind, I do think that the league needs to have some sort of Mercy Rule. After the publicity surrounding this game, I’d imagine that they’re looking pretty hard at it.

I think that’s the real reason he was fired. He made the system suits look bad.

nk´s last blog post..Season’s Greetings One More Time

And when I said that they have the right to teach their kids that, I didn’t mean the legal right, I meant the social right. I meant that this is a perfectly reasonable and good thing to teach kids, and that mocking them for it is wrong.

One more thing: I don’t think anyone was suggesting that the coach should have told his team to try less hard in the second half. There are lots of other things you can do to avoid running up the score:

1. Stop the full-court press and go to a half-court zone defense.

2. Tell the team to make five passes before the shot (this is good discipline anyway).

3. Put your worst players on the floor (this would be fun for those players who don’t get to play much).

4. Have your poorer scorers take all of your shots (another thing that is good for team development).

By the way, I’m not necessarily against the coach on this. Going for a hundred points was probably pretty exciting for the team and I can see why he wanted to do it. And if all he did was refuse to apologize, then it would be a closer call. But when he goes public in his defiance of his boss, then either he or his boss has to go. Anyone in management will tell you that.

Some additional context, most of it favorable to Grimes.

Dallas Academy has a total of 20 female students at the high school grade level, and provides services emphasizing on and focused on educating those with developmental disorders that prevent them from learning well in other schools.

At some point, it starts being in bad taste.

That year we played a varsity schedule in football, even though we had no seniors. The state football league had a rule that if the point spread was more than 45 points during the second half, the game was over. We had 3 or four games ended on us by the 45 point rule.

I was a 2nd/3rd string player on the team. And mostly, we hated having the game ended early on us. Most of us wanted to have the game playing experience. And the rule denied that to us.

It also had an interesting effect on the coaching. As I look back, I think I now understand the reluctance of the coach to play more 2nd/3rd string players, even though the 1st string wasn’t being productive. He was interested in keeping the game from being shut down more than building any depth.

The fact that the game was ended early was more disheartening than the loss, I think.

Hypercompetitiveness is a trait that frequently backfires. It makes it difficult for people to be comfortable around you, which makes it difficult for them to accept you. If you’re playing racketball with the boss, who isn’t as good as you are, and you have the opportunity to “go for the kill”, I would not recommend doing so.