Which Christian School Crossed The Line?

Let’s figure this out. Two basketball teams play and one of them loses 100-0 and the coach that won got fired. Obviously somewhere a line was crossed but I’m just not sure by whom or even where. I’m all for sportsmanship and while losing by 100 points is inexplicable so is making villains of the victors.

Micah Grimes was fired as the girl’s basketball coach at Covenant School for refusing to apologize for his 100-0 victory over Dallas Academy. The administrators for Covenant issued the following statement calling the game an embarrassment. “It is shameful and an embarrassment that this happened. This clearly does not reflect a Christlike and honorable approach to competition.”

Oklahoma used to have a basketball coach named Billy Tubbs who responded to criticism for blowout victories by saying that the other team should get better. Of course that would be a challenge for Dallas Academy who only has 8 girls on their squad and hasn’t won a game in four years. Getting better doesn’t really seem to be an option here so the next course of action is to make heroes of the lovable losers and villains of the victors.

There were two lines crossed here in my opinion. The first was by a coach who wouldn’t let up when his team had their opponents clearly outmanned and outgunned. Doesn’t that happen on all levels of competition though? Should a coach be taken out behind the woodshed when his team prepares and then executes their game plan to perfection? Why should they be expected to play down to the level of their competition when the competition is so bad? Inst the whole gist of athletic competition to get better at what you do? But still I acknowledge that you don’t have to jump a lesser school by 100 points to prove that point.

The major line that was crossed here (and the real travesty if you ask me) is that Dallas Academy fields a team when they clearly aren’t qualified to play on that level of competition. What is the next team going to do when they are blowing out Dallas Academy? Is the opposing coach going to remember what happened to Coach Grimes and start putting in fourth graders so that the score isn’t too brutal.

Exactly what is a Christlike approach to competition? Jesus, being the servant that he is, would always let the other team win. If that is the mindset that all Christian schools are supposed to take then what is the point of even playing each other.

A dangerous precedent has been set here because the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools is teaching these girls to go ahead and try something that they aren’t good at and when they fail miserably it is their competitors fault. How is that going to play out in life? If they aren’t prepared to take a test and make a zero on it should the instructor be fired for being harsh and making the exams too hard? How about when its time to send out college applications and Harvard or Yale turns them down? Is that the university’s fault for having their standards too high?

These girls aren’t being empowered they are being crippled! They are being taught that if you try at something and don’t succeed keep trying and when you fail again it just isn’t your fault. What about the lesson learned by the girls on the other bench? Find something that you are good at but just don’t excel so much that others realize that they are far inferior? What is that all about?

Life is about learning lessons. When you find something that you are good at pursue it and find success to the best of your abilities. When you fail at something either pick yourself up and try improve at it or move on to something else that matches your talents and abilities. Unfortunately neither of those lessons was learned in this situation.