There are no excuses.
The record of Dallas Academy’s girls’ basketball team was certainly no mystery to the team from The Covenant School when they took the court. Dallas Academy hadn’t won a game in four years, or the entire history of their program. The chances of an upset were subzero, so Covenant had nothing to fear.
But even if the Covenant coaches were concerned that the Dallas Academy girls may have spontaneously turned into mini-Michael Jordans overnight, when they went up by 10, then 20, then 30, did they ever feel like they could relax just a bit? Did they think that maybe enough was enough? Apparently not. They only let up when the scoreboard read 100-0 at the final buzzer.
And now... as if the game itself weren’t bad enough, The Covenant School is formally requesting a forfeit, which is by far the greatest insult in this unfortunate situation of unsportsmanlike conduct.
For a winless team, handing them a win by forfeit is like throwing a heaping spoonful of salt into the wound. With no other victories to speak of, that one win will become a story. People will ask the Dallas Academy girls about that “1” in their record and they will have to tell the story of how there was once a school that ran up the score 100-0 and then had a fit of conscience.
Open wound, pour salt, repeat.
The forfeit is more about alleviating the guilt of the Covenant team than it is about doing right by Dallas Academy. If Covenant really wanted to do something for their opponents, they would just let the game fade away.
Or maybe they should have quit while they were ahead by less than 100.
2 comments:
Can you refuse a forfeit? If you can, that's what Dallas Academy should do-Make Covenant live with that 100-0 win.
I guess there's nothing like padding your stats by absolutetly crushing your opponent. The coach should have pulled his/her first string out, then the second string and then maybe even his/her third... When you're routing your opponent the game should turn into an opportunity to practice different players and/or plays. I agree, offering the forfeit is too little too late (and likely will feel like salt in the old wound).
Post a Comment