The Power of Christ Compels You...to Win By 100 Points

Normally, I have no problem with running up the score.

At the professional level, there is no such thing—if you're getting paid to play and you can't muster an effective counterattack, you deserve to get your head kicked in. If management hasn't assembled the talent necessary to compete, too bad.

In the pros, it's a job and one that's compensated very nicely. There ain't a violin small enough.

In the college ranks, the bar for sportsmanship gets raised a bit because the kids aren't getting paid (directly, anyway). But there are still acceptable ways to rout your opponent. If your third string happens to be infinitely better than the opponent's starters, I say let the massacre begin.

First, it would be insanely unfair and counterproductive to put your scrubs in and then tell them to dog it. These are the ones who toil in obscurity for the majority of the season, helping the team by being the practice punching bags. They are the dark matter necessary for the team to form around its stars and they are either in need of experience for growth or as a reward for years of unappreciated effort.

No way a coach should tell those kids to dial it back in their (possibly only) moment for glory.

Second, let's be honest about this—there are millions upon millions of dollars trading hands because of these "amateur" athletic events; they are pseudo-professional sports. As such, the Citadel cannot sign up for the huge payday against Florida and then cry foul when the Gator walk-ons run them out of the arena. Not unless the school was forced into the game...and financial windfall.

If you want to dance, you gotta pay the piper.

Once you get down below college though, it's a whole different story. Especially at the high school level, these are real amateur athletes. This is the level where the VAST majority of participants are playing for some reason other than money—to learn life lessons, for exercise, for love of the game, to stay out of trouble, whatever. And they are all young kids, not a single one matured beyond his/her teen years.

So when I stumble across a story like this, I hit the red almost instantaneously and without remorse.

For those of you not into clicking links, a quick recap: some truly exceptional piece of humanity named Micah Grimes allowed his Covenant School of Dallas high school girls varsity basketball team to beat Dallas Academy 100-0. Not only that, after being rightly fired, he sent an email to a newspaper reiterating that he did nothing wrong and refusing to apologize for the wide margin because his "girls played with honor and integrity."

Let me repeat: high school girls varsity basketball, 100-0.

But Grimes wasn't through: "We played the game as it was meant to be played. My values and my beliefs WOULD NOT ALLOW ME TO RUN UP THE SCORE ON ANY OPPONENT, and it will not allow me to apologize for a wide-margin victory."

What a stand-up fella.

I guess his values and beliefs don't prevent him from lying like a flea-ridden, stinking mutt. According to spectators, Covenant's girls were still launching three-pointers in the fourth quarter of a game it led 59-0 at HALFTIME. Since they managed to score 100 points, I'm betting some were going in.

The kicker?

Dallas Academy's varsity squad has eight—EIGHT—girls and the entire school only has 20. They haven't won a game in four years. See, Dallas Academy caters towards high-income families who have children with special learning needs (I'm guessing about the high-income part).

So this priceless "man" and molder of young attitudes allowed his team to score 100 points on a school that probably doesn't have enough interested bodies to field a softball team. He had his girls preserve a shutout for four quarters against a bunch of kids who already suffer from social stigmatization due to a learning disability (sad, but true since kids are cruel).

And, to top it all off, he refuses to admit his error and has the audacity to try to shift the focus onto his girls.

I have no doubt that those Covenant girls played with honor and integrity. Unfortunately, that means they were listening to Micah Grimes because that's what good kids do—they listen to their coaches.

Clearly, this disgusting individual was NOT telling his girls to ease up. He was NOT telling them to play "ole" defense. He was NOT teaching them greater life lessons about sportsmanship and humility.

In the words of Covenant's administration, Grimes was not reflecting a "Christlike and honorable approach to competition."

I'm not religious and haven't been to church except for weddings and funerals since my family moved to the Bay Area in 1987. Nor am I a biblical scholar so I'm no expert on Jesus Christ. But, from what I've heard about the guy, I don't think he would've been rooting for mental-midget Micah.

In fact, I think he'd've been throwing down some pretty hellacious D for Dallas Academy.

Covenant's powers-that-be called the dung beetle's stunt "shameful and an embarrassment." I say it was downright stupid.

I've been to Dallas and I've seen how seriously Texans take their sports. Even the good Christians.

Grimes is lucky some irate parent didn't beat him senseless (a logical impossibility since Micah clearly already lacks any sense). Lord knows I would've been tempted if one of my little nieces had been out there getting shellacked like that and soldiering on.

If it had been my own daughter (of which I have none so I'm imagining here) and she was already self-conscious/sensitive because of dyslexia or dysgraphia? Whoo boy, there better be some able bodied sailors in between me and Grimes or I'm gonna need me a good criminal attorney.

And it'd be worth every cent.