Unapologetic coach of 100-0 win fired by school

[Chris]

Unapologetic coach of 100-0 win fired by school

DALLAS — The coach of a Texas high school basketball team that beat another team 100-0 was fired Sunday, the same day he sent an e-mail to a newspaper saying he will not apologize "for a wide-margin victory when my girls played with honor and integrity."

Kyle Queal, the headmaster for Covenant School, said in The Dallas Morning News online edition that he could not answer if the firing was a direct result of coach Micah Grimes' e-mail disagreeing with administrators who called the blowout "shameful."

Queal did not immediately answer phone messages or e-mail from The Associated Press.

On its Web site last week, Covenant, a private Christian school, posted a statement regretting the outcome of its Jan. 13 shutout win over Dallas Academy. "It is shameful and an embarrassment that this happened. This clearly does not reflect a Christlike and honorable approach to competition," said the statement, signed by Queal and board chair Todd Doshier.


http://highschool.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=904726

[Chris]

There is just so much wrong with this ridiculous situation, I have no idea where to begin.  Shameful.  Embarassing.  Un-Christianlike. 

What the hell is wrong with these people?

[Odin's Hand]

They played up to their abilities and the other team played up to theirs'. Just spot them a cool 50 points or so next time if you want their fragile, little egos to not take such a vicious bruising next time. 

[Eupher]

It would be one thing if the winning team's coach were gloating in his email - but the blurb in the article says nothing along those lines, indeed, even adheres to the spirit of competition.

This politically-correct bullshit that says that everybody's got to be a "winner" (even when they lose) is just that - bullshit.

Kudos to the losing team, though. The article said they "never gave up." That speaks volumes for them, but it in no way reflects poorly on the winning team's coach.

Honor and integrity are two qualities that are sorely lacking in today's society.

The headmaster ought to be fired for being stupid and the coach brought back. He clearly created a hell of a team.

[formerlurker]

A parent who attended the game said Covenant continued to make 3-pointers— even in the fourth quarter. She praised the Covenant players but said spectators and an assistant coach were cheering wildly as their team edged closer to 100 points.

The other team they romped on where special needs students.   Tough guy coach defended this attrocity.

These are not public schools, they are Christian private schools.     

While it was certainly expected they would win, they should have backed the hell off in the 2nd half and play their freshman.     

There just is no excuse in this me-me and oh yeah "me" society we are raising here. 

[Eupher]

The other team they romped on where special needs students.   Tough guy coach defended this attrocity.

These are not public schools, they are Christian private schools.     

While it was certainly expected they would win, they should have backed the hell off in the 2nd half and play their freshman.     

There just is no excuse in this me-me and oh yeah "me" society we are raising here. 

Are you saying that one team, comprised of "normal" kids, went up against a team of retarded -- oops, excuse me, that's politically incorrect to term, "special needs" kids? If that was in the article, I missed it.

If that's the case, then who the hell is putting together this kind of schedule?

And how do you know that the coach DIDN'T put in his freshmen in the 2nd half and they were burying 3-pointers? If that's in the article, I guess I missed that one too.

Competition is competition. If the playing field is fair, it's gloves off. No mercy. Play to win. Anything else is bullshit.

[USA4ME]

The coach of a Texas high school basketball team that beat another team 100-0 was fired Sunday, the same day he sent an e-mail to a newspaper saying he will not apologize "for a wide-margin victory when my girls played with honor and integrity."

Kyle Queal, the headmaster for Covenant School, said in The Dallas Morning News online edition that he could not answer if the firing was a direct result of coach Micah Grimes' e-mail disagreeing with administrators who called the blowout "shameful."

Queal did not immediately answer phone messages or e-mail from The Associated Press.

On its Web site last week, Covenant, a private Christian school, posted a statement regretting the outcome of its Jan. 13 shutout win over Dallas Academy. "It is shameful and an embarrassment that this happened. This clearly does not reflect a Christlike and honorable approach to competition," said the statement, signed by Queal and board chair Todd Doshier.

It seems to me that the attacks on Covenant is unfair. This story from the Associated Press gives away the game though:

Dallas Academy coach Jeremy Civello told The Dallas Morning News that the game turned into a "layup drill," with the opposing team's guards waiting to steal the ball and drive to the basket. Covenant scored 12 points in the fourth quarter and "finally eased up when they got to 100 with about four minutes left," he said. . . .

The coach and other parents praised the Dallas Academy girls afterward for limiting Covenant to 12 points in the fourth quarter.

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/28796621/

So, far from running the score up, Covenant actually did ease up in the final quarter, but do they get credit?  No, instead Dallas Academy is praised for its superior defense.

As far as the players being special needs student, the above article states:

The academy boasts of its small class sizes and specializes in teaching students struggling with “learning differences,” such as short attention spans or dyslexia.

It doesn't say the school is exclusively for students with "learning differences," just that it specializes in that area.  The Christian school my son and daughter attend can be categorized the same way, my daughter being the one who needs the attention because of her Asperger's.  But by no means are the majority of the kids there in need of special help, which I have found to be representative of the majority of schools which offer this type of program.

.

[Miss Mia]

Dallas Academy is a school with learning disabilities.  There are only 20 girls in the entire school.  They aren't an athletic school and the girl team hasn't won a game in years.  They are force by the way the private school system is set up to play teams like Covenant.

That being said, from all the news articles and stories I've read/seen the Covenant team played hard the entire game until the last few minutes.  It's not like Covenant was expected to give away the game, but there's a sportsman like attitude that was missing from their players.  They were even boasting after the game.  It's one thing to win the game and another to just stomp the opposing team while they're down.  The coach was fired for his statements that contradicted what the school was saying.  He said that they weren't "running up the score" when they clearly were. 

[formerlurker]

Are you saying that one team, comprised of "normal" kids, went up against a team of retarded -- oops, excuse me, that's politically incorrect to term, "special needs" kids?

"Retarded" is a phrase used to taunt and ridicule children born with disabilities, thus the word is seen in a negative light.   So yeah, it's not politically correct to use the term as it rarely is used in anyway other than to hurt a child or adult with disabilities. 

[formerlurker]

"It's 100-0, an assistant coach is cheering and they were still shooting threes? That's over the top," Edwards said. He and Petre outlined their coaching strategy for such situations. "You try not to shoot threes. You eliminate the fast break," Edwards said. "You make the kids pass the ball before taking shots."

Added Petre, "You can take out your starters. You can stop trapping and you can stop pressing."

http://www.newsday.com/sports/highschool/basketball/ny-skbob0128,0,1270829.column

Rose Galligan, now in her 34th season as girls' basketball coach at Pembroke, said she wasn't surprised that Grimes was fired.

"We're not here to embarrass the kids,'' said Galligan. "If I were the losing coach of that game, I would have said something to the other coach.''

Galligan was also interested in knowing "how would he (Grimes) have reacted if he lost 100-0?''

Tim Kehoe, now in his 18th season at Lebanon and 21st overall as a girls' basketball coach, recalls the time he beat Rutland, Vt., 62-9, and was embarrassed.

"I felt bad and I apologized to the team,'' said Kehoe. "I was actually sweating in that game and I was more upset winning the game. We tried everything from playing zone to turning our offense into a 10-pass rule in effect and nothing worked. They just couldn't hit shots and we ended up winning by that large margin.''

Kehoe said Grimes crossed the line.

"I'm only going by what I read or heard, that (Covenant) their assistant coaches were encouraging their kids to reach 100,'' said Kehoe. "That shouldn't happen.''

In Hampton, Winnacunnet coach Ed Beattie, now in his 28th season, called the incident in Dallas, "Disgusting. This game was never in doubt. There were no lessons learned here and the whole thing is really unfortunate.''

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28868217/

Coach Micah Grimes, a private club coach working part time for the school, first told The News that he was "not happy" about the victory and that the Knights tried to let up by not playing close defense and by sending in their three subs.

But now we see the box score at MaxPreps.com.

It shows that Grimes unleashed all-state guard Savannah Smith, star of GodTube.com and the daughter of Christian music producer and songwriter Chris Christian, for 48 points and 13 steals, including four three-point field goals.

That’s not exactly letting up.

http://www.star-telegram.com/804/story/1168949.html



This isnt the freakin WNBA.   Just disgusting.   

[formerlurker]

Dallas Academy is a school with learning disabilities.  There are only 20 girls in the entire school.  They aren't an athletic school and the girl team hasn't won a game in years.  They are force by the way the private school system is set up to play teams like Covenant.

That being said, from all the news articles and stories I've read/seen the Covenant team played hard the entire game until the last few minutes.  It's not like Covenant was expected to give away the game, but there's a sportsman like attitude that was missing from their players.  They were even boasting after the game.  It's one thing to win the game and another to just stomp the opposing team while they're down.  The coach was fired for his statements that contradicted what the school was saying.  He said that they weren't "running up the score" when they clearly were. 

Dallas Academy has dropped out of the league and will no longer play Covenant.   

[formerlurker]

[youtube=425,350]ngzyhnkT_jY[/youtube]
Now this is a great lesson to everyone involved -- players, coaches, students in the stands and parents.    What a heartwarming story.

[Miss Mia]

Dallas Academy has dropped out of the league and will no longer play Covenant.   

Yes, I've heard that as well. 

[Odin's Hand]

They were even boasting after the game.  It's one thing to win the game and another to just stomp the opposing team while they're down.

It's one thing to handily beat another team, after trying your best to not let them score at all, but, that is just f'ed up to trash-talk a team that is a perennial door mat in your league, especially, a team of mentally retarded kids.

[Flame]

When my youngest son played fall ball in FL, he played against a team that was all girls (don't know why), and the girls lost, big time.  However, our coaches wouldn't let it end that way, and continued playing a couple more innings, with no outs for the other team, just letting them bat through their lineup each inning.  Both teams had a good time, and ending up leaving the field happy.

Another time, on my older son's little league team, they were thoroughly stomping the other team, even when the coaches tried to stop it.  I mean, our coaches wouldn't let the players run from 1st to 2nd on a overthrown ball, nothing, but the pitchers on the other team kept walking our players, even when our players would swing at obvious balls.  And on defense, our coach switched up all the players and let the kids who normally played outfield play infield.  Good sportmanship, IMO.

[Miss Mia]

It's one thing to handily beat another team, after trying your best to not let them score at all, but, that is just f'ed up to trash-talk a team that is a perennial door mat in your league, especially, a team of mentally retarded kids.

Just to clarify, they aren't mentally retarded kids.  They have learning disabilities, such as ADD, ADHD and dyslexia.  The deal is in the whole school there are only 20 girls.  They're just playing for fun.  They know they won't win (the team hasn't won a game in 4 years), but the opposition doesn't need to beat them up either.  Covenant played hard the whole game, until the last few minutes.  They could have easily just started making more passes before shooting, no 3 pointers, etc.  And the fact that the winning team was talking smack afterwards.  It was bad just all around.  

[Eupher]

Thanks to lurker and mia for the clarifications. I have a clearer understanding now. 

[Chris_]

www.flightbasketball.com/100-0-Texas-Game-Response-From-Coach.html

After counting down the seconds until the final buzzer, I lined up my girls to wish the opposing team well, and then headed into the locker room for our post game rituals.  After the girls and I said our goodbyes, I headed home to reflect like I always do after every game. But this was no ordinary game.  Little did I know that in the next eight days, Barry Horn would write an article for Dallas Morning News about our 100-0 win over Dallas Academy that would start a firestorm of articles, nationally broadcasted news stories, and hateful email about me and the 8 young ladies that make up the Dallas Covenant School girls basketball team. I’ve always taught my girls to value honesty, integrity, compassion for others and to stand up for those values despite the consequences. So it is for Andi, Savannah, Taylor, Lauren, Wren, Marquita, Blair, Tiffany and our assistant coach Kelly that I tell our story.

The Team. We are hardly the “elite basketball powerhouse” that we are described as in the National and local media. Up until 3 years ago, we rarely had a winning season.  In fact, during my first year at Covenant four years ago, we experienced one of our worst seasons - a losing record of only 2 wins and 19 losses that sunk to an 82-6 low in a game that forever changed us and how we approached the game of basketball.  Two years later we made the first Final Four appearance in the school’s history. Like Dallas Academy, Covenant is a small Christian school, which is why we are in the same district. We don’t have a home gym so we rent out facilities or gym space in the community so we can practice, and then watch game film at the home of one of the players. We’ve never had a full roster. Only about 30 high school girls attend Covenant and only 8 of those girls play basketball.  During many of the games this year, we played with 6 girls, and sometimes only 5. When players fouled out, we’ve had to finish the game with 4.  But we always finished the game.

The Players.   Rarely does a coach find a player who will run the extra laps, do the extra push-ups, or shoot the extra baskets without complaining. I have 8 such players—2 freshmen, a sophomore who is new to the school and team, another sophomore who has been with us for two years, two Juniors who have been with us for 3 years, a Senior who is new to the team and school, and another Junior who is new to basketball and is learning how to play for the first time in her life.  My girls believe in each other, motivate each other, and see each other as family. The respect and admiration I have for them and their parents are the main reason why I come back to Covenant each year.

The Game. The game started like any other high school basketball game across the nation. The teams warm-up, coaches talk, the ball is tipped, and then the play begins. We started the game off with a full-court press. After 3 minutes into play, we had already reached a 25-0 lead.  Like any rational thinking coach would do, I  immediately stopped the full-court press, dropped into a 2-3 zone defense, and started subbing in my 3 bench players. This strategy continued for the rest of the game and allowed the Dallas Academy players to get the ball up the court for a chance to score. The second half started with a score of 59-0. Seeing that we would win by too wide of a margin, running down the clock was the only logical course of action left.  Contrary to the articles, there were only a total of four 3-point baskets made; three in the first quarter, and only one in the third quarter. I continued to sub in bench players, play zone defense, and run the clock for the rest of the game.  We played fair and honorably within the rules and in the presence of the parents, coaches, and athletic directors for both Covenant School and Dallas Academy.   

The Apology.  In response to the statement posted on The Covenant School Website, I respectfully disagree with the apology, especially the notion that the Covenant School girls basketball team should feel "embarrassed" or "ashamed". We played the game as it was meant to be played and would not intentionally run up the score on any opponent. Although a wide-margin victory is never evidence of compassion, my girls played with honor and integrity and showed respect to Dallas Academy. We honor God, ourselves, and our families when we step on the court to compete. I do not wish to forfeit the game. What kind of example does it set for our children? Do we really want to punish Covenant School girls?  Does forfeiting really help Dallas Academy girls?  We experienced a blowout almost 4 years ago and it was painful, but it made us who we are today. I believe in the lessons that sports teach us.  Competition builds character, and teaches us to value selflessness, hard work, and perseverance.  As a coach, I have instilled in my girls these values. So if I lose my job over these statements, I will walk away with my integrity. 

Sincerely,
Micah Grimes

Folks, we may have gotten this one all wrong.  I was the first to say the coach should have put in the 2nd and 3rd bench players.  If this response is true, then she did.

I am still struggling with the zero points and with other observations of what happened in the game -- but, as always, there is another side to the story.

[formerlurker]

Coach Micah Grimes, a private club coach working part time for the school, first told The News that he was "not happy" about the victory and that the Knights tried to let up by not playing close defense and by sending in their three subs.

But now we see the box score at MaxPreps.com.

It shows that Grimes unleashed all-state guard Savannah Smith, star of GodTube.com and the daughter of Christian music producer and songwriter Chris Christian, for 48 points and 13 steals, including four three-point field goals.

That’s not exactly letting up.

http://www.star-telegram....om/804/story/1168949.html




http://www.maxpreps.com/texas/basketball/covenant-(dallas)/dallas-academy-(dallas,-tx)/boxscore.aspx?contestid=7244913a-da4f-4251-bd48-5518e8347afd&schoolid=3aabfe7c-ffea-4733-b7a5-c1dd492e995b&ssid=9f835eb4-0a53-4bec-89a8-a39e076e9f88&urpath=,local,stats

[Chris_]

I put equal blame on the other coach for letting it go on. They could have forfieted after they got behind say 50 points and it became clear that they'd not be able to score. I believe the winning coach did exactly right. I saw him interviewed and agreed with everything he said. I abhor political correctness and coddling of the weak. The two teams met - one was stronger - the weaker one would not stop and forfiet the game - so they got their ass whooped. Sounds ok to me.

[john c calhoun]

I put equal blame on the other coach for letting it go on. They could have forfieted after they got behind say 50 points and it became clear that they'd not be able to score. I believe the winning coach did exactly right. I saw him interviewed and agreed with everything he said. I abhor political correctness and coddling of the weak. The two teams met - one was stronger - the weaker one would not stop and forfiet the game - so they got their ass whooped. Sounds ok to me.

I would've forced the zebras to call the game if I were the winning coach ...

something tells me he didn't try hard as hard as he says he did to slow his team down ...

if I were the losing coach, I would've had my players throwing elbows & flatout tackling the other team if I was losing that badly ...

both teams  coaches in this mess, as well as the refs, are all losers...

[Rebel]

The other team they romped on where special needs students.   

So is 3/4s of the Florida State Seminoles roster. Doesn't seem to hurt them.