Win, Crush, Maim, Kill

Reflections On | | January 27, 2009 10:08 am

By Denis Campbell

Double set of kudos awarded this day to the headmaster of Covenant School in Dallas Texas. The first for apologising to the losing team and asking that their win be forfeited and for then firing head girl’s basketball coach Micah Grimes for a 100-0 drubbing of winless Dallas Academy, a school for learning disabled kids.

Kyle Queale, headmaster for Covenant School could not answer when asked if the firing was a result of the coach’s e-mail sent to a newspaper disagreeing with school Administrators and saying he would not apologise “for a wide margin victory when “my girls played with honour and integrity.”

Back up there a moment chief. 

Where is the honour and integrity in a taking a 59-0 halftime lead and running it up to a 100-point victory? Show me, please, the honour in using a full court trap press and pressure defence throughout an entire game that was probably decided when you hit 20-0 in the first quarter? Where is the honour and integrity in so totally demoralising a winless opponent by pitching both a shutout AND scoring 100 points? Where is the integrity in having your team continuing to take long range 3-point shots throughout the entire game, including the 4th quarter?

I know you and your kind too well Coach Grimes. A sideline for my own fitness and health, is refereeing basketball games for kids aged 18 and under here in Europe. Your Dutch uncle coached the Arnhem Go-Ahead Eagles youth team about six years ago in a game against a similar group of boys in Doetinchem, The Netherlands. I was second referee that game and pointedly warned the coach that the game was about the kids, not his broken professional coaching dreams and in my broken Dutch said “I would stop the game unless he stopped and now!” 

I urged the opposing coach that day to pull his young, demoralised boys off the court saying I would fight the forfeiture of the game with every ounce of my being. At that point the lead was 50-points and your ‘uncle’ instituted a perfectly legal and honourable zone trap full-court press as he yelled, charted and penalised each boy in the blowout for not scoring their assigned ration of points. 

My lead referee did not have the guts to stop it altogether and were the roles reversed I would have ended the game. I wrote a stinging final game report and hoped for the sake of every kid who ever lost to him and those antics that he was banned from youth coaching for life. 

Your kids may have “integrity and honour.” You sir, do not know what those words mean and most schools of strong academic calibre punish children for using words for which they do not know the meaning. Firing was too lenient a punishment for you. 

Were you never a teenager? Do you not know the affect of such a beating? 35-years later, I remember with stunning accuracy a drubbing we received to an inner city school by almost 70 points. It stays with you and in the case of those not strong enough emotionally, wounded 15-17 year old self esteem and ego manifests itself in brutal supervisory behaviour later in life. 

Your stunt inflicted wounds sir. I hope the kids at both schools remember you in utter disgrace and live the classiness of Kyle Queale in righting a very serious wrong.

Now go crawl back into the hole in the sea from which you emerged. Shame.
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is author of the book Egypt Unsh@ckled: Using social media to @#:) the System. He is also editor-in-chief of UK Progressive Magazine and contributes politics and business articles for several global newspapers and magazines. He also provides regular commentary for BBC, China Radio International and others.
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