CT HS Football Coach Suspended For Violating 50 PT Rule

That's all well and good, Starman, but this team left the first string in to push it past 50. And it was the school itself, not the review board, that decided that was out of bounds.

 

Any coach who has the first string in with a 50-point lead deserves all the sprained ankles and blown-out knees they get. When players are down by 50, the threat of personal-foul penalties isn't exactly a daunting deterrent.

And let me tell you, if I were the parent of a star QB or some marquee player who got injured by a cheap-shot personal foul late in a blowout game, the coach would be going to the emergency room himself for not getting my kid's ass out of there and leaving him in to get cheap-shotted in a blowout.

 

What should the ethos of high school sports be? I'm intrigued to hear your "everyone gets a trophy because they all try real hard" argument.

 

That coach is just as responsible for and to the worst player on his team as he is the best player on his team. If that's not his ethos, then he needs to get the fuck out of coaching.

 

2 things.

If running up the score isn't a problem, why does every coach at every level complain when it happens to them?

And, as an afterschool activity, what "lesson" should football teach?

 

Seriously, don't you get tired of this schtick? Prop up some preposterous strawman so you can show just how angry you can get while knocking it down?

I dunno, seems by your logic that if he doesn't like being the third stringer he should just get better, right? Otherwise they're "pussifying" the offense so he can feel better.

 

First off, the ethos of high school sports should be about participation, and if the first string is still in the game that means a whole lot of second- and third-stringers who practice all six months are sitting on the bench during 35-0 or 49-0 blowouts because their coach needs to strike his own ego. Most coaches I know like these blowouts because it gives them a chance to reward some hard-working kids who have fully accepted that they aren't going to play with the game on the line but would still like to play when it's possible. It's also a way to get playing time for younger kids who are going to be a bigger part of the team in the future, but that isn't really ethos, it's just basic sports.

Beyond that, there is an ethos that says enough is enough. This is accepted by nearly everyone in sports to the degree that cases like this stand out. If this coach's attitude were the prevailing notion, probably half the football games in America on a given Friday night would be decided by 35 or more points.

 

The "score more points" approach is fuckin' ridiculous.

Hey, the problem is, they can't score ANY points. They're clearly talent deficient and those two teams have no business playing each other.

If team A is beating every team by those margins, team A should be in a different league.

It's like a house league hockey team playing a AAA team and getting beaten 15-0. What's the point? The kids on the winning team don't take any satisfaction from it and they haven't developed any skills.

It's HS football.Get a grip.

 

Oh, and this "getting their feelings hurt" is nothing I've ever experienced. Usually about 5 minutes after the game, both teams forget the score and figure out what they're going to do after the game.

The parents are the ones whose feelings are usually hurt because they've just discovered that little Johnny, who probably didn't give a shit whether he played hockey/football/baseball or not, is a pretty awful athlete. Nothing wrong with that. Kids know who can play and who can't.

 

You didn't expect boom to tell the truth, did you? Guy is a serial liar.

 

Look, winning by 50 is OK as long as you win by 50 THE RIGHT WAY.

 

This strawman -- the everyone gets a trophy b.s. -- grows more and more hackneyed as the years go by. And it has absolutely nothing to do with the issue at hand, which is that the coach in question acted like a total assclown. Leaving your starters on the field in a six-touchdown blowout is an absolute dick move. You could reward your non-starters -- you know, the ones who contribute to the team by serving as practice fodder day in and day out -- for their diligence by letting them get in there and compete some. I agree with Strawman that it shouldn't be contrived -- I think you should let 'em really compete, score be damned. But your non-starters have made no less of a sacrifice to be on and contribute to the team than your starters, and if you can't recognize and reward that (if at all possible), you shouldn't be coaching.

Frankly, I agree with YGBFKM ... there's a right way and a wrong way to win by 50. As I understand what went down, this is absolutely 1000 percent the wrong way.