Running Up the Score

[John005]

I am shocked by some ideas of sportsmanship I read on this board from time to time and want to see what some of you who have been around football a long time think about this.

 

Here's what happened:

 

Last week Sycamore played at Station Camp, winning 23-14. At the end of the ballgame, with approximately 1:30 left and Sycamore leading by 2 scores, the War Eagles intercepted a pass around the Bison's own 15 yard line. In everyone's mind this all but sealed the deal. After the turnover Sycamore ran one running play that got down to the 5, but the coach of Station Camp chose not to use his 2 remaining timeouts to try to stop the clock. Station Camp was obviously conceding the game to Sycamore, who were up by 2 scores at 23-14. Fans were beginning to file out on Station Camp's side. The game was decided. I, along with most others, expected Sycamore to take a couple knees and let it be done with. We all know etiquette on the field between teams right? Maybe? However, instead of taking a knee on the next play...Sycamore ran the ball 2 more times inside the 5 trying to add on a cheap TD. If you were there, you know what I am talking about. Though I was pulling for Sycamore, I totally disagreed with the decision.

 

What do you think about this situation?

[muffin]

What comes around goes around.

[SCtribe]

Maybe the coach was trying to compensate for something...

[Ole3putt]

Or maybe looking for style points...

[XBOX]

What comes around goes around.

 

Not in your case muffin......

[HUCKFINN]

That is no worse than Goodpasture throwing fade routes and running bootlegs in the fourth quarter against Lewis Co. after having a big lead. That is impressive. You would think after the great recruiting season they had, they would not have to do that to a small county school that works hard for everything they get. It will all be OK though, because there is someone in East Tenn. waiting for them.

[krichunaka]

coacht himself made the best-ever post concerning this same subject. The post concerned a team he coached, that actually lost by only ten or so points; but he felt that a principle of sportamanship had been violated.

 

It usually turns out that if your team won, then the other team should simply improve and move on, things like that. If you've experienced a few such massacres, no matter the score, then the aftermath often becomes more cruel than the actually beating. Funniest of all, many of those doing the bragging, ranting, more often than not, never significantly contributed to a team, or never played at all.

Edited November 15, 2006 by krichunaka

[TheDrive1984]

I don't get too caught up in the score as an indicator of sportsmanship. The game of football is lining up my best eleven against your best eleven. Football is a competitive sport and the goal is to win ( I am not a win at all cost kind of person either). If my team is down, defensively it is our job to stop them from scoring, and to score more points on offense. It is not the other teams job to feel sorry for me and ease up. Sometimes the true test of a player's character is how they respond to extreme adversity and then use it as a motivator to better oneself.

 

Sometimes when you are up big or down big for that matter you get the opportunity to work on things that you might be hesitant to use in a tight game. I don't know the intentions of the coaching staff Friday, but you might consider that they were trying to get a deserving player a chance to get a score, not a statement about Lack of respect for the Station Camp program.

 

Generally I don't feel score is an indicator of sportsmanship (There are many other factors that are a better measure), and I don't believe in mercy rules or any other of the many crutches that we use to enable our youth and lull them into the "fallacy of fairness" in life. It is our jobs as coaches to teach these young men to compete and work hard regardless of the final outcome. Life will deal some uneven hands and "rising to the occasion and giving your all" whether in victory or in defeat is how you are measured life.

 

I guess its all in the eye of the beholder, but if I have my one's in against your one's and you spank me, its all part of the game. If you put your two's or three's in against my my one's and still score you are just the better team obviously.

Edited November 15, 2006 by TheDrive1984

[Guest dare_2_dream]

Or maybe looking for style points...

 

Good point. Got to impress the computers.

[ghsplayer]

That is no worse than Goodpasture throwing fade routes and running bootlegs in the fourth quarter against Lewis Co. after having a big lead. That is impressive. You would think after the great recruiting season they had, they would not have to do that to a small county school that works hard for everything they get. It will all be OK though, because there is someone in East Tenn. waiting for them.

 

i have a family member that plays for goodpasture and is a senior. he isn't the greatest ball player ever, but he gives it what he has. at the end of this season he will forever be done playing football. our you to tell me that he should go in when he gets a chance to play and concede to the fact that the game is over and the offense is only going to take a knee and he doesn't get to be part of a real play. we are talking about high school kids here, they play ball and enjoy and that is it. i don't care who tries to say different but i completely understand why kids should get to play out the ball game.

 

the sycamore situation is completely different. when a team still has starters in and the game is close, but over, i understand taking a knee and going on to play the next week. but with goodpasture, they will almost never take a knee due to to fact that at the end of the game players are in that don't get that much playing time and they should get to play every bit possible. martin calls short pass plays, but if corners are going to play in the face of our recievers they are taught to switch their route to a fade and that is what they are going to do. i have no remorse for goodpasture putting up points and playing the way they do and quite frankly i love the way they go about themselves. starters come out at 35 points up and the second and third.... strings come in and PLAY the rest of the game. trying to tell kids that don't get to play that much that when they do they just need to take it easy and don't kill the opposing team is ridiculous. it's not that we run up the score or hate the people we play. we just realize that all 70 some odd players we have work equally as hard and all get a chance to go out and play to their fullest potential.

[worthyone]

That's funny I went to the game with a friend and I don't remember seeing Goodpasture throwing that much in the second half. Maybe their backup threw 3-4 times.

[John005]

Or maybe looking for style points...

 

Maybe, but I have an idea on "style points". A team up by 2 scores had an entire game to score as many points as they could when the game mattered, and they couldn't. I think people that put stock into style points have played too many Playstation games, and I know there are a lot that do. Hey, don't get me wrong, I like to see my teams absolutely dominate and win 48-0 every game, but it doesn't work like that always. Sometimes the other team comes to play, and when they do and you don't, you show them respect and tip your cap in sportsmanship.

 

Here's how style-points-people think. They are so factual that they miss the human element. "Style point-ists" talk like this: I know Arkansas is #5, 9-1, and have beaten UT, Auburn, South Carolina, and Alabama. But they are, as a fact, not as good as USC because they lost 50-14 in the first game. Therefore, since those are the facts, USC must be light-years better than those teams Arkansas beat, since Arkansas lost that badly to USC. Therefore the Pac-10 must also be superior to the entire SEC, and all because of one game.

 

Well, that would be all nice and tidy thinking if California didn't get destroyed by UT(who won 35-18, and elected not to go for style points when up 35-0), if LSU didn't take Arizona apart a limb at a time 45-3, if Arizona didn't beat Cal, if Cal hadn't annihilated Oregon St. 41-13, and if USC didn't lose to Oregon St.. So what I am taking a while to show is that style points are total hog-wash but look great on Madden 2007. :justwrestle:

Edited November 16, 2006 by John005