Victory Without Honor Is a Great Loss!

A good friend sent me a link to a story on the Rivals High website about a Texas high school girls basketball team that has decided to forfeit a game they legitimately won. Here's part of the story:

DALLAS -- 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.

"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."

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.

Now I know some die-hard sports fans are saying, "So what? It's our job to score and it's your job to defend." A paraphrase by the way of the Old Ball Coach, Steve Spurrier when he was coaching Florida and they scored a record blow out of my Kentucky Wildcats in football. If it's only about the final score then I will concede the argument. However, if it's about teaching young athletes character, dignity and honor, then we've got a whole different ballgame. Now there's another part of the story I need to share about the losing team:

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.

What a refreshing story in a day and age when the emphasis seems to be winning at all costs. These young women need not apologize for doing what they were trained to do, but it would seem they have learned an even more valuable lesson about compassion and character. So now the small in numbers girls team from Dallas Academy has a victory and will not finish this season like the previous four with no wins. What a gift from the larger and obviously more athletic Covenant School! If you would like to read the full story click on Rivals.

By all means sports, academic and character fans give me your take on this story.