Setting a state scoring record in high school basketball can be fun, if the other team is relatively competitive. But Houston’s Yates High School is taking some heat at this hour for its 170-35 win over Lee High School on Tuesday night; a game which included a fight, and featured Yates continuing to press the whole way, albeit with second- and third-stringers toward the end. The halftime score? That would be 100-12. Both the final and halftime results were single-game state scoring records.
So, is the Yates coach wracked with remorse? Nope. He’s defending his team’s Little Bighornesque victory.
From the Houston Chronicle:
In the third quarter, a fight erupted after an intentional foul was called on a Lee player. After breaking up the fight, the referees told both coaches they would have to play just five players the remainder of the game. The other players for both teams spent the rest of the second half sitting in the stands.
“I feel very disrespected right now,” Lee coach Jacques Armant said. “I don’t understand why Yates just kept scoring and pressing when they were up so much. These are kids. It isn’t good to do that to other young men.”
Well, I would tend to agree. At what point does it stop being a high school basketball game, and starting being a mugging? Well, they stole the ball again … and hey! My underwear’s missing!
Last season, the Lions went 34-1 on the way to winning the Class 4A state championship. The one loss was a 78-76 decision to Elsik in the Houston Independent School District Tournament. That night, coach Greg Wise said he let his kids down by telling them to put on the brakes.
According to a commenter, Yates was up by nine in that game when they “put on the brakes.” What? Who lets up in a three-possession game? Dummkopf.
“We practice running, pressing, trapping every day,” he said. “If we get to a game and I tell them not to do what we do in practice, I am not coaching well. I am not leaving my starters in the whole game. We have 15 guys, and all 15 play.”
Wise said he shouldn’t have to tell his “third line” they can’t go out and score.
“They work really hard in practice, and when they go in, they deserve the chance to play hard and compete, too,” Wise said. “We are looking for another state championship, and we can’t get that unless we are continuing to get better and perfect our game. We aren’t scoring on other teams out of disrespect.”
Wise also possibly disagrees with the kneel-down play in football, and the concept of taking prisoners in war.
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Yates sets Texas scoring record in 170-35 win [Houston Chronicle]
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- jonathanseer - Jan 28, 2010 at 10:03 AM
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There is a huge difference between winning/defeating and humiliating an opponent.
A win turns into a purposeful humiliation when the point spread is so large, that there is no hope of losing the lead.
At that point coaches with class cease serious scoring efforts and run out the clock any which way they can and the losing coach does likewise.
It’s called sportsmanship.
The opposite behavior is considered obnoxious LOSER behavior even in winning, because it shows a misplaced value on HUMILIATING an opponent.
A mature individual does NOT get pleasure from humiliating another.
People who think humiliating an opponent is privilidge of the winner have a screw loose.
We all make mistakes, but there is no justification for being so utterly blind to the wholesale idiocy, immaturity behind the humiliation of an opponent.
It does NOT teach children the value of winning.
It does teach them that humiliating an opponent is fun.
It teaches them what other people feel means nothing.
What you do in excess to harm another person emotionally does not matter because it is not you.
And in a school environment that is the worst lesson a child can be taught, because it contradicts the message of cooperation everyone needs to learn in order to succeed in society and for society to stay healthy.
From the posts here, it seems few remember the golden rule – do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
It shows Class and intelligence, because NOT running up the score demonstrates you know the difference between winning and humiliating an opponent.
You can decide you don’t care, and when you win you’ll win big.
But if you expect to be loved and appreciated by those around you forget it.
Nothing says “avoid this person” more than somebody who is a SORE WINNER.
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- Travis - Jan 28, 2010 at 11:31 PM
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That is why the Yates Head Coach will always be a High School head coach. and Roy Williams will always be a College head coach. Blowing a team out doesn’t prove how great you are. In the end, it only counts as one win in the stat column. These kind of games also have negative impact on your team as a whole. This guy wastes all of his team’s energy trying to make a win look that much more impressive. This kind of thing can catch up with you down the road late in the season when you team is tired. This guy also messes up his future job prospects because no one is going to want to hire a coach that brings negative attention to their school. That’s what happened to that high school girls coach who one 100-0. He is now out of a job. The lesson to be learned is when you have the game won and there is absolutely no chance for a come back, you should try to get the game over with in the quickest manner possible and get on with the next game. This guy should be fired and never allowed to coach again. He obviously doesn’t know how to manage a team. I don’t care how much basketball knowledge he has. Obviously, he doesn’t have very much if he has to do this sort of thing. I think Yates can find themselves a better coach. Maybe someone who knows what their doing.
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- DMCombs - Jan 29, 2010 at 1:59 PM
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Cheerleaders were not doing there job, where are the fans support here, no mention of that!
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- jw - Jan 30, 2010 at 6:43 PM
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Well said on so many accounts. This coach was out of line and needs to take call it a day. I’m glad to see so many people understand how wrong he was in taking this game where he did. There’s nothing right about it, period. This shouldn’t even be debated.
Unfortunately, some bloggers don’t know the first thing about sportsmanship, youth development (yes, they might be in high school but they’re still kids) and leading by example. And whoever noted that “sportsmanship has nothing to do with how much you win by…” shows as much ignorance as the coach.
This is an annoyingly sad story, but we have to keep bringing incidences like this to light. Be it crazy parents, poorly coached kids, corrupt referees or idiots like this guy who shouldn’t be coaching, we can’t take any pressure off the goal of improving the programs kids participate in- this is where character, integrity, compassion and a myriad of life-skills are learned on a daily basis. It’s literally one of the only arenas where kids can learn these skills… and they must have the right role models and mentors to show them the way.
Long post- boil it down, this guy is a prime example of who we DON’T want involved with shaping kids moral compass.
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- Bball Parent - Jan 31, 2010 at 3:19 AM
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I am amazed at some of these comments. I have a son in the 12th grade and he has played sports since Kindergarten. I have always loved for our team to win and didn’t like losing too much, but I realize it is a part of life. I am glad that my son has seen both sides (usually more losing than winning), BUT high school sports have gotten way out of hand. We now have coaches that recruit from all over the world so that their school can win and we have kids whose parents actually take them from school to school just so they can be noticed and maybe get a college scholarship. What??? What happened to making friends at school? What happened to sports being a normal and important part of the school experience? Nowadays “average” or “normal” kids aren’t able to play sports because coaches are too worried about winning and kids are too worried about playing in college or the NBA. Kids that have gone to a school from the beginning aren’t able to play on their sports teams because of the better players coming in from all over the place. That is absolutely ridiculous!! Yes, there is a time where the other coach should back off. I don’t believe in whining or sitting on the side lines sucking my thumb (as one poster put it), but come on. Beating a team is great and more power to Yates for that, but what the coach did was about his glory -period!! There’s no room in high school sports for that. It still should be about the kids and not the coach’s ego’s. You folks that are defending the Yates coach out to be able to honestly admit that he acted irresponsibly! I have taught my son that you learn something in winning and in losing, but I have also taught him about sportsmanship and treating people like they should be treated. Some you need a lesson or two!
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- Travis - Jan 31, 2010 at 10:34 PM
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I am a coach, and 8 kids that should be playing basketball for our school district have transferred out and are playing for other schools in the area. All of those schools have now defeated us this year. I could evaluate what went wrong and fix it in practice, but I am still coaching the kids that sat the bench in 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade while the kids that are now transferred got all of the playing time.
This is a state champion caliber team beating down a team that obviously has a lot of needs. Right now I am guessing that this other school has just lost a couple of future players and possibly a couple of current players may not want to be a part of it anymore. You can say that the kids are weak, but it is Yate’s coach that is weak. For one he told his kids to ease up in a 9 point game???? Are you kidding me? Second, he thinks pressing for the entire game will better prepare his team for those situations???? Third, once his 3rd string had it’s time to shine and every kid was in double figures, he couldn’t ease up a little???
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- jacob - Jan 31, 2010 at 10:57 PM
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If they can’t handle the pressure in the league they are in – move the team down Double AA or B.
They seem to be in the wrong conference!
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- Bball parent - Feb 1, 2010 at 1:51 AM
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Ben, How did this become about being a conservative, drinking beer, hunting or Bush (I don’t believe this can be blamed on him)? Can’t people have a difference of opinion without bringing in hatefulness? We are discussing a high school basketball game. It has nothing to do with political views or whether we hunt or drink. If you have nothing useful to say about the issue, then just be quiet, please. Thank you.
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- Trevor - Feb 3, 2010 at 7:52 PM
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I was a high school player and didn’t play after high school. I would of done the same thing it doesn’t matter the score you get told IN PRACTICE to push and never let up you don’t see nba players letting up.
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- srthfcghfthf - Feb 12, 2010 at 8:51 AM
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this team is a sorry excuse for a basketball team my SCHOOL C.A.JOHNSON WILL DESTORY BOTH TEAMS
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- Eliseo Brunderman - Feb 19, 2010 at 5:57 PM
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- Becky wayout - Mar 13, 2010 at 5:01 PM
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Seriously this may be those kids shot at getting to college. Hello……the high school coach has 2sons that play basketball. Did you not think the coach would make sure his team was an AWSOME TEAM? All those that hate, stop. They are trained to win and win is what they should continue to do. Good Job!!!!!
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- Julian - Mar 28, 2010 at 1:53 PM
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To Bill and everyone else that has a problem with winning coach..you people make me sick…Life is not always going to be handed to you…we are so busy making excuses for kids these days they are soft and lost iwth no real drive or work ethic..when I was growing up 60 kids would try out for a team and 12 would be selected. the other 48 had to go back and work harder..that was a lesson we learned early in life..and it sticks with you..and as life would normally dictate…it comes full circle when you ease up and stop applying to yourself…and this isn’t just sports this applies in the classroom and how you carry yourself EVERYDAY..I remember losing a game by 70 in high school to the number 1 team in the country at the time…and it pissed us off and made us hungry because we knew we were better than that…so we went back the drawing board and got much better and rededicated ourselves to the sport we say we love…to the coaches and kids and Yates High School JOB WELL DONE…to those that don’t like it…I hope you’re never coaching my kids…they need to know that hard work and dedication are what you strive for but somedays it’s not going to be enough when you play another team just as dedicated but slightly more athletically talented…somedays things just don’t go your way..
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- chris - May 28, 2010 at 7:32 PM
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I dont think that the coach should tell his 3rd line to go out there and not play hard… But he doesnt have to press the entire game either.
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- jeff - Aug 27, 2010 at 10:04 PM
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Good job coach! I would have done the same. I beat a team in AAU that bad the other coach did not cry like a baby. I played the same team three weeks later with the same players on both sides, we won by seven. He is one of the few coaches I respect. Take it as a lesson to teach your players.
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