High school etiquette question

Thanks for the input.

I guess the reason I asked is because the losing team is made up almost entirely of freshmen and sophomores, that's just all they have out for the team. They get skunked every game.

But their coaching staff is *incredibly* sensitive about the opponents' running up the score on them. If the other team's starters are still playing at 21-0 in the second quarter, the whining begins on the sidelines, or at least it seems that way. They practically demand the JV team for the second half in every game.

If I were coaching, I would never complain about having the score run up on me. But I think that if I were in a situation like this, I wouldn't go for the win. It just seems wrong knowing the only reason I'd win is because they tried to be nice.

(Incidentally, the team in question did onside kick, it was grabbed cleanly by the receiving team and returned for a touchdown).

 

A slight tangent here.

How would you feel if a team, up by 24 or so, took a knee five yards from the end zone and another TD, so they don't run up the score?

Should the defending team be pissed that they didn't take the chance to score again since they were that close?


I remember something like this happened in an NFL game a ways back. Wayne Fontes' Lions took a knee inside the 10 late in the fourth quarter. Forget the score, but Detroit led by a bunch. Jacksonville wasn't too happy.

 

I have seen it done in high school games before, and I think there is acceptable.

I think in the pros it could be taken as a sign of disrespect, but I think recently I've seen teams go on a drive late in a game, and then kneel it down when they could run the clock out in one set of downs.

 

State-rated team up 49-0 at half after scoring 41 in the second quarter. They pull the starters in the second half, and opposing team keeps in starters and finds way to score twice and make the game 49-14. They even onside kick twice despite a running clock and no chance of a comeback.

State-rated team brings back in starters and scores again, 56-14. Fine.

State-rated team then onside kicks and recovers the ensuing kickoff and THEN runs a fake punt during that series. All while leading 56-14.

To me, there are no written rules in how to deal with blowouts, I usually just know what is not appropriate when I see it. And that was not appropriate.

Of the two conferences I cover, the week in question and the one before had combined halftime scores of 198-0 and 194-0 -- so blowouts and how to handle them were on everyone's mind.

Instead of grilling a specific coach or method, four days later for my weekly notebook column, I called up a well-respected former coach (two state titles, oodles of wins and league titles) who blew out plenty of people in his hey day and then coached a terrible team in his second go-round. He had some great insight.

His bottom line: “Sometimes, for cryin’ out loud, you just have to use common sense. ... It's no reward to humiliate another person, and that’s the overriding rule to me.”

 

Pennsylvania had a running clock rule back when I was working there (not sure if it still does, if it was the whole state, just the WPIAL, District 9 or what). The rule stipulated if a team goes up by 35 in the second half the running clock starts...and once it starts it cannot stop, only for timeouts and changes of possession. Well, Team A returns the opening kickoff of the second half for a touchdown to go up 42-7. Running clock starts. Team B returns the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown, and follows up with a hellacious rally to pull within 10 points with four minutes left in the game. Team A turns the ball over at midfield with over three minutes left, but Team B can't punch it in and ends up losing by 10. My question, say Team B did score to pull within a field goal, how STUPID was/is that rule? How pissed would you be as a coach?

 

Play a better first half?

 

I think in a blowout it is just as disrespectful to AVOID scoring as it is to RUN UP the score. It's pretty simple. If you're up big and you've put in the second stringers, let those kids go out and play hard. Don't run gimmick plays and things of that sort, but play the game the straight up and tell the other team, 'Stop us.'

If your starters can't stop their second stringers, well, you know what, you're going to get blown out. Quit crying about it and teach your kids something from the loss.

 

The absolute definition of P-U-S-S-Y.

Coach better.

If your whole team is made up of freshmen and sophomores, you probably ought to be playing a JV schedule anyway.

And, having been a coach in something like that situation, I can tell you that a coach whining about the other team running up the score is about the worst possible role-modeling a coach could even conceivably do. You might as well lie face-down on the ground and cry.

Well, NFL and low-level high school are completely different animals.

But in this case, I'll say this: If I were William Clay Ford, I would have fired Wayne Fontes on the spot.

Why? In the NFL, point differential is one of the playoff tiebreakers.

Yes, it's fairly far down the list, unlikely ever to come into play, but it IS on the list.

And it's the job of an NFL head coach to do everything he possibly can to get his team into the playoffs -- no matter how far-fetched -- and if it hurts the opponents' feelings, tough shit.

(Of course, there were lots of other times and for lots of different reasons, I would also have fired Wayne Fontes on the spot.)