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Well, the "everybody gets a trophy" generation is now reaping it's rewards.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/web...ame-leads-to-bullying-complaint-against-coach

In their defense, it is Texas, where schools (and school boards) do things...differently.

--Patrick

I'm rather surprised there wasn't a slaughter rule in effect. But bringing up the winning side's coach on bullying charges, especially when he did all he could reasonably be expected to do to mitigate the circumstances, is ridiculous.

I hate football in Texas in general. It's a big part of the reason why we have giant high schools that cover larger areas than they should, and have major discipline problems.

When you are losing badly you can look at it two ways:

- this sucks, why are we even here if we already know how the game is going to end?
- what a great opportunity to practice with a superior team for two hours!

If you are a "the end is the only thing that matters, and winning is the only reason to play the game" then you might find fault with the other coach's responsible actions.

If you enjoy playing the game, and desire to improve your skills, then while a win is nice, it's not the reason you're playing, and so you'd probably be happy that you are forcing the superior team to train you.

If you, as a parent, don't see the value in playing the game, then don't let your child play, or better yet let your child choose, and you shut your mouth and let them decide whether the game is enjoyable or not.

stienman said:

When you are losing badly you can look at it two ways:

- this sucks, why are we even here if we already know how the game is going to end?
- what a great opportunity to practice with a superior team for two hours!

If you are a "the end is the only thing that matters, and winning is the only reason to play the game" then you might find fault with the other coach's responsible actions.

If you enjoy playing the game, and desire to improve your skills, then while a win is nice, it's not the reason you're playing, and so you'd probably be happy that you are forcing the superior team to train you.

If you, as a parent, don't see the value in playing the game, then don't let your child play, or better yet let your child choose, and you shut your mouth and let them decide whether the game is enjoyable or not.

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Go take your silver-lining attitude somewhere else mister. Positive attitudes are verboten here.

stienman said:

- what a great opportunity to practice with a superior team for two hours!

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I'm curious if there actually is much learning possible with this much disparity. I've never been very good at sports, so I don't know about how things work in that area, but I know I learn a hell of a lot less playing a competitive game like TF2 when my team is getting stomped than when it's close.

I can understand ending a kid's game early when one side is dominating the other 90-0.

I can't abide reprimanding the winning side's coach. "Bullying" has become this decade's "terrorism" word - repeated ad nauseum in every possible situation such that the word has lost its meaning.

GasBandit said:

I'm rather surprised there wasn't a slaughter rule in effect.

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There was, but it only applied to 6-man football, not 11-man.

Oh look, it has already hit Reddit:


--Patrick

figmentPez said:

I'm curious if there actually is much learning possible with this much disparity. I've never been very good at sports, so I don't know about how things work in that area, but I know I learn a hell of a lot less playing a competitive game like TF2 when my team is getting stomped than when it's close.

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If nothing else, running plays, watching the ball, and trying to understand the strategy can be improved even against players with significant differences.[DOUBLEPOST=1382558897,1382558854][/DOUBLEPOST]Just the physical practice of running up and down the field will provide stamina as much as a practice session after school might.

Eh, "this is what society is turning into" seems a pretty extreme statement.

I mean, even the losing coach said he thinks the bullying complaint is unwarranted. Nothing has actually been done to the coach or team; it is school policy to investigate it, but everyone in the story seems to have comments that the team played hard and won big and that's it. The report by the school's investigation will probably find the same. Note also, that most people in the thread seem to think that a bullying complaint is unwarranted.

So of all that commentary, which is an admittedly small sample size, it appears that only one person (the one parent from the opposing side who complained) feels there was bullying. So by appearances, society does not appear to be turning into... whatever it is.

Hey now, generalizations and assumptions are the foundation of most of our arguments here.

Don't take that away from us.

I suppose this is the sort of situation where, even if some merit is found, the judge (or whomever) will set the fine at $1 or something.

--Patrick

If the judge finds that the coach bullied the team, ie if the complaint has real merit, then they may or may not fine the judge, but they will almost certainly have to change the rules to prevent this from happening again.

I don't see the value in is, but I suppose the anti bullying laws may be written in such a way as to find the situation consisted of bullying elements. If so I'd say the bullying law is wrong, but perhaps the OP is right and society really is turning this direction.

Either way, I suspect that whether it has merit or not, rules will be changed, or coaches will voluntarily end the game early. Which, honestly, is pretty disheartening to the losing team anyway.

This is why I love my school. We're free to do two things:

1. Be honest with a child who has made mistakes or lost.
2. Tell parents that, when they come to this school, they agree to let us do our work according to our philosophy.

It's nice to have the freedom to be up front (but tactful) about a student's strengths and weaknesses. Most parents really seem to get how important that is. I wish more people in education and any kind of child leadership roles had that freedom.

Is now the time to tell the losing school to man up and start practicing for next year.

I can't believe that there is a 30 point mercy rule out there. That is way too low. I've seen bigger 4th quarter comebacks than that. Even happened to me once in high school.[DOUBLEPOST=1382559932,1382559839][/DOUBLEPOST]Asking a kid to play half-assed is a good way to get somebody hurt.

I hate to break this up with facts, and all...

PatrThom said:

...the judge (or whomever)...

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stienman said:

If the judge finds...

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There's no judge, yet, at least, and possibly at all. The law requires that the Principal of the school where the coach works investigate complaint and then create a report, copies of which are being given to the other school and the guy who complained.

I DEMAND A JURY OF MY PEERS!

And by peers I mean biased parents who don't want their children to ever be told "no".

Yeah, this was dumb. If the coach was blatantly running up the score (ie repeated deep passes) I would understand where the complaint was coming from. This was just an unfortunate mismatch.

sixpackshaker said:

Is now the time to tell the losing school to man up and start practicing for next year.

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Not if they're a victim of gerrymandering or, rather, the sports equivalent. I've known families that have moved to make sure their child, an outstanding player, went to the right school in order to further his football career. If you read the article, Aledo, a school with an established and strong sports program, was placed into a new district where the sports programs weren't as strong. This means an experienced coach, with money for his program, and athletes that may have even come from areas outside his normal school district in order to play for that high school, was up against coaches with less experience, less money and a smaller pool of athletes to draw from. I love watching underdog sports movies as much as the next person, but a stacked deck usually results in the loss of whoever the deck was stacked against.

In any case, it doesn't seem like this is the coach's fault, though it might be a fault of the system.

Chad Sexington said:

There's no judge, yet, at least, and possibly at all.

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Oh, I know. But someone will have to render some kind of decision, and I am merely asserting that, even if the mediator/-trix is directed to find in favor of the complainant, I expect he/she will do so in the least impactful way possible.

--Patrick

This reminds me of the time I played in a high school basketball game, and we lost 128 to 25. We didn't accuse the opposing coach of bullying, we knew they were just that good.

I will say that, from an educational standpoint, it makes sense to end a game early if the teams are that far apart in skill. When you get to a point of high frustration, the chance that you'll learn anything declines.

It's the same reason you don't give a 6-year-old a long division problem and tell them to figure it out. They are too overwhelmed and don't have to experience to reason through it. Reasonable challenges make you sweat and work without destroying you.

That said, a crushing defeat here or there has its merits too. And parents need to be ok with their kids being terrible at something.

I really don't know what y'all are talking about. My alma mater has two state titles to its credit, and routinely puts a good team out on the field.

Of course, we're in the middle of the Milwaukee-Chicago rust belt, which is known for its high percentage of inner-city (read: gang member) youth, so there's that.

I don't think they'd beat the local squad by a score of 91-0, but I also don't think we'd run up the score that badly.

EDIT: Aaaaaand as I type that I look up their stats for 2013 - 0-9 on the season. Including a 48-0 loss to our cross-town arch-rivals

The parent who filed this complaint is a whiny bastard.

This is just outrageously silly and it should be mocked on all corners of the internet.

Cajungal said:

This is why I love my school. We're free to do two things:

1. Be honest with a child who has made mistakes or lost.
2. Tell parents that, when they come to this school, they agree to let us do our work according to our philosophy.

It's nice to have the freedom to be up front (but tactful) about a student's strengths and weaknesses. Most parents really seem to get how important that is. I wish more people in education and any kind of child leadership roles had that freedom.

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