As everyone should know by now, there was a basketball game in Texas between two small private schools that ended up with a score of 100-0. My first thought when I read the article in the newspaper was, "wow, how bad do you have to be to get that kind of score?" I was thinking more about how terrible the losing team was and didn't give much thought to the team that won. But now the story about the game between Covenant School and Dallas Academy is all over the internet and everyone seems to have an opinion. Every adult that is.
I've read a few articles about the game and still could not figure out why people were bashing the winning team. This is high school basketball, so you shouldn't have to go easy on a team. If Dallas Academy had come to the game prepared and ready to play, than the score wouldn't have happened. They would have at least made a basket. But they weren't prepared, they weren't ready to play the game, and it showed. It's not the winning team's fault, they practiced and they deserve to show the results. They know this isn't YMCA basketball anymore and that they were playing well. They shouldn't have to punish themselves for the fact that the other team can't play.
The coach of the Covenant School was fired recently because he refused to apologize. I couldn't figure out why he needed to apologize, for winning the game? I mean, what would you say in your apology, "I'm sorry our team is so good. Next time we'll just stand there so you can make some baskets". I was in total support of the school until they fired the coach. Now the school was bowed under pressure and is too scared to make the right decisions, they only make the ones that other people think they should make.
The problem is, the people who think they should make the decision of firing the coach and whatever else, don't know the whole story. They know this story, the one with the opinons of parents on the losing team that are passed off as facts and that doesn't give the whole story. They don't give both sides of the story.
"A parent who attended the game said Covenant continued to make 3-pointers -- even in the fourth quarter. She praised the Covenant players but said spectators and an assistant coach were cheering wildly as their team edged closer to 100 points."
This part of the story obviously makes Covenant School look bad, they were shooting 3 pointers at the end. But look closer, this was a parent from the opposite team. There was no facts involved, the media just took the opinion of a losing parent to be the truth.
And what about the cheering? Why wouldn't there be cheering? I went to a middle school that was known for being terrible at sports. When people talk about my middle school and sports, they laugh. We knew we were bad, but we didn't give up. I played soccer in 8th grade to return the favor my friend gave me when she went out for track. The B team, the one I was on, scored one goal the entire season. It was at the very last game and by the way everyone was screaming and jumping up and down, you'd think we had won the game. None of the soccer teams won, but if we scored a goal, it was almost like we had. Later that year, the girl's track team consisted of 8 people. You can make a basketball team with 8 people, but with track you have no chance of winning a meet. We came in last at every single one, except the very last meet (we came in 2nd to last). Yet, when one of the members did well, there was so much screaming going on, more than the teams who won the meet. My sister is now on the basketball team there. Her team recently won their first game. They might actually win another. One of the other basketball teams hasn't won a game. A few weeks ago, they lost a game 72-9. This is middle school basketball. But those girls didn't give up because they have no choice.
Covenant School lost a game 82-6 only four years ago. They struggle to have a winning season. But they were winning the game, by a lot. Why wouldn't they cheer? I can only imagine what it would be like if that happened at my middle school. Parents would be standing up screaming and jumping. It would be like winning a championship game. I don't blame them for cheering. They didn't really have much of a choice though. Were they just supposed to sit there?
Another quote from the article is,
"Dallas Academy has eight girls on its varsity team and about 20 girls in its high school. The team remains winless during the last four seasons. The academy boasts of its small class sizes and specializes in teaching students struggling with "learning differences," such as short attention spans or dyslexia."
Every article I read has mentioned that Dallas Academy had eight players on the team. You only play schools of similar size, so Covenant had to have about the same number of people. Yet none of the articles ever mentions how many people were on the other team. I double checked on the school's roster to make sure, but Covenant School also had eight girls on their team. We seem to have overlooked that fact. In the article written by the winning coach, he mentions that they have had to end with only four people playing because of injuries, absences, and fouls.
It's great that they teach kids who have trouble learning but that should have nothing to do with how either team played. We shouldn't feel bad for the losing kids because they can't learn like others and we shouldn't think the winning team should have gone easier on them because of that. This would be along the lines of discriminating against people with disabilities. And since there is no physical disabilities involved, only a the fact that one team learns differently, there is no reason this should affect the game at all. One girl from the winning school was quoted as saying,
"I have ADD and ADHD. There is nothing that separates me from anyone on the Dallas Academy girls team, so there is nothing that should separate the value of our sides. What we did that night is what we are on this team for: to play basketball and win. As for the media calling our actions “unchristian”, that is very sad. For this team, and our coach are a living testimony. I am not sorry for how we played that night because I know that no harm was intended and I also know no harm occurred. I would hope America was more willing to read the lies in between the lines. The coach is as important to the team as we are—we are with him 100%."
As a high school athlete, I support the winning team. I have seen bad losses before but I still support Convenant School. The coach there sounds like he is very well liked by the team and he should be hired again. The other team was not prepared to play and now they are getting rewarded for that. I'm sure there are teams in every state that suffer these sort of losses all the time but keep playing. They don't give national attention because they don't whine about it. They also don't get Dallas Mavericks tickets. Instead, they practice harder, in a chance to better themselves in their sport. So that they can win like the Covenant School did. There is no reason this game should be forfeited or given all the attention that it has. Dallas Academy needs to find a basketball coach that can coach and the girls on the team need to learn how to play. They also need to know how to prepare for a game and do their best. If their best isn't good enough, they need to learn how to deal with it and not whine. That's how you become better, not just in basketball, but in life. Covenant School has learned this, that's why they are now a good team, because they overcame their losses. A team like this should not be punished but rewarded.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment