I suppose I am most appalled at the comments of the coaches. One of taking a contrite position, apologizing for their actions. It points to how we must bow our heads and submit to cultural thought that will doom us.

Are sports games metaphors for real life, guys?

Where's the "mercy rule" in business competition?
You're getting too much market share, so what should you do? Have the government reset your selling prices higher to 'level the playing field for your competition'? Oh, wait... they already do that...

At some point, the "winning coach" should have realized the PR hazard he was chipping into and changed the entire tone of the game. They were going to win. Doubt was gone.

He could have had his team literally coach and help the inept team to develop their skills. That might have turned it into a source for better PR and maybe a sappy Hollywood flick, too, but that apparently doesn't cross the mind of coaches or players.

Ah, well, the media will figure some way to reward the incompetents for having 'stuck it out to the bitter end,' rather than acknowledging their limitations compared to the other team.

Everyone (should/must) go home with a trophy, right?

Real real-world teaching moment for everyone.

Feh!

It was wrong for the team to win 162-2. The score would have been much higher had the coach not told his players to only shoot in the last seven seconds in the third and fourth quarters.

Instead of best effort against best effort (no matter how mismatched) the winning team for all intents and purposes hopped on one foot for the last part of the game. That’s rude and a bit insulting to the opposing team.

I think a two-game suspension is a bit harsh, but hopefully he’s learned his lesson and won’t try to hold his team back next time.

In some regions leagues are least based on relative student populations of the schools. We do not know anything about the reasons why these two teams are so different in ability. There are a lot of possibilities.

Yes, it has nothing to do with war.

The article didn't provide enough details to know the facts behind the reasons for the score or what various people in charge did. There are a lot of possibilities. Without doing further research the best one can do is evaluate the comments and basis given for them in the article.

Exactly right! I tell my own kids to go full speed when they compete. How many times have you seen someone let up and then get injured? I don't care what the progressives think- they need to be ignored at all times.

In my opinion, the "league" is not based on a proper criterion. Just that both are high school teams is irrelevant. Those two teams should not have come to the same court. One of these two teams needs a different league.

In some comments above I saw people draw analogies between sport and warfare. I think that such reasoning is mistaken and out of place. Just my opinion.

I remember my first Little League baseball game back in the early 60's. The Badgers versus the Wildcats. We trounced them 48 - 2 and had a blast doing it. No one stopped it, we were laughing crossing the home plate. And then the local newspaper reported the score as 37 -9. Yes, early pc in 1960's Massachusetts.

BTW- why didn't the losing coach forfeit the game earlier if his widdle feelings were getting hurt?

I would say this is the stupidest thing I've read, but there are so many contenders... So the coach whose team only scored 2 points is "teaching the game right, and the one whose team scored 161 is wrong?! A coach getting suspended for winning ?? Isn't that the whole point of the game? Maybe the members of the losing team will be recruited by the pros!!! Hahaha. I am completely disgusted.

A friend plays geezer rugby. They enjoy beating up players 30 or more years younger than them. They were scheduled by mistake against a higher-rated and younger team, far away. Upon discovering the mistake they played anyway. Didn't win, but took advantage of every time the younger players "held back" to avoid hurting the old-timers.

That losing basketball team needs a better coach. surely one of us is qualified? It's an obvious job opening, whether the team's sponsoring organization knows it or not.

The only place for a slaughter rule is in beer league softball.

The whole thing needs a laugh track. There's no place in sports for cry babies.

What's the big deal? Vietnam Veterans came back to a country that disrespected them for winning every battle of the war. We only lost some 58,000 troops, the enemy lost millions. Should we have lost more?

The winning coach should be congratulated, and should be praising his players for their good work.

This is an incredible article. It highlights a lot of what is wrong with our culture.

If you are in a competition where the stated purpose is sportsmanship and elegant behavior, then winning is not important and behaving well is. If you are in a competition where 'winning' is the stated goal, then doing so whilst abiding by the rules of the game is nothing but commendable.

Jan

Guess they need a mercy rule in basketball

I have to agree with Blarman. 161-2? Can an NBA team even beat a college team that badly, how about a real HS team? When I was in HS, in soccer we were 22-0. Our biggest blowout was like 13-0, but 4 or 5 points were scored by our second string. In my 30's our pickup team, played a team of semi / retired pros that were running a coaching clinic. We got beat, but I scored the first point. 161-2...c'mon!

Without a mercy, rule, I'd just expect the coach to put his second string in the second half. If he did that, then he is completely exonerated. If he didn't, he should be admonished for not letting his second team get some playing time.

Maybe he just wanted some of his players to break some records for the benefit of getting on a college team, but that other coach must be a clown.

Sometimes teams are hopelessly mismatched in the wrong league, which defeats the purpose of meaningful competition. It proves nothing that you can slaughter someone with no ability -- what's the point? Any of them could beat the kindergarten class, too, which is why they aren't in the same league. Among the problems is that it renders school records for both individuals and the team meaningless.

But the mismatch isn't the coach's fault. Once the leagues are set, then every team is supposed to do the best it can for itself, which typically includes giving the non-starters experience.

One of the worst lines in the article was:

"Anderson said he is excited to get back to work, and will not to make the same mistake again. 'It wasn’t a good feeling,' he told the Orange County Register. 'It’s not something I’m proud of. It’s not something I would put on a mantel'.”

If there wasn't much to be proud of in such a mismatch, that was still no way to describe it. What was his "mistake"? It sounds like he's pandering to weakness.

He said he didn't expect his bench players to play so well. I think they even slowed down and started shooting less. This was a realllllly bad team.

My son 's tennis team won state in their division for many years. The way the roster worked you were supoosed to play other HSs in your city. The coach knew his team would not get the level of play they needed (many of the players had private coaches etc) so they sent their C team to those matches and the varsity team had its own schedule with the best teams in the state. I think much depends on the history of the team, coach, parent involvement and training and practice

Exactly. It's a learning experience. Unfortunately in this case they learned the wrong lesson.

To punish the winning coach and team is just wrong. The school needs to get some grief about their decision and a demand that they restore the coach with a clean record, any pay deducted returned and an apology. Otherwise, the coach and the players should go on strike and make severe pains of themselves.

That is the essence of the story. I have been involved in sports since I was young (long ago) and I remember a couple of 50+ point losses. We were pissed and very motivated to get better. The same team didn't beat us like that again!