The Wrong Coach Got Fired!

That's right! You heard me.

By now, I'm sure you've all heard of the great tragedy in Dallas, Texas where the coach was fired for allowing his team to win over another school 100-0. In addition to firing the coach, Micah Grimes, the administration of Covenant School , a private Christian school called the January 13th win over Dallas Academy, "shameful and an embarrassment that this happened. This clearly does not reflect a Christlike and honorable approach to competition."

In response, the Coach, who was asked to apologize, posted a statement on the Covenant website that said that he did not agree with the school, nor did he feel embarrassed or ashamed. His quote of significance said, "my values and my beliefs would not allow me to apologize for a wide-margin victory when my girls played with integrity and honor."

What about Dallas Academy? they have 8 girls on their varsity team and 20 girls in their high school. It is winless over the past 4 years. The academy is known for its small class sizes, and specializes in teaching students who struggle with "learning problems."

So, now that we have as much of this story as we know or probably need to, let's make some observations.
1. This coach is probably a jerk for pressing and shooting three-pointers when his team already had lead at halftime 59-0. However, have we thought about the other girls who played for the winning team? Are they supposed to just come in and know not to use their skills they have apparently learned a heck of a lot better than the other team? My answer is, No!

2. What the Hell is Dallas Academy doing playing basketball if they can't even compete? That's unfair and uninteresting for teams that are trying to compete fairly. Their losing forces a team to quit playing the game honestly, and do other things that may hurt them when they have to play against a team that can compete.

3. The Coach is apparently teaching his kids to play basketball very well. He was hired, I assume to teach, and at least in this case, basketball. One could argue whether he has great compassion, or whether or not he's too aggressive in winning, but no one can argue the fact that he's either a great teacher, recruiter, or both. Yet, he gets fired for doing his job, as I'm sure he was not hired with the hope that he would beat Dallas' Academy's losing streak by losing as much as possible.

4. What is the purpose of the game when you play it? You want to score and you want the other team not to score. Guess what, mission accomplished! The ultimate in this case is a shutout. So Covenant Academy is so ashamed, that they forfeit the game, which now becomes a 2-0 win for Dallas Academy. What? We give 2 more points credit to an unprepared team than they could score themselves, we bail out a coach who is doing a lousy job teaching, and we in a very politically correct manufacture a gray area that says that it's not about winning and losing, but strictly how you do it. Talk about sending a mixed bag of messages to kids, what are they learning here?

5. Our country thrives on competition, and yes, we want to win with class, but winning and losing in our society is part of who we are. For every winner, there is a loser. If you don't have a chance to compete, should you step into that situation until you have at least some of the fundamental tools. I won't be able to compete against a great golfer until I have practiced and honed the skills to step onto that stage. The coach is classless, but should never have been fired. Admonished, yes; not fired. The people that should be fired are the two administrations of these two schools who taught all the wrong lessons to the students involved.

One group learned that winning is wrong, and the other learned that someone will bail you out even if you lose. They were also taught that basketball in this case was made too important instead of worrying about more life and death issues that deserve far greater attention.

No, I say fire the two administrations, and depending on the situation, the OTHER COACH who has done a terrible job. If I walked into a classroom to teach students and consistently over 4 years had such bad lessons that it was the equivalent of a losing streak every day, I would expect to be fired, and any administrator worth his salt would do it. In this case, the only one with any salt were the kids that competed.

VOTE! What's your final thought and the "Hoe-Down!"

PLEASE vote tomorrow for your candidate. You are the final poll, and whether it's Obama, McCain, or other, you need to exercise your guaranteed right. Here's a question, though. What will your final thought be before you make your choice?

Oh yeah! I'm looking forward to meeting you tomorrow night at WOW Cafe and Wingery with my bud, Jay! Come out and blog, and eat, and talk and eat, and joke, and eat! We'll be there from 6-9p.m. Come on out and have fun!

Sound familiar? Candidates and copycatting

Talk about copy-catting! This video shows us Bill back during his first run for President, and Hillary during her run now. It's interesting how she can apparently do freely what she alleged Barack Obama of doing. I guess we'll just chalk this one up to the "Clinton Standard" since it worked so well for them before..

People are people ... right?

There have always been the easy hits ... color, ethnicity, religion, and most recently sexual orientation, that drop people into categories within society. We even find time to classify others by their looks -- beautiful people get to get in here, those who are ugly don't even bother attempting, and so on.

Politics seems to have created a seriously divided and often contentious social class as well, with many calling themselves, conservative, liberal, or whatever the flavor of the day may be.

Strangely enough, though many other of the usual suspects like color, ethnicity, religion and so on, don't fit into this type of social structure. Political affiliation seems to be "all encompassing" in some form with nearly all people.

The important questions coming from this are: WHO are YOU and WHAT do YOU believe?

Are you Liberal? Conservative? Other? Let us know where you stand ideologically, and in turn you will gain a better perspective of your political values and those of your fellow bloggers.

Discuss!

Washington's religion

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the blogosphere ...

Jonathan Rowe discusses Washington's religion on the Positive Liberty website.

Jon is something of an expert on religion and the Founding. He writes:

[T]he dispute over the Founding Fathers’ religion has been going on for some time. Even though the letter was written to the New York Times in 1897, the points are still apt. Moncure Conway was a freethinker who did some notable scholarship on George Washington’s religion, in particular his lack of Christian orthodoxy.

One of the things I like about Jon is his honest scholarship and attention to primary sources. For example, when discussing the 1783 Circular to the States and Washington's address to the Delaware Indians, he points out that these are the only two places Washington discusses the name or person of Jesus at all.

Moncure D. Conway on Washington’s Religion (from Positive Liberty)