Some Coaches Are Just Jerks

Why does this sort of thing have to happen every year? Last year, it was Micah Grimes at Covenant High School in the Dallas area. His girl's basketball team beat an outclassed opponent by 100-0. Even after he had the game well in hand, the coach continued to have his team run a full-court press. In his effort to humiliate the opponent, he just wound up embarrassing himself and his school.

This year it's Greg Wise and his Houston Yates boy's basketball team. They played Lee High School, a team they knew they had outclassed before the game even began (they were joking on the bus before the game about hanging 200 points on them). And they nearly did that. The halftime score was 100-12 and the final score was 170-35. Those are both state records.

Although Wise did play his second and third string toward the end of the game, he never let up on the gas. He had his team running a full-court press the entire game. It was like setting a state record was more important than teaching sportsmanship, leadership and respect for the game and the opponent (isn't high school sports supposed to be a learning experience?).

But Wise was not the least bit embarrassed by his actions. In fact, he tried to defend it. He said, "They work really hard in practice, and when they go in, they deserve the chance to play hard and compete, too. We are looking for another state championship, and we can't get that unless we are continuing to get better and perfect our game. We aren't scoring on other teams out of disrespect."

What a load of horse manure! You are not going to improve your team by continuing to do a full-court press on a team you had down by 100-12 at halftime. In fact, you're not going to perfect your game at all against such a weak opponent. You perfect your game against opponents who are as good or nearly as good as your team. What this coach did was try to humiliate an opponent.

I'm not saying he should ask his players not to do their best. But he could have stopped the full-court press, and had them work on their half-court defense (both man-to-man and zone). And on offense, why not have the substitutes (starters shouldn't have even played in the first half) work on their passing game?

When I played high school basketball, we got into a game like this where we were dominating a smaller and weaker opponent. The coach pulled us starters out in the second quarter and played his subs the rest of the game. It was his opportunity to teach the subs in a game situation (especially the passing game). We still won easily, but no records were set and no one was humiliated. And we learned a lesson about sportsmanship.

Coach Wise did his players no favor by his actions. In fact, if anyone was humiliated it was his own players and the school they represented. If this had been professional basketball, I wouldn't say anything. But it wasn't. And this coach passed up a wonderful teaching opportunity for his own self-gratification. He should be ashamed.