Normally, head coaches are fired for losing games. This, however, wasn’t the case with the head coach of the Covenant School, a parochial school in Dallas, Texas, who was fired last week for disagreeing with school officials who had publicly apologized for the team’s 100-0 victory over Dallas Academy, a school for special needs students.
The 100-0 win has sparked a bit of outrage. Many felt the 100-0 win against special needs children was an insult and that the Covenant School team should have dialed downed the competition so as not to embarrass the other team. In fact, the school administration in firing the coach surmised that the win didn’t reflect a Christ-like and honorable approach to competition. No one, however, argues or even suggests that the Covenant team coach or basketball team was in anyway boastful or disrespectful to the other team. Their only sin: they shouldn’t have won by so much as it was not sportsman like.
What? Unsportsmen like to win! To try your best, to give your all. Somehow these girls and this coach should be remorseful for this. I’m sorry but I disagree. This was not a case of a coach and a team trying to humiliate special needs children. No one asserts that. Rather, the argument is these are special needs children and it was obvious the Covenant team would win but why did they need to win by so much. I mean come on. Is this political correctness gone amuk or what?
I personally, think it is those who are outraged, including the Covenant School administration, who owed the students at Dallas Academy an apology. After all, they are the ones who are treating Dallas Academy students as different and somehow deserving of special dispensation. The Covenant School basketball team didn’t make this distinction. They treated Dallas Academy team as their equals. They didn’t see special needs kids but their rivals, competitors in their own right.
In the end, it is sad because part of the value of sports is that it encourages youth to do their best and to engage in sportsmen like behavior. It teaches the value of showing grace in losing and compassion in winning. However, the lesson that both the students at Dallas Academy and Covenant School have learned are quite different and has nothing to do with winning or losing but with society’s own belief that special needs children shouldn’t be seen as equals.
Monday, January 26, 2009
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3 comments:
Competition is only competition if it is among peers. How did the special needs school end up competing outside of its league? There is no way that there would be no boasting or showboating after 50-0, it will be impossible for kids to hold back on "show-time". This was a question of the able kids beating up on a lesser team, a team with special needs. They should have mixed the teams up at half time because by then it should have been clear that it was not a competition any longer but time to have fun. To try and fix after the fact is nothing but self-serving nonsense.
Sportsmanship is not defined by beating down an over-matched adversary. There is no postive lesson to be learned by beating down a team of special needs kids. If your child was on the team with special needs how wouldyou feel? What happened was wrong and the coached should have been removed. Mercy and class still have roles in sports and neither was displayed here. To be intentionally shooting three's and playing full court press in the 4th quarter when the other team has not yet scored is classless. The coach should have pulled the starters, instructed to play a "loose" 2-3 zone, and all offense plays should be in the paint. I understand your assessment...but I disagree.
What is interesting is your comment like others seems to only be concerned with the fact that the team beat was special needs kids. The coach of the special needs team wanted his students to play other non special needs teams. The Covenant team performed as they would have any other team. They were in the state finals last year and I think they paid no attention to the fact that the other team was special needs. in terms of my children and sports they've been on teams were they've been beaten badly (67-10) and you know what no one likes to lose but sports is as I said about losing with grace and winning with compassion and not about not playing your best or hardest because you don't want to hurt the feelings of the other team.
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