CT HS Football Coach Suspended For Violating 50 PT Rule

[Boom_70]

There is a HS rule in CT that automatically suspends coaches who's team wins by more than 50 points.

http://www.norwichbulletin.com/carousel/x255957077/NFA-coach-suspended-for-next-game#axzz2A9hBlzqJ

Losing by 49 is ok . Lose by 50 and the poor kids are traumatized for life.

 

[hondo]

Right. There are kids dressing in all black with multiple tats and body piercings and a threat to start the next Columbine because their team got its ass whipped 60-0 one game.
The Wussification of America continues.

 

[User 11148]

I don't think it hurts the losing team nearly so much as it makes the winning coach/team look like total asshats. Up six or seven touchdowns and your starters are in the game in the 4th quarter? You're a dickwad. Unless you're one of those little schools with just enough guys to field a team, you can put your reserves in way before then. If they are so much better than the other team at that point, then so be it. But if you've got kids standing on the sidelines who never get to play, and you leave them on the sideline just so your starters can pile it on a little more? **** wussification ... that's prickification.

 

[sgreenwell]

On one hand, I don't think there should be automatic penalties for going over some magical point threshold. It's not like 48-0 is that much worse than 56-0 - one is eight TDs with no XP, the other is eight TDs with XP, essentially the same performance but one would be a suspension and one wouldn't.

That being said, the rule seems to be that winning by 50 just triggers a review of the game, and I imagine a coach can avoid a suspension with any reasonably plausible excuse. ("I was playing third string and they still scored, all we did was run the ball, etc.") Also, given the information coming out about football and concussions, and that they still had starters playing in the fourth quarter, I don't think it's the worst thing in the world that there is a rule like this in place. In terms of the Pussification of Society, it would rank pretty low on my list - it's not "trophies for everyone!!!" in youth soccer or not having cutdown days because it's a girl's sport.

 

[Starman]

Point shaving mandated by rule.

If you don't like losing by huge scores, play better.

If it is not possible for you to play better, quit.

No rule says you have to play football.

 

[Smallpotatoes]

I know everyone thinks this is a back-and-white issue, but I tend to take a middle ground on it.
Most of the people I work with think running up the score should be avoided at all costs. If it means taking a knee on every play starting in the third quarter or punting on first down, that's what you have to do. I disagree with that.
But I don't agree with Starman either.
You play the backups. No trick plays. If you end up scoring 70 or 80 points like that, so be it.

 

[User 11148]

Because that's what high school football's all about, right Starman? Seeing who's better?

I don't care anything about the score in this (or similar) instances. I care a helluva lot about the mindset behind the score. If I were the Principal or A.D. and Coach Runitup left second-, third- and lower-string players standing on the sidelines in the fourth quarter of a six-touchdown blowout, I wouldn't need a rule. I'd suspend him (and maybe fire him) myself.

I do think it'd be bull**** to have starters out there not playing (i.e., taking a knee, etc.) simply because they'd done so well to that point. Put your reserves in and give them a chance to compete. They get to play hard and you coach them as if your season depended on it. You owe it to them just as much as you owe it to your starters. And you revel in their successes or failures as much as you do in that hefty lead your starters built. I don't see how any high school coach can't see this.

 

[YGBFKM]

Nothing good ever came out of Connecticut.

 

[imjustagirl]

God it hurts me to agree with Starman, but as my former coworker said, "Score more points."

You don't want to lose by 50? Don't lose by 50. If you're not good enough not to lose by 50, you're no better of a team just because you lost by 49. I'd rather lose by 60 and know they didn't cheapen it by taking knees than lose by 49 and know they pity me enough to not even try.

 

[User 11148]

God it hurts me to agree with Starman, but as my former coworker said, "Score more points."

You don't want to lose by 50? Don't lose by 50. If you're not good enough not to lose by 50, you're no better of a team just because you lost by 49. I'd rather lose by 60 and know they didn't cheapen it by taking knees than lose by 49 and know they pity me enough to not even try.

So you're OK with a coach having his starters out there in the 4th quarter just to see how many points said starters could win by?

 

[LongTimeListener]

God it hurts me to agree with Starman, but as my former coworker said, "Score more points."

You don't want to lose by 50? Don't lose by 50. If you're not good enough not to lose by 50, you're no better of a team just because you lost by 49. I'd rather lose by 60 and know they didn't cheapen it by taking knees than lose by 49 and know they pity me enough to not even try.

So you're OK with a coach having his starters out there in the 4th quarter just to see how many points said starters could win by?

Yeah, I can't understand that either. That is so far from what the ethos of high school sports should be.

These days, talent in football has gotten so concentrated in the top handful of schools that you could see games like this just about every week if the schools were so inclined. In any given area the top teams are going to play three games that are actually tough and six or seven that are nothing but exhibition workouts. It's usually because they have recruited a lot of players who by rights (and often by district lines) should be on the other sideline.

Regardless of how the program came to be, though, if this is going to be how the top teams handle their games I can see the other teams not playing them, because this is always going to be the situation between the schools. And those top schools, they do still need to fill out a 10-game schedule.

 

[Starman]

Some teams put the reserves in in the second quarter and still win by 70.

The champions of pussification want:

1) The best players to hardly be able to play at all;

2) The backup players to be forced to play a patty-cake, kneel-down, pansy-ass, oh-dear-let's-not-hurt-anybody's-feelings style of fake football (or whatever other sport may apply).

Say you are the THIRD string QB on a really good team. Since you were a little kid, you have played in your back yard, you have thrown footballs through a hanging tire, you dreamed of getting out there and throwing a pass in a game, etc etc etc etc, but it turns out you are the third-best QB on the team. So you stand on the sidelines patiently and wait your turn.

So the superstar starter leads your team out to a 28-0 lead, then the second stringer comes in. He doesn't throw many passes but your team is simply way better than the other guys and you add three more touchdowns and now it's 49-0. So here we are at the end of the third quarter, and you, good hardworking third stringer, finally get to play. And what does the coach tell you?

"Hand the ball off. Fullback off tackle. No option runs, no passes. Kill the clock. If we get inside the 20, just kneel on it."

So you have to intentionally play like ****, you cannot throw a pass, you cannot do any of the stuff you have practiced for years to do, because the other team sucks ass (or more likely, has quit) and we don't want to hurt their feelings.


If you don't like getting beat by a huge score, play better.

If you are the head coach or AD and your teams are consistently and continually getting beat by huge scores, you are playing the wrong teams. Improve your program, get in another league, or drop the sport.

 

[LongTimeListener]

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.

 

[Starman]

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.

 

[imjustagirl]

God it hurts me to agree with Starman, but as my former coworker said, "Score more points."

You don't want to lose by 50? Don't lose by 50. If you're not good enough not to lose by 50, you're no better of a team just because you lost by 49. I'd rather lose by 60 and know they didn't cheapen it by taking knees than lose by 49 and know they pity me enough to not even try.

So you're OK with a coach having his starters out there in the 4th quarter just to see how many points said starters could win by?

Yeah, I can't understand that either. That is so far from what the ethos of high school sports should be.

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.

 

[User 11148]

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 **** out of coaching.

 

[Azrael]

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?

 

[PCLoadLetter]

Some teams put the reserves in in the second quarter and still win by 70.

The champions of pussification want:

1) The best players to hardly be able to play at all;

2) The backup players to be forced to play a patty-cake, kneel-down, pansy-ass, oh-dear-let's-not-hurt-anybody's-feelings style of fake football (or whatever other sport may apply).

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?

Say you are the THIRD string QB on a really good team. Since you were a little kid, you have played in your back yard, you have thrown footballs through a hanging tire, you dreamed of getting out there and throwing a pass in a game, etc etc etc etc, but it turns out you are the third-best QB on the team. So you stand on the sidelines patiently and wait your turn.

So the superstar starter leads your team out to a 28-0 lead, then the second stringer comes in. He doesn't throw many passes but your team is simply way better than the other guys and you add three more touchdowns and now it's 49-0. So here we are at the end of the third quarter, and you, good hardworking third stringer, finally get to play. And what does the coach tell you?

"Hand the ball off. Fullback off tackle. No option runs, no passes. Kill the clock. If we get inside the 20, just kneel on it."

So you have to intentionally play like ****, you cannot throw a pass, you cannot do any of the stuff you have practiced for years to do, because the other team sucks ass (or more likely, has quit) and we don't want to hurt their feelings.

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.

 

[LongTimeListener]

God it hurts me to agree with Starman, but as my former coworker said, "Score more points."

You don't want to lose by 50? Don't lose by 50. If you're not good enough not to lose by 50, you're no better of a team just because you lost by 49. I'd rather lose by 60 and know they didn't cheapen it by taking knees than lose by 49 and know they pity me enough to not even try.

So you're OK with a coach having his starters out there in the 4th quarter just to see how many points said starters could win by?

Yeah, I can't understand that either. That is so far from what the ethos of high school sports should be.

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.

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.

 

[JR]

The "score more points" approach is ****in' 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.