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Just curious what everyone else's thoughts are on this? I'm actually slightly in agreement with the losing coach.

High School Girls Basketball Coach Suspended After His Team Won 161-2

A high school girls basketball coach in California has been suspended for a rare reason: Winning by too large a margin. Arroyo Valley's Michael Anderson kept his foot on the gas pedal even as his team went up by 60 early in the game against a winless opponent.

The end result was brutal: A 161-2 beatdown.

Decisive as it might be, it was far from impressive. The coach was called by the school's athletic director and later told The Riverside Press-Enterprise that he had been suspended two games for what had happened.

The coach also expressed regret for his actions while suggesting that he didn't expect the game to get so far out of hand -- when he put in his bench players in the second half, he was surprised by their output.

Arroyo Valley applied a high-pressure full-court trap throughout the first half, ostensibly under the pretense of tuning up for tougher competition down the road. By halftime, the score was 104-1.

Nevertheless, the opposing team's coach was not happy with the result, and he made sure his opinions were known. He called the ethics of Anderson into question.

"People shouldn’t feel sorry for my team," opposing coach Dale Chung of Bloomington High told The Sporting News. "They should feel sorry for his (Anderson’s) team, which isn’t learning the game the right way."

The Press-Enterprise reported that Arroyo Valley won its first game without Anderson. It was also a blowout -- 80-19 over San Bernardino Indian Springs -- but not the extent of the one against Bloomington that triggered the uproar.


http://yahoo.thepostgame.com/blog/heroes...-team-won-161-2

psh....

2 points? sorry. its not the other teams fault they decided not to show up and play.

i get the running up the score...kind of. but honestly, it doesn't matter. short of just standing on the court and passing the ball til the time goes out, theres nothing the coach could've did to stop the massacre. he put his bench players in at half time, what more do people want?

if the team is pissed, they need to be pissed at themselves, coach included. 2 points? the winning coached got suspended, but the other coach should be fired for that laughter.

this "everybody wins a trophy" crap is stupid.

This seems to be the general sentiment of everyone posting comments on the story itself, but here's my take ...

I don't think the winning coach did "enough" to stop the massacre. At the point you realize that you're going to mow over the other team, the coach should be doing anything he can to challenge his own team.

Having been a youth football coach, I've been on both sides of these lopsided games. When it was my team winning, I'd start playing my best players in positions they weren't familiar with. I'd start running the plays through my worst players and giving them some run. I'd tell my QB that he couldn't throw it to certain kids on the team. The point was to make the game more challenging for them, while working on other skills that they would need down the road. I wanted them to overcome adversity and not just look to exploit the same strengths and weaknesses over and over again.

I played another team that was completely stacked. Every single one of their players was more athletic than my best guy (who was actually pretty good himself, the other team was just that stacked). The entire game, they kept running plays directly at my two weakest/youngest kids because they knew they wouldn't be able to tackle them. After the game, I thought to myself that their coach did them a complete injustice. At some point down the road they're going to run into a team that doesn't have a "weak" link on the defense. They're going to run into a team that might not be completely matched up with them, but if they are good enough to slow down the run, the other team is not going to know what to do. They'll have no experience in dealing with adversity and end up crapping the bed when faced with a team that didn't have a weak link that they could just exploit. Sure enough, last game of the season, in their "title" game, they faced a team that held their own and that super-team crapped the bed in the face of actual adversity.

Now, in this basketball example, I'm not saying the other team has to lay down and give up points, but their coach can certainly come up with all kinds of things to put some adversity on his team and see if they can overcome in. Tell them they can only dribble left handed, tell them they can only take shots outside of 10 feet, tell them they have to work 5 clean passes into a play before they can shoot. Any number of things will work. It actually challenges his players, and in the process they learn valuable skills (like dribbling left handed) that will help them down the road. Telling them to press and run the same play over and over against a team that's woahfully over-matched isn't going to teach them anything but, "Yay, we can run up the score on a team that can't keep up with us."

Down the road, when they face a team that CAN handle a full court press, that team hasn't learned anything else about how to handle it.

In the pro's or in college, you run up the score however you see fit. But in high school or lower, the coach has to do some of the things ExclDawg explains. Put in your 2nd unit, then your 3rd unit, then tell the best two players on your 3rd unit to stop shooting, then tell them to wait until the last second of the shot clock. You keep trying to ease the massacre.

I don't think that falls within the "every kid gets a trophy" theory because they're still getting their teeth kicked in. Everyone watching knows the game is over. A high school team is only as good as their surrounding neighborhood. They are there to play the game and have fun (and learn a few lessons too). A college can recruit the best of the best from all over (and a lot of them are on scholarship, so it's kind of like a job).

I don't know if I'd suspend the coach in this story, unless this was their 3rd or 4th time doing this.

I agree. I don't think I'd suspend the coach and while every kid does not deserve a trophy, no kid deserves that kind of public beat down.

Do you have kids? Then you know that the younger the players, the more variability there is in ability and talent pools. Could it just be that the losing team just had zero talent? They didn't have talent, they still wanted to play. They got beaten badly but then something else happened. The whole "everyone gets a trophy" complaint doesn't hold here. This is about humiliation. Putting them on their backs and then kicking.... And kicking.... And kicking... And kicking. For as much as some might say going easy is about the pussification of sports and that's what's wrong with the world I'd counter that a culture that teaches savage, relentless humiliation of an obviously weaker opponent and the bully culture of going beyond victory to a place of abject dignity destruction represents the bigger wrong in the world. If I was athletic director I'd have fired a coach that teaches kids to be terrible people.

Man this country is getting weak. . .

i have two daughters. that whole "do you have kids" argument doesn't work.

Do you know how predictable you are. . When I started reading this article I thought of you along with a few others that may or may not have responded yet and your comment is 150% what I thought it would be. It truly amazes me how heartless you are regardless of the subject. Swiss against the world. Do unto others before they do unto you! Just absolutely amazes me.

Glad i didn't disappoint.

When life put's it's foot on your throat, it doesn't let up... just saying.

I would never have run up the score like that, but I would have never complained about getting beat so bad.

I don't think the winning coach should have been suspended, but I do think the losing coach should have been fired.

If you don't like competition, don't compete.

And Mox...........get off of Swish's case. You sound like a soccer mom!

Your one of the other ones I was thinking about. There's a thing called sportsmanship. Not in the NFL or college, there it's anything goes. In school there is no reason to run up a score. Think about what you would have to do to score 161 points. That doesn't happen by accident. What did I say to Swiss that gave you any indication of what I sound like.. I was just thinking of a few posters that due to comments they make on other subjects they are predictable on other subjects.

Gee, aren't you superior by saying I was one of the ones you were thinking about? LOL

I already said that I would not have run up the score, but don't let facts get in the way of your personal crusade of hatred.

It is extremely ironic that you are preaching that you are so morally sound because you would not have run up the score, yet you are trying to run other posters into the ground. That kinda sounds like the opposite of good sportsmanship.

You are a freaking hypocrite. Take a hike!

How long do you think it will take me to say something that will make you get suspended again? You said the coach should not be suspended and the other coach should have been fired. I completely understand why the losing coach was upset. As I said you don't score 161 by accident. The starters should have been out of that game by the end of the 1st.

What I'm saying is most people on here have logical comments on a wide variety of subjects then you have people like you.

And again, the irony and hypocrisy of your statements is beyond amusing.

I don't agree w/running up the score. I clearly stated I would not do that.

What is telling about you is that you are slamming the coach that ran it up on another coach and you then turn around and are mocking and trying to humiliate other posters.

It speaks to the defect in your character, as in, you are a fraud.

Oh............and it is real manly to TRY and get someone suspended. Pfftttt.........you have proven yourself to be who you are.

How can I get someone suspended. What does it say about someone like you if someone can provoke you in getting suspended?

It says I am a jerk and that I just allowed you to run up the score on me.

Perhaps you should be suspended for doing so???

Well... apparently, only HALF this country is getting weak.

The other half scores 161 points.

I'd say that on balance, we're probably OK.

That's what we did when I coached youth hockey. If we were up 5 goals, no one was allowed to shoot until we passed 3 times. It was an unwritten rule with most teams we played, and I've been on both sides of it. It also kept us on the ice longer from the 10 goal mercy rule stoppage. Ice time was at a premium and both sides appreciate not having to stop early.

great policy, Dawg.

I am really torn on this. How do you tell your kids to not play hard? If you empty your bench at halftime, do you tell those kids who never get to play to not play hard? I feel really bad for the team that could only score 2 points ... and I can see how and why their coach would be extremely upset .... but good teams use games against weaker opponents to work on things all the time. In this case, they worked on a full court trap.

If a team loses 161-2, then they were obviously badly over-matched. I can see a team stepping off the gas, but how do you tell a team to not play hard, when that is what you coach them consistently? Someone said to tell them not to take a shot until they pass at least 5 times, and that's fine, but what if that louses up their mindset for a more important game?

I don't know ..... I would not want my kid to go through a 161-2 beat-down .... but there are times in life where you just take a beat-down, and have to deal with it. It sucks, but you can grow from losing badly, sometimes even more than you do by winning by a huge margin. That said, I am sure that the kids on the losing side were crushed by the experience, especially with the way their coach seems to have handled it.

I dunno, I am really torn. I can see 2 or 3 different sides to this.

I would never advocate telling kids to "not try hard" ... but you as a coach need to do something to make it harder on your own kids. Challenge them to do something different. Like I said, there are all kinds of things a basketball coach can make his team do to increase the "degree of difficulty".

Telling his team to do a full-court press against a team that's badly over-matched is NOT going to help that team run the full-court press. They would be better served running it against themselves in a practice scrimmage. The only thing that coach is reinforcing is "If we have a mismatch, we can exploit it and put up a ton of points." What happens when a team CAN handle a full court press? His team won't know what to do, because they're used to running it against sub-par competition.

That coach should be trying to stack the deck against his own team so they CAN give 100% effort. Like I said, making them shoot/dribble left handed would be just one great way to challenge his own team, while keeping the score down, and giving his own team something to learn that would actually help them down the road. Not to mention, his team would have to learn to step up and fight an actual challenge, not roll over what are essentially training cones for them.

I'd say any event is a learning opportunity. Both winners and losers will have this in their lives forever.

As far as firing or suspending coaches; it's not my call, but if I was the athletic director there would be a concern about scheduling teams willing to play a deuchbag school.

At a certain point, just have your players take shots from their non-dominant hand.

A lot of this is good. When it got to 48-0 or 66-2 I would have called a timeout and motioned for the apposing coach and the ref to have a meeting. I would have said something like look, we're leaving here with a W and you're leaving with an L but let's try to make this constructive and positive some how. You don't want your girls to get humiliated and I want my kids to learn something here. One of the best ways to teach kids is turn them into teachers. Essentially start running he game like a clinic that the winning kids are helping to instruct. If the game was at all an actual game of course you don't go this route but it's clear this wasn't a game so stop treating like one. Let the score ride and clock run out but change the focus into something like a skill drill. That's what i would have done.

Ditto the above post by 10Yr...

Exactly what I was thinking.

The point of any game is to win. Once it's out of hand give the other team the option of ending the travesty.

One caveat: There's likely more to this story.

I don't think you can actually "play" a whole basketball game and only score two points.

a few comments...

I coached kids at all levels through little league baseball, some basketball, and I always told my teams you play like you are 3-runs or points down and you never look at the score until after the game is over. You play hard, execute the plays, and the score takes care of itself. To teach kids at that level to take plays off or pull back typically results in injury or the beginning of bad mechanics...

there was one year, on the last game of the season, when I was literally out of pitchers due to injuries and pitch count. None of the kids could get the ball over the plate..and it was brutal - nothing we could do and the other coach was telling his kids to not swing.

Next season we added the mercy rule...to avoid these types of issues. I would have thought the refs in this game would have some kind of mercy rule..

I just finished watching 'When the Game Stands Tall" where HS football team won 151 straight games and 12 consecutive state titles...good movie BTW..

You'll notice that Women's basketball seems to be a sport that often has huge mismatches - even at the DI level. Shoot, my HS girl's basketball team was awful as we were a small 1A school and I think only 1/2 the girls had any athletic ability.

The next game - according to the article - was 80-19...so this is a powerhouse team. If I was the losing coach, I'd take the tape from the game and show my team what a basketball team looks like and that we will try and become...time to get to work ladies!

159 point margin of victory? They must be doing something right.

Again, I think it was wrong to run up the score, but that coach and team are taking a ton of abuse.

What about the other coach? The other team? If you don't want to get beat bad, how about you coach better? What if the other team's players really don't practice hard or work hard on their skills? Perhaps it is just "fun" for them to play.

And then the other coach complains. I would never ever complain about a team running it up on me. And I never had to, because I made damn sure no one could.

And again.........I am not defending the winning coach so much as what the hell gives w/the other side? Why isn't that coach being questioned?

Do we want to embrace losing and vindicate the winners in our society?

I read an article this week where a couple of guys were blasting Urban and Ohio State because he believes in God and scored that late touchdown. The point was that guys who believed in God were hypocrites and lacking morals. Oregon was a victim.

Really?

Has anyone ever watched Oregon's games? Weren't they calling timeouts? Didn't they go offsides in an attempt to create a fumble? Weren't they trying to win the game?

I am NOT blaming Oregon. I blaming the idiots who blasted Ohio State and the Big 10 for years. I am blasting all those who said Ohio State did not belong and then made excuses for why Alabama lost and then cried a river because we beat an Oregon team that they all said would crush us.

It's a mixed-up world.

It was 104-1 at halftime.

Seriously, keeping the full court press on until half? (maybe past half time even?) Come on.

Yes, it's the other teams job to stop them. They obviously couldn't.

At maybe, I don't, 50-1, put your second team in. Even if it's not in your playbook - you walk the ball up the court. You tell your players to slow the game down.

If the team you are playing is that bad, you change your tactics. Let's face it - the other team was bad. What good does it do to press a team that is bad? What do your players learn by stealing the ball over and over and over?

Some want to blame the losing team's coach? Please. It would appear his team had little talent, and was playing an extremely talented team

Common sense would tell me, as the coach of the good team, to slow it down. After the game, I would simply say "hey, we were up 40 pts, 50 pts. No sense rubbing it in. This is a regular season game, in high school."

No excuse for the score. NONE. Nothing to be learned for either team in this situation.

And you were one of the others I was talking about. Good to see you Arch. You always post about your little Girl and I knew you would have the post that made alot of sense.

Myself I would be embarrassed to be on the winning team that won like this

The basketball team my daughter played on had 7 girls that was on the team The whole year. I would be interested in seeing how you accomplished your statement under those circumstances.. This is what I'm talking about. You make statements and couldn't back them up in all circumstances. You're making them under perfect circumstances

One more time.............I AM NOT DEFENDING THE WINNING COACH!!!

I have said the same thing several times.

My point that no one wants to consider is that the other coach was ALSO wrong for going public w/the bashing of the winning coach. Complaining about getting beat is not an attribute that I would want my team to witness.

It reminds me of the Baylor/TCU situation.

The Baylor coach and QB were ripping the committee, The Big 10, etc. They were crying about how they deserved to go. They then went out and got beat by a Big 10 team in the bowl game.

TCU took the high road. They politely stated they thought they belonged in the top 4 teams, but didn't cry about it. They then went out and beat the tar out of a SEC team.

It goes back to what Paul Brown said, which is something like: When you win, say nothing. When you lose, say even less.

That's where I'm at, Arch. My dad coached basketball for 40 years. He currently has a girl on his team that has been heavily recruited by OSU, WVU, and even had inquiries from UConn. As soon as his team is up big on a team, they call off the dogs, play a loose 2-3 zone and play the 2nd and 3rd teamers.

Do some of you understand how almost impossible it is to score that many points in a high school basketball game? It's not like they play 12-15 minute quarters!!

And, I agree with Excel. Challenge your players and teach sportsmanship. You might run into a team with a player that doesn't take too kindly to getting demolished like that and decided to take out on your best player's knee...

High school games are 32 minutes. (4 8 minute quarters....at least they are here in Ohio).

That team scored an average of 5 points every minute.

At some point in time, as the coach, you just shut it down and run the clock. Not doing so only makes the coach look bad.

Personal example, of my daughter's team (rather, the team my daughter is on and has been on):

In 4th and 5th grade, they had a "club" team. 7 members, all from the same school - Archbold. Classmates from Kindergarten on.

They played teams from this area - all school teams, and pretty much dominated. Won most games by 10-20 points, with the coach backing them off when they got up big. So, as 6th graders, the coach decided to get into a more challenging league - pretty much a "hey, you think you're good? Let's go play good teams." move.

Played in Ft. Wayne (Spiece Center) against primarily true "club" teams. The only games our girls won were against other "school" teams, of which there were only 2 others.

The true "club" teams.....dang, they were good.

One team in particular....watching them I made the comment "I think these 6th graders would beat our varsity team." They had 3 girls from Louisville, Kentucky, 3 from Indianapolis, and 2 from Ft. Wayne. They were a true all-star team. (as 5th graders, they finished 2nd in the country in some huge "invitational" tourney - played in Texas if I remember correctl.)

It was absolutely no contest. They were bigger, stronger, faster, quicker, tougher, rougher, had more hustle.........just flat out better on every level. They could've beaten us by 50, 60, 70, maybe 80 points if the coach had wanted to. (and that was with 6 minute quarters.) They didn't.

Their coach reigned them in after 1 quarter having seen the obvious........the Archbold team just didn't have anything for them. (I mean, just getting the ball over half court in the first quarter was an accomplishment for our girls.) I don't recall the losing margin - 25 points?

And after the game all one could do is say "dang, that's a good team" and thank the coach for having some common sense and class. His girls weren't learning, or improving. Had he kept them going all out, they'd get nothing out of the game, and the opposing team - us - would've been humiliated even more than they were.

Now, I'll say this again: That coach had class. There was NOTHING our coach could do........there was nothing our girls could do. The other team was that much better.

That sounds a little "narrow minded" don't you think?

I would have thought a nanny state like California would have a universal mercy rule in place. Maybe the ref's went to bar after the first half.