Team loses 91-0, parent cries bullying

In Georgia (at least), the trailing team can choose to play with a running clock when trailing by 30 or more at the half (and running clocks are mandatory at certain point spreads through at least 6th grade ball, and I assume there are similar rules for middle school).

My son's 6th grade team is pretty dominant, but they bench the starting RBs/QB routinely once they get a 3-4 score lead, and will bench the backups in favor of having linemen carry the ball past a certain point (they mostly don't back off on defense, though).  At the HS level, that might still not be enough to keep the score down, I guess, but it sounds like the coaches here handled it just fine, so the bullying thing seems pretty far-fetched.

The article does not say what exactly was supposed to constitute the alleged bullying.  So it's hard to discuss, since we just don't know.

 

But generally, once you start calling all sorts of things bullying, even when you're not talking about violence or threats of violence, you've opened the door to just about anything being called bullying, followed by an argument about whether it is or isn't.

 

As best I can tell from the article, there was no trash talk or anything.  This was just a case of two teams who maybe shouldn't be on each other's schedule because of the evident, extreme mismatch.  But once they're on the field, what are they supposed to do?  Should they fumble on purpose a few times?  If they did, would their patronizing ways also be attacked?  How can the winning team ever hope to please all these people?

 

To me, bullying means violence or threats of violence.  It doesn't mean someone said something mean or insulting and it doesn't mean I felt bad after you said something.  (The fact that I haven't learned how to deal with things doesn't necessarily mean you did anything all that wrong.)  Generally speaking, adolescent years and immaturity go hand in hand, and immaturity includes a lack of empathy, so as we know all young people say nasty things to each other.  The adults have to make them stop at the time and then teach them to stop for the long term.  But labeling kids who do the most ordinary things as bullies isn't doing anything but putting teenagers into PC handcuffs.

 

We have got to get to the point where we don't kowtow to everyone who whines about something.  Sometimes you have to tell them, "That is not something we're going to deal with at all," or even "We don't see anything wrong with that."  As opposed to, "We'll launch a full investigation" every time someone kvetches.  As best I can tell, we're going to end up spending all of our budgets investigating every will-o-the-wisp conjured up in the minds of the whiners.  If verbal insults are bullying, to me the complainer is more guilty than the players or the coaches here.  Because that is the person who set out to cause someone else trouble just by being a jerk.

 

Just once I would like to see a press conference where a spokesman says, "We did receive a complaint that used the term 'bullying.'  But no specific behavior that meets the definition of bullying was actually described, and both coaches have told us that despite the lopsided score, both teams behaved with the utmost in sportsmanship.  We realize that the score may have left someone smarting, but throwing around baseless accusations is not an appropriate way to respond.  We see no reason to subject anyone to any investigations, and we don't intend to take this any further.  We actually think the person filing the complaint owes the players and the coaches an apology for accusing them without basis."

I completely agree with the complainant.  Those kids were bullied  up and down the football field.

 

My kid has been on the receiving end of two inning 25-0 games. Lessons were learned and the kids got better.

Once as a coach I beat a team 35-0.  The coach of the other team wanted me to stop running in the first inning.

 

Look, it is not the fault of the team that won 91-0.  Is the fault of the team that lost that they so severely suck.  Get better.

The winning team is the #1 ranked 4A team in the state of Texas (2nd largest classification). They are averaging close to 70 points a game before this game. They did use a running clock in the 2nd half of the game.

No issues with drubbings...take the beating and press on.

 

I wonder if other activities experience the same phenomenon?  My kids painting, sculpture, poem, essay, etc. received 91 votes to your kids 0.

Football scores can look more extreme than they really are. 91-0 In football could be compared to 13-0 in baseball. A 13-0 baseball game isn't much fun for anyone, but they're not so extreme that you file a complaint. These guys have been beating up like this on EVERYONE.

 

 I think it is kind of funny when a fan complains about how boring a 2-1 s*ccer or ice hockey game is, but has no problem with a 14-7 score in football...

It is about that simple. The coach can only substitute so much. You can't tell the kids to not play hard.

Unless the coach of the other team was coaching young kids, I don't know why he cared.

 

 

Well, I talked to my mom about a particular school bully, and she didn't file a lawsuit or fly in with a helicopter to talk to the school vice-principal.  She looked at me and said:

 

"Punch him in the nose."

 

Ha ha, those were different times.  But the message is one of personal responsibility.

 

BTW I did.

 

Very much agree.  Not everything in life is "fair".  To the losing team or rather the Mom, "suck it up" and move on.

 

FWIW - for hs football, VHSL has a rule if the winning team is leading by 35 points or more, the clock continues to run.

Aledo is one of the best teams in the country.  They are averaging 70 points a game.  Western Hills is awful...losses of 61-7 , 62-10 , 63-0 , 9-7 , 35-7 , 49-30 , 91-0 against far lesser opponents.  It's simply the best against the worst...and there's no "run rule" in this situation in Texas either.  They are district opponents, so they have to play eachother.  This is a flagrant abuse of the "bully clause" and even the Western Hill's coach knows it.

 

PS...one of the few able to "hold down" Aledo this year was fellow 4a power Highland Park.  Aledo beat them 44-3.  And, HP is good enough to make a deep run in the playoffs...6-1 this year.

Just because you're offended doesn't mean you're right.

 

I'm truly at a loss of words over this.  When the principal has to "launch an investigation" and provide a "written report" on his findings - who does he interview?  What questions does he ask?  Can he literally put in his report that this could be one of the dumbest things he's done in his professional career?  There are so many more problems / issues that a principal has to deal with than this garbage.

 

This is a case where a parent let his / her ego get caught up in what's happening with their son instead of being a real parent and either they team him a lesson in perseverance or letting his coach do that.  Surely they know that they have absolutely embarrassed their son and his school.  By doing this they have now put a target on the kid's back to be bullied.

 

I'm going to bed - this is so stupid.

When we moved when I was nine the neighborhood bully picked on me every day on the way home from school. My father told me to hit him. He warned the bully would beat the crap out of me. But he would never bother me again. He said bullies don't like to get hit. In high school I was 6 feet and the bully was 5'8". I would make him edgy reminding him of when he picked on me.

This whole thing is stupid.  There is no bullying.  I agree with what everyone is saying here.  Part of the problem is our PC culture in this country now.  Unfortunately, the school has no choice but to investigate.

 

" Texas regulations require Aledo's principal to launch a full investigation into the bullying allegation.

The administration is then to produce a written report addressing the bullying complaint."

 

This is bullying in a way.  Why every single complaint has to be investigated is beyond me.  This isn't even little kid football.  It is HS football.  Why would a parent of a HS varsity player be sticking their nose into this anyway???  The administration should have the ability to dismiss this "charge" immediately.  Unfortunately, they can't.  Ugh....  What has this country come to.

 

BTW, I always told my kids the same thing Bum and RJM are talking about.  Of course I taught them not to pick fights or bully.  But I also told them if they ever got hit, you hit back.  I would support whatever punishment the school doled out, but they would not be in trouble at home.  Happened to one of my kids once, never again.

Instead of complaining about being bullied, maybe the coach should try stopping the other team. When I was coaching AAU ball,there were often times we were well ahead, I would stop running, pitch my outfielders, and play kids who were generally used to pinch run for pitchers and catchers. If we got beaten badly I would tell the kids that if they didn't like it... Stop Them . 

Not that this particular charge isn't very likely frivolous, but there are good reasons why "every single complaint has to be investigated". Not investigating a complaint that turns out not to be frivolous is way worse than whatever time is wasted on trivial ones.

Tom, the other coach didn't complain.  It was a parent of the losing team.  Here's what the opposing coach had to say:

 

"I think the game was handled fine," [Western Hills coach John] Naylor said. "They're No. 1 for a reason, and I know coach Buchanan. We're fighting a real uphill battle right now.

"We just ran into a buzzsaw, you know," Naylor said. "[Aledo] just plays hard. And they’re good sports, and they don’t talk at all. They get after it, and that’s the way football is supposed to be played in Texas."

 

Cudos to the opposing coach for handling this professionally.

bballman, I see. I read that and didn't apply it to the parent. But we have become a society that complains when things don't go our way. Hopefully all involved will learn and continue to play hard.

Coach Buchanan (Aledo) also said that the only way to make the score lower was for his boys to take a knee.  He refused to do this because it might very well be the only chance some of his 3rd & 4th string kids get  to score a touchdown in HS.  He wasn't going to take that away from them.

 

 

No doubt!!! I agree 100%.

"Just because you're offended doesn't mean you're right."

 

Hear, hear!

 

When are we going to stop letting the malcontents push us around?

For everyone who thinks it's worse today than it used to be, please keep in mind that jerk parents and kids' sports goes back far enough for the people who made "The Bad News Bears" in 1976 to be lampooning it 40 years ago, and whining about college football teams running up the score goes back at least to the 80s (when I was a kid).

 

If people are bitching about it now, and people were bitching about when we were kids, it's likely that people have always bitched about it.

This is probably true.  The difference is, it used to be people weren't sued because of it.  It also used to be that the coaches could just tell people to back off and grow up.  Nowadays, everybody has to be all touchy-feely about it in fear of getting sued or fired.  There is a big difference between now and then.

I'm sure people were still getting fired over it, and given that a lawsuit and several arrests figure in the history of fans being allowed to keep foul balls (http://www.bolhouselaw.com/res..._Finders_Keepers.pdf), I suspect lawsuits have been around as long as there have been lawyers.

       
       

So, you're saying there were just as many lawsuits and firings back in the 70s & 80s as there are now?  I don't have any stats to back it up, but I seriously doubt it.

Given that the history of tort reform goes back to the 50s, and seriously took off in the 80s, I'm going to assume there were a fairly large number of lawsuits driving it.

 

I suspect the biggest difference between then and now rests largely on two things:

 

One, news travels much faster and farther now, so every little issue like the one in OP potentially reaches a much larger, more far-flung audience.

 

Two, our memories of what it was like in the 80s (my childhood, but substitute whichever decade for yours if it's different) are shaded by our viewing the world as children then and our experiences today are shaded by the fact that we're now adults. Ask your kids how much they hear about lawsuits and firings and compare that to what you remember from your youth.

 

It's also possible that the 50% increase in US population in the last 30 years has something to do with the perception.

 

And, just to throw some data at this:

http://www.justice.org/cps/rde...tice/hs.xsl/2011.htm

http://www.tortdeform.com/arch...ies_facts_about.html

More lawyers, more people, and more people looking for free rides (welfare, lawsuits, any sort of get rich quick scheme)...

RJM that is the only known cure for stopping a bully. Heck, that was proven in the movie A Christmas Story!

This was not bullying, just an old fashioned butt whipping. 

I live down the road from another Texas state champion team of last year  (Refugio--2AA) and their coach ran into the same thing last year as they also pounded one bad team 90+ to 0. There was no formal bullying charge, just the usual crying about running up the score. The Refugio coach was quoted about this Aledo game that the powerhouse team coach can't win no matter what he does. He himself not only pulled his starters, ran the clock continously in the second half, stopped passing and resorted to attempting field goals on first down. So then the losing coach got upset about the field goal attempts on first down because he felt it showed his team shouldn't be on the same field with Refugio.

 

When someone files a frivoulous formal complaint like this that must be investigated according to state law, they are downgrading the real bullying issues that are so prevelant in our schools right now. This parent should be ashamed of themselves. I grew up in a time when I learned more in receiving a good a--whipping than I ever learned in the victories. But this is another of the modern helicopter parents who don't want little Johnny's feelings hurt. I pity that kid when he gets out in the real world.

FWIW - The articles and video interviews I've read make it seem that the winning team and coach did not take pleasure in this win.  It did not seem "fun".  I'm sure they'd prefer playing stiffer competition.  

 

Also, they did play with a running clock (meaning clock stays running even on incomplete passes, etc) and they ran the ball (instead of passing).

 

If anything comes from this situation hopefully it is a new schedule for this team next year.

 

Rich

www.PlayInSchool.com

Happy to see that the complaint was discarded swiftly and without fanfare.

 

Good for the people in charge!

+1 

And I wish schools/AD's were more able and willing to stand up to parents with this type of statement when their complaints are clearly out of line.  I understand the fear of law suits but, geez, this stuff goes on way to often.

 

The last three nights, a group of us HS coaches helped a friend.. a 7th grade basketball coach go through a try-out process where we evaluated kids and determined cuts.  Far too much of the actions and dialog were based on the requirements handed down by administration due to fear of disgruntled parent complaints when their player is cut. 

Example - 26 kids trying out for 12 spots.  6 or so are immediately clearly not going to make it.  Logic would say cut those players after the first night to give more focused time and attention to the bubble group and not waste the time of those 6 and their parents the next two nights.  Not allowed - every kid had to get the same full tryout time.

Legal scholar Jonathan Turkey ... Losing 91-0 isn't getting bullied. Its called life. Sometimes all you get from competition is a life lesson about improving.

Maybe we just need to stop keeping score? Maybe we need to do away with HS sports? We don't want anyone to get their feelings hurt. We certainly don't want anyone to get bullied. What about the offensive lineman that weighs 170 that has to go up against that 295 lineman than signed with Alabama? Is it fair for him to get bullied all night long? Forget the score of the game or who won the game. That's just not fair. Or the HS pitcher that strikes out all the batters. How sad that he bullied those hitters.

How about this. Get better. Take it or don't step on the field. This is pathetic. Your going to have situations where teams and players are over matched. Deal with it. Or turn in your gear and play video games where you can hit the reset button.

This is not bullying....When I was in High School we beat a team 99-0.  It was 71-0 at halftime...We were pulling people out of the stands to play.  We came close to punting on 1st down but didn't...When anyone new was put into the game they were excited to have an chance to play because they never got the chance to play...which made the score worse.  At the end of the game the opposing coach thanked us for not punting on 1st down.

Bat_Man, when Bum, Jr. was an 11 y.o. his marginal team went against a buzzsaw super-elite travel team.  The score got so bad the other team started batting left-handed.  I often wondered if that was a sign the coach was pulling in the reigns or laughing at us.

 

Speaking of laughing, a few years later Bum, Jr. went against another super-elite travel team.  While he was warming up in the bullpen they were laughing, asking "Who's that little Asian kid warming up? (Bum, Jr. is 1/2 Asian)".  Well, that little Asian kid threw a 1-hit shutout.

 

Getting your butt kicked can be discouragement or fodder for greatness.  Only the mentally tough choose correctly.

Let's not call it bullying but it is certainly unsportsmanlike on the part of the coach to run up a score like that.  There is no reason to embarrass and humiliate an opponent to that level.  That behavior shows a complete lack of respect for the game and his opponent.