Covenant Girls Baseketball Gets 100-0 Win, School Seeks to Forfeit
Team regrets 100-0 win, apologizing for winning fair and square. Texas high school girls basketball team on the winning end of a 100-0 game has a case of blowout remorse.
January 23, 2009 DALLAS — A Texas high school team wants to set things right after crushing an opponent by 100 points. A Texas high school girls basketball team on the winning end of a 100-0 game has a case of blowout remorse.
Now officials from The Covenant School say they are trying to do the right thing by seeking a forfeit and apologizing for the margin of victory.
Samantha Peloza grabs a rebound in practice a week after their 100-0 win.
“It is shameful and an embarrassment that this happened,” Kyle Queal, the head of the school, said in a statement, adding the forfeit was requested because “a victory without honor is a great loss.”
Covenant Girls Baseketball Gets 100-0 Win, School Seeks to Forfeit: The private Christian school defeated Dallas Academy last week. Covenant was up 59-0 at halftime.
A parent who attended the game told The Associated Press that Covenant continued to make 3-pointers — even in the fourth quarter. She praised the Covenant players but said spectators and an assistant coach were cheering wildly as their team edged closer to 100 points.
“I think the bad judgment was in the full-court press and the 3-point shots,” said Renee Peloza, whose daughter plays for Dallas Academy. “At some point, they should have backed off.”
Dallas Academy coach Jeremy Civello told The Dallas Morning News that the game turned into a “layup drill,” with the opposing team’s guards waiting to steal the ball and drive to the basket. Covenant scored 12 points in the fourth quarter and “finally eased up when they got to 100 with about four minutes left,” he said.
Dallas Academy has eight girls on its varsity team and about 20 girls in its high school. It is winless over the last four seasons. The academy boasts of its small class sizes and specializes in teaching students struggling with “learning differences,” such as short attention spans or dyslexia.
There is no mercy rule in girls basketball that shortens the game or permits the clock to continue running when scores become lopsided. There is, however, “a golden rule” that should have applied in this contest, said Edd Burleson, the director of the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools. Both schools are members of this association, which oversees private school athletics in Texas.
“On a personal note, I told the coach of the losing team how much I admire their girls for continuing to compete against all odds,” Burleson said. “They showed much more character than the coach that allowed that score to get out of hand. It’s up to the coach to control the outcome.”
In the statement on the Covenant Web site, Queal said the game “does not reflect a Christ-like and honorable approach to competition. We humbly apologize for our actions and seek the forgiveness of Dallas Academy, TAPPS and our community.”
Covenant coach Micah Grimes did not immediately respond to a message left by The Associated Press on Thursday.
Queal said school officials met with Dallas Academy officials to apologize and praised “each member of the Dallas Academy Varsity Girls Basketball team for their strength, composure and fortitude in a game in which they clearly emerged the winner.”
Civello said he appreciated the gesture and has accepted the apology “with no ill feelings.”
At a shootaround Thursday, several Dallas Academy players said they were frustrated during the game but felt it was a learning opportunity. They also said they are excited about some of the attention they are receiving from the loss, including an invitation from Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban to see an NBA game from his suite.
“Even if you are losing, you might as well keep playing,” said Shelby Hyatt, a freshman on the team. “Keep trying, and it’s going to be OK.”
Peloza said the coach and other parents praised the Dallas Academy girls afterward for limiting Covenant to 12 points in the fourth quarter. She added that neither her daughter nor her teammates seemed to dwell on the loss.
“Somewhere during that game they got caught up in the moment,” Peloza said of the Covenant players, fans and coaches. “Our girls just moved on. That’s the happy part of the story.”
School seeks to forfeit 100-0 win: The following are just comments, not from the author of this article. Please leave your views afterwards:
Uh no.. its called fair sport. The loosing team needs to up their game next time. There’s no need to apologize if the game was being played fairly. Sportsmanship is also playing until the end, not whining about it because you are loosing.
The team that lost will not learn anything if the winning team lets them off. They should have come to play, its not the winning teams fault they did not do their job. Its the coaches responsibility to make sure his team is ready, which he/she did not do. Quit complaining and take the loss you earned….
Dallas Academy students are struggling with “learning differences,” such as short attention spans or dyslexia. I understand the need to compete with other schools but lets keep the playing ground fair.
I cannot believe we’ve gotten to the point where we are penalizing the winners and honoring the losers. How in the world did this team not score a single point.
Why should they apologize for it? More to the point who is pushing the apology? This whole self esteem culture will be our ruin.
The other kids obviously were not much of a team. If anything they should have forfeited during the game, but kudos for them for sticking it out. THey have learned a very valuable lesson by getting crushed, even if the weak amongst us fail to understand it.
We ask our players and our citizens to give 100% and to ask less of them, even in a game, is setting a bad precendent.
Besides, what good would an apology do anyways, the deed is done.
The only real question I have over the whole incident is why the coach didn’t rest up his starters afte the first half. To not do that would be poor coaching and that I have an issue with.
Wow..1st we had trophies for “Participation”…then some schools have games with no winners and now the winners feel bad about winning!….absurd….
This is ridiculous. You wont get any where in life by backing off. The Dallas Academy Students and Parents should shut the @#$% up and suck it up. You shouldnt have a basketball team if you are going to cry about losing and how you lose.
Good Job Covenant Girls for getting to 100. It is not often you see highscool teams hit 100 in a game.
the losing teams coach should have thrown in the towel. But I see the sensitivity of the Christian winning team. Jesus golden rule as love others as you love yourself, is great! But when it comes to sports you can still love your opponent and kick their butt.
I get what they are trying to say in a sense and understand that it is the age of the girls as to why they are saying it….young and impressionable minds and they dont want the girls to take the wrong thing away from this ….BUT…..they are doing no justice to either side by apologizing for the skills of one team versus the other nor downplaying a loss. It is what it is…but I think if the winning team played all its players and everyone had fair playing time then the fact it they won, and the other team lost….it is by all accounts a competition.
This is absolutly rediculous. Take your loss like a man, you got your ass whipped now move on.
Basketball: Object of game, put the ball in the basket as many times as possible, within rules of game. No apology necessary.
Since they are Christian schools, do they teach that Christ seeks to oppose Satan to a draw, or defeat him?
This is one of the problems with our society today. Why should the winning team be ‘guilted’ into apologizing and asking for a forfeit for going out and beating another team. All of this PC-feel good stuff is not going to change the fact (especially in the losing team’s minds) that they lost. If you cannot handle losing, then you should NOT compete. When these girls get out in the real world and don’t get a job because someone else was more qualified (in essence they ‘lost’ to another candidate), their reaction will be to blame the hiring company for not being fair instead of realizing that they need to work harder and become better qualified. What a joke.
I say they won fare and square. No professional team is ever going to feel officially bad for creaming the other team. What is it with this new generation that we allow them to think that THEY did something wrong when they were the ones who won???
Not everyone is entitled to win- and it’s the other teams fault for loosing so bad! they shouldn’t have to forfeit THEIR game just to make the other team feel better!!!! Geesh!
Give me a break. Apologize for what? If you got beat then man up and accept it. There is no need for the winning team to feel bad here.
I get excited hen I see a huge upset in any game. That just shows who is in the game and who isn’t. BUT, I have to admit, I bet it ws really depressing for the losing team to go home empty handed. That will affect their lives forever, permanently branded into their minds that they were no good. I appreciate the losing teams effort to continue in even the dimmest moment. How about a rematch?
There is a mercy rule in effect for all high school games. The clock continues to run when one team leads by 40 or more points in the 4th quarter. On another note…. those of you who condone this should have your head examined. Humiliating a team shows a lack of respect and sportsmanship. Call of the press, play a zone defense and let the other team have a chance at scoring. The refs are partly to blame for this too. I referee and what they can do is call all close fouls and send the other team to the foul line. This will also get the message through to the other coach to ease up.
I would have to ask why if they were continuing to make the same type of plays why the coach on the opposing team not change up the defense or stand against that. I also have to wonder why they should have a golden rule thing (don’t get me wrong I like the golden rule) but you don’t see any professional teams griping because of a large upset. In fact if it was a professional team people would be throwing a party. And the only thing that makes sense to me is that it may be because they are a Christian School and unfortunately a lot of people think that Christian people should not do anything that would upset anyone… even if it was fair or good. And I think it is really dishonorable to the losing team for the grownups to make a big thing out of it and start trying to make excuses and make the other team feel guilty about it…
Never apologize for winning fair and square. VINCENZOP you’re exactly right. The losing team probably should have thrown in the towel.
However, I’m more impressed with the losing team hanging in there and playing the whole game than I am with a hundred point win.
This story is reflective of a society that has grown to feel guilty about things, (thank you Oprah). I’ve seen it taught in more than one school. Anyway, congratulations to Covenant School for being so good and successful!!
I think everyone on both sides deserves blame. I don’t condone the disgusting lack of sportsmanship on one side & hope they get their pompous behinds whooped the rest of the season, but I also do not think the school that hasn’t won in 4 yrs should be competing on that level. Their administrators have put these girls in a terrible situation. They say to just give it their all but turn around and scold another team for doing just that. Bottom line is it should have never happened or for starters there should be a mercy rule. Ironically everyone involved (but these wonderful girls who tried) are the ones pointing fingers & apologizing.
So what? Don’t make a big deal out of nothing. With 4 minutes to go, the winning team stopped the bleedings, right? Those that complained are whiners,softies and dumb asses, Are they also the same ones that will let terrorist go free? Mostly likely. We don’t have to listen to them!!!!!!!
In our efforts to not offend anyone, we’re homogonizing all our kids, leveling out the playing field to the lowest common denominator… and not just in athletics!! By all means, let’s stop honoring kids who excel and start making them feel bad because they’re more skilled than someone else. That’s the way to encourage our kids to be competitive on the world market!
The coach and principal of the school for “challenged” kids needs to find an appropriate league for their players. This is not it. They need to play in a league in which they can be competitive. All this has done is re-enforce for those kids that they don’t measure up… way to go!
They’re just taking an example from NCAA Division 1 Football, where running up the score gets you a shot at the National Championship. Oh how quickly we forget.
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