Christian Heritage defeats West Ridge 108-3

Christian Heritage High School (Utah) defeated West Ridge High School (Utah) 108-3 in a girls basketball game last week.  This type of story comes up several times every year.  Most of the stories can be summed up in two lines.  "Big, bad winner beats up on poor, innocent loser.  Where's the sportsmanship?!"  Alright, alright.  Let's stop the madness.  Why do we call for sportsmanship after something bad has happened to our kids?  Listen to what the Christian Heritage coach had to say about what happened (email subscribers click here).  



It's unbelievable what some people say who are put in positions to teach and coach our kids.  However, I am about solutions.  So here's a simple one.  High school leagues should strongly consider instituting a mercy rule.  I know the rules are in place at the youth level, but high schoolers are kids too.  These girls lost by 105 points, but the game was really over when they got down by 30.  Nobody ever comes back from being down 30 or more in a high school basketball game.  It happens in the pros because the players are on the same skill level for the most part.  That's why you can see a team get blown out one night and come back and beat that same team the very next night.

Blowouts on the youth and high school level happen because of talent disparities.  The kids simply can't come back.  That's where we need to step in and encourage high school leagues to adopt mercy rules.  Professionals use lopsided defeats as motivation for the next contest.  Kids just quit.  Professionals also respect each other enough to slow down the offense or put in all the subs.  That's another reason why you never see pros losing by 100 or more points.  They police themselves.  We obviously need to do the same for our high school kids.  Until next time...

Be a Good Sport!

-Sol