Friday, January 23, 2009

Sportsmanship

The Nightly Build...

Covenant 100 - Academy 0

Rod Dreher, in The Dallas Morning News tells us that the headmaster of The Covenant School apologized to Dallas Academy for the school's 100-0 victory in a girls' basketball game, which the headmaster called a "victory without honor." Rod Dreher says "Bravo" for the way the school is trying to make amends, including a request to the league to have the win erased by forfeiture. I second Dreher's response to this situation. I don't endorse many of the reader responses.

"angi" says the apology is "too little, too late." It's never too late to apologize. It's never appropriate to snub an apology, even a late apology.

"PaulC" says "Apologize and stop parading the apology before the public." If the Academy girls were embarrassed by the loss, then publicizing the apology only exacerbates the embarrassment. But "PaulC" is assuming that Covenant is the one "parading the apology." I'm more inclined to believe the media is doing the parading and the story is out of Covenant's control now. But there is a lesson there. An immediate apology, coach-to-coach, the night of the game, might have prevented the story from escalating out of control.

"David" says "Here's what bothers me the most. The school, coaches, and team responsible for the run-up come from a well known Christian School." Christian schools aren't the only schools that teach sportsmanship. Secular schools do, too, and just as seriously. When any of them fall short, it's equally disappointing.

"jim mitchell" asks "Would 40-0 be beter? Or 10-0?" In a word, yes. Coaches understand how to keep from running up the score. Other teams appreciate the courtesy. When a coach does run up the score, he demonstrates poor sportsmanship. For most fans, poor sport is synonymous with loser, even when the scoreboard reads 100-0 in your favor.

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