One of the many lessons I learned in journalism school was “think
globally but write locally.”
When I took a sports broadcasting class at the University of Nebraska,
those were the words of my professor, Rick Alloway. The premise is that
you take an event that happens outside your local arena and ask, “how
would you report this story if it happened here?”
The story I found recently scrolling across my social media timeline
pertained to a New York high school football coach caught my attention
— for both positive and negative reasons. Before I go any further, I
will acknowledge that I do not live in New York and nor did I witness
the games in question. However, lack of witnessing such events does
not preclude me from forming an opinion because I have seen plenty
of sports events at every level from little league to the NFL.
Plainridge High, which is an American public high school in the hamlet
of North Massapequa, Long Island, New York, and is part of Plainedge
Union Free School District found itself in the news. The Red Devils
extended their 61-13 rout over the South Side Cyclones with a fourth
-quarter touchdown, it was a crowning moment for the winner of a big
game between unbeaten high school football teams on Long Island.
Nassau County has a policy designed to prevent lopsided results in
football games: If a team wins a game by more than 42 points, the
winning coach must explain to a special committee why such an outsize
margin could not be avoided.
With that last touchdown, Plainedge pushed the final score to 61-13,
putting the team in violation, and subjecting its coach, Robert Shaver, to
a one-game suspension.
The committee determined that Shaver, who became the first varsity coach
to be punished under the three-year-old policy, should have pulled his
starters when he had a big lead at the start of the fourth quarter, and it
found his explanation for why he did not lacking.
One week later, without Shaver on the sideline, Plaineridge whitewashed
the Lynbrook Owls 36-0 in the regular season finale.
Shaver told Newsday that he had not pulled his starters when the fourth
quarter began despite Plainedge holding a 35-point lead because he feared
that South Side might stage a comeback.
The committee that reviewed the matter — a six-member body made up of
local school administrators and athletic officials — was unpersuaded by
that argument. The results of Plainedge’s three victories before the South
Side game were 49-7, 42-0, 42-0.
As I examine more closely, I ask, “Have any of these stuffed shirted clowns
ever played competitive sports?” I played on some lousy high school
football teams at Justin-Siena (Napa, CA). I played on the JV team in 1988
that went 0-9. Believe me, I know what “running up the score” is. That
season, we were playing Colfax in a home game. Colfax beat us 52-0 and
kept its starters in for the majority of the contest. I remember our coach
(Steve Meyer) saying to the Colfax sideline from across the field, “the
scoreboard only goes to 100.”
Like most people, I competed in a variety of different sports throughout
my youth and high school years. And like most people, my experience
ended there. However, I also spent 18 years as a sports reporter. I have
seen games from all over the spectrum: competitive wins, competitive
losses, blowout wins, blowout losses, etc.
The common denominator that I keep returning to is that the score has
absolutely no bearing on whether or not a team ran up the score. I once
saw the Calistoga High (Calistoga, CA) football team win 55-0 over
Rincon Valley Christian (Santa Rosa, CA) but go out of its way not
to win 85-0. Two years later, I saw the same two teams meet with the
losing team from two years previous, RVC, win 28-13 but they ran up
the score. How? Go ahead, the winning team up 14-13 with 1:47 left
in the game, took a knee on one play, faked taking a knee and threw
a touchdown. Then onside kicked and scored another touchdown
when Calistoga had no timeouts remaining, winning 28-13.
Those scenarios aside, I have long said that most every team has starters
and bench warmers. If the game is out of hand, the latter portion of
players will normally enter the game. Those players generally do not
play when the game is in the balance. Therefore, if such players are
getting into the game, they owe it to themselves and their coaches to
give maximum effort because it becomes their time to shine. The
coaches are constantly challenging those kids in practice with things to
the effect of, “OK, kid, you want more playing time, work hard in
practice, be ready when called to go into the game, etc.” Once those
kids get in the game, you cannot just de-program them.
Running up the score is dictated by how the game is being managed
and what plays are being run. If I’m a football coach, have my
nonstarters in the game and am running simple plays, that’s your
problem if you can’t stop it, not mine.
The part of the story that I wish I knew in terms of Shaver’s suspension
is, “what percentage of the committee has a sports background?” I’m
not suggesting that I am going to agree with their decision but I’ll at
least listen to them if they have a sports background versus are they
stuffed-shirted mathematicians that don’t know first down from third
down.
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