With continued “socialization” of American youth sporting programs, I really wonder where we are all headed.
It made the news last week that there are areas of California where it against the rules for a youth team (younger than junior high) to beat an opponent by more than 34 points in a game. If an offending team scores 35 more than their opposition, that team’s coach is suspended for two weeks and the team has to pay a $200 fine before it can play any more games.
As a sportsman, I am adamantly opposed to teams who run up scores on others needlessly. Once a game is solidly in the win column, teams ought to play as many of the subs and reserves as possible. However, those subs ought to have the same opportunity to try and do well as their first team. With this screwball California rule, if a team gets a big lead, then sends in their reserves, their coach can’t let them play their best if their best would lead to more points.
What a coach could do would be to tell his defense to step aside and let the other team score without opposition in order to keep the margin “legal,” but how crazy is that?
What about teams that lose 60-0? Do they think that makes the kids suicidal? Especially in football, most kids play the game because they just love to play it. Berryville hasn’t had much success in football, for example, for a long time but they keep having kids go out. While losing isn’t fun, playing is.
Making rules to artifi - cially limit the outcome of contests isn’t sport. Losing should and often spurs participants on to greater things. As a ninth grader, I saw my high school team take a 55-0 beating from our arch rival Mt. Vernon. In his post game talk, our coach told the boys that they would have to work harder to narrow the gap between the two schools. Three years later my school crushed Mt. Vernon 48-0 when they were ranked No. 1 in the state, and the seeds of that victory were planted in the 55-0 debacle we suffered earlier.
Scores are just a report card of what’s going on right now. Like a bad grade in geometry, things can get better with greater determination and a stronger work ethic. I think rules forcing or requiring scores to be close in contest is a way to get young people, and society in general, to accept mediocrity. ‘He — we didn’t lose too bad — we’re happy with the way it is. Why work harder?”
A couple of years ago, an Ohio high school girl running the mile was disqualified for poor sportsmanship. Her offense? She lapped everybody in the mile and made the other girls feel bad. Her time was about 5:30, a pretty good run but nothing to make headlines with. The other girls were running in the 7-and 8-minute range, which are slow times for elementary runners. Whatever district she was running in was making a statement for the ideals of mediocrity for everyone.
Every athlete who takes the field for whatever sport, should try his or her hardest to do the very best they can. When teams are unevenly matched, the better teams should play as many athletes as possible which usually has the effect of keeping the score down. However, no athlete should ever be told to play badly or do less than his best.
A few years ago, I was coaching an elementary girls basketball team against an extremely weak team in our league. We scored enough points to win in the fi rst fi ve minutes, but I held the score down by switching the girls away from their regular positions. I had my worst ball handlers bring the ball down, went to a nonpressing zone defense, and had my worst shooters take the most shots. We still won by a big margin, but I avoided having any of my athletes play down to the opposition.
District home teams undefeated
The four home teams of the 4A-1 District games last Friday all protected their home turf with victories to open the 2013 conference season.
Pea Ridge, while losing to their host Lions team, edged Gravette by a touchdown last season. With the ’Hawks losing nearly their entire starting lineup from last fall, Gravette’s edge in returning much of their ’12 team seemed to make this game an almost sure win for them. Were it not for critical mistakes at the most inopportune times, the ’Hawks could have taken this contest. As it was, Pea Ridge lost a 26-12 road game.
Farmington hosted Gentry, a team they have beaten 11 of 12 times since 2000. With Farmington having been highly ranked to start the season, it was a surprise that the Pioneers hung with the Cardinals until fi nally losing 21-11. Gentry is much better than originally advertised with Farmington a bit over-hyped this far into the season.
Lincoln blasted Berryville last year and were primed to blow them out in ’13 but the game was as close as the Gentry/Farmington battle. Lincoln’s Wolves outlasted the Bobcats to take a 28-13 to move their record to 4-0. Berryville is much improved with a new system in place and they have the most experience returning as any team in the league. Lincoln is counting on a run to the top in 2013 and will be formidable.
As expected, Prairie Grove’s home game with Ozark was a 41-6 blowout. Ozark has scored very few points this season and is 0-4. The Hillbillies took second overall in the 4A State playoffs in ’12, but lost an immense senior class much like Pea Ridge did. Their final year in the 4A-1 might find them in the cellar. Meanwhile, the Tigers just keep on winning and are heavy favorites to defend their conference title of a year ago.
Home turf tougher to defend this week
It is very doubtful that all four home teams will be able to claim victory in week two of the conference season.
Prairie Grove will travel to Farmington having won eight of their past 12 games the teams have played against each other. Thought to be on more even terms before the season began, it is looking more and more like the Cardinals will be whipped rather soundly by their neighbor rival. This will be the last conference game between the two as Farmington is moving up to 5A in 2014. Prairie Grove may hope to replace Morrilton with the Cardinals on their non-conference schedule.
Ozark is hosting Berryville and has beaten them the three years they have been in the 4A-1 together. However, Ozark has gotten a lot weaker while the Bobcats have a lot more scratch in them, so I foresee a Berryville win in this fi nale of their brief rivalry.
Gravette has won 11 of the past 12 times they have played Gentry in 4A-1 action but I have a feeling that fact won’t do the Lions much good this week. Gravette showed us that they had one good back and a decent line but it will take more than that to defeat the Pioneers, especially in Gentry. Gentry is excited this year and have played well in their first four games. If they stop Gravette’s Duarte, they stop Gravette, and I think they will.
Pea Ridge has won all six games they have played with Lincoln since 2000, but this year will be the toughest test of all. The Wolves massacred their three non-conference opponents but the three teams were all 0-3 in their starts to their season, so it is hard to tell how good they really are. They had some difficulty beating Berryville at home, but the Bobcats are a lot better than they have been in some time. If the ’Hawks can summon back the attack mode they put on display in their home opener two weeks ago, I think they will upset the 4-0 Wolves.
All in all, I think the home teams will split the four gridiron battles come this Friday, with Gentry and Pea Ridge successfully defending their homes.
MAXPREPS/CBS Freeman 4A State Football Poll
District State Team Record
Ozark continues their slide down the rankings and I think they may well be in the 40s before the end of the season. This poll doesn’t reflect last Friday’s games so Gravette will be up the rankings by next week. The MaxPreps poll doesn’t come out until after press time.
Prairie Grove is looking more and more like a heavy favorite to win the league but after them, the puzzle is quite jumbled. No one team looks like a sure second-place fi nisher, and every team outside of Ozark has a legitimate shot to win a high seed in the 4A playoffs.
Will St. Louis win their 12th World Series
The St. Louis Cardinals won their last six games in a row to end the season with the best record in the National League, winning their division and having home field advantage throughout the playoffs.
I have watched quite a few games on TV this season and it has been enjoyable. The team is a radically different one than took the WSC in 2011. The new manager Mike Metheny will likely get Manager of the Year awards, and several players will get post season honors.
The Cardinals will play tomorrow against the winner of the Pittsburgh/ Cincinnati wild card game that was played yesterday. The game is a bit weird as Pittsburgh swept Cincinnati three games in a row to end the season. Wouldn’t it be crazy if the Reds came back and won yesterday, after losing all those other games to Pittsburgh, and got the slot to advance into the playoffs.
This whole “two wild card teams playoff each other to get the oficial wild card,” something that was started last year, largely because of what St. Louis did in 2011. In ’11, the Braves looked like the certain wild card playoff team but a tough schedule at the end put them into a bit of a tailspin. The Cardinals got hot and made up eight games in a short period of time to take the wild card spot on the last day of the season. They then went on to win the World Series, upsetting a lot of the upper brass in baseball.
The theory was that if Atlanta could have had one game with St. Louis, they could have advanced to the playoffs. Atlanta, with a bigger market share than St. Louis, was the favored team.
The present wild card set up has the wild card teams pitting their best hurlers against one another to get into the playoffs, then having one day to prepare for a team that has had four days to rest. The rule, I believe, is to limit the odds for a wild card team to be able to advance to the World Series as St. Louis did in 2011.
Meanwhile, in the American League, the wild card team really has a tough row to hoe. There was a two way tie for one of the wild-card spots, so Monday Tampa Bay played Texas for the right to play Cleveland today. The winner of that game plays Boston on Friday, who had all week to rest.
Maybe next year they could institute a rule requiring wild card teams to play in swimming flippers to make sure divisional champions move on.
Sports, Pages 8 on 10/02/2013