…I refer, of course, to high school football*.
The coach of a Texas high school football team has been accused of bullying in a formal complaint after his team beat another school 91-0.
MyFoxDFW.com reports a parent of a player on the Western Hills High School football team claims Aledo High School football coach Tim Buchanan encouraged his players to bully their opponents by running up the score. Buchanan learned of the online complaint against him Saturday, the day after his team beat Western Hills in a 4A matchup.
Apparently Aledo is scary good this year. The other team’s football coach blanched at the accusation, of course; and it’s not as if the Aledo coach was trying to be obnoxious about it:
Buchanan tells MyFoxDFW.com he pulled his starters from the game after the first quarter and even eventually brought in his third-string players, but it was clear the game was going to be a blowout. The clock was also run continuously starting in the third quarter.
[snip]
Buchanan, whose team is averaging 69.3 points a game and is on its way to a 7-0 record, said he is not sure what else he could have done besides telling his players to take a knee.
Seriously, what the hell are Buchanan’s options? Putting in the third-string is justifiable: the kids get some time to actually play (and apparently score touchdowns). And letting the clock run at least gets it over more quickly. But you either take football seriously, or you do not. And sometimes one side gets an epic shellacking. Tough luck, there, but you don’t whine about it. Or, worse, try to get the other side’s coach in trouble.
Sheesh.
Moe Lane
PS: Of course this won’t go anywhere. State religion, remember?
*Some claim that college football is the state religion of Texas, of course. Except that I think that’s generally true of the South overall, really.
High School football is the state religion of Texas. The rest of the South is full on College, but in reality College football is just a sect of the main religion in Texas.
In Indiana we say “football? what football? you mean the Colts? Yeah I stopped watching when Peyton left. Basketball is my game. You mean there are actual football teams besides the Colts?”
I think here in Indiana we say, “You mean not basketball??”
Twelve of the thirteen largest high school gyms in the United States are in Indiana:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_high_school_gyms_in_the_United_States
My big shock when moving to Georgia 25 years ago from Indiana was that the middle school basketball game scores were not reported on the evening news. AND what they call gyms here… well, let’s just say “dinky.” Oh…. and that there weren’t any cut worm commercials, either. Now, given: I’ve fallen deeply in love w/ the Georgia weather and would never move back, but still — they just don’t know hoops.
I still feel ashamed that Indiana gave up its one class high school basketball system for the same damn multiclass system that almost every other state has. The high school state basketball championship meant something then, dammit. Hell, they made a movie (Hoosiers) loosely based on the Milan Miracle.
In that brief period of time after the Hoosier Dome was built but before they slaughtered the one class system for what they have now, Indiana completely blew out of the water the record for most people to attend a high school basketball game when they held the state finals at the Dome and had >50K people attending. Before that they had held it at Market Square Arena, which despite holding 16K people, tickets did NOT go on sale to the general public: tickets went to every team that was in the tournament, and to the four schools participating. That alone filled the 16K seats.
I thought the Texas state religion was God, Guns, and the Alamo (in that order)?
Football takes priority.
.
Else, Texan filibusters would have long ago secured the admission into the Union of Mexico Territory.
.
Sport is a terrible thing that prevents us from warring on our neighbors.
Moe,
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What do you think of the music of the Texas Aggies band? That is one of my favorite modern musical groups.
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As for the substance of the post, I’m torn between my fond memories of Texas, and insisting that a real state would not have so many degenerate wimps who can’t take anything seriously.
Ah, high school football memories(not the Al Bundy scoring 4 touchdowns for Polk High). I remember a game we lost 49-7. I was a junior on kick-off return. I had more action than the starters on the offensive line. Point being, you take your medicine, learn and get better. Next year we beat them 21-14. Also, not to brag, I was a starter on the offensive line. Point being, take this as a life lesson and realize there is always someone better than you and you have to work your tail off to get better.