Date: Fri 29-Sep-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: TOMW

Illustration: I

Quick Words:

Column-Wyatt-Running-It-Up

Full Text:

Wyatt On Sports/Running It Up

Running up the score has become a hot topic this week after Joe Paterno and

Penn State's long-pass touchdown in the final seconds of a game against

Rutgers. There were even two cases at Newtown High School last week where

games were getting out of hand.

The question being asked is, where do you draw the line? Does there come a

point in an athletic contest where a team should stop trying to score?

The object in sports is to outscore the opposition, while the coaches try to

teach their athletes important lessons of life. One such lesson is " never

give up. "

Especially when an audience pays to see a sporting event, teams and athletes

should put forth their best effort from start to finish, regardless of the

score. There are ways of toning things down to avoid embarrassing an opponent,

but, though it may sound Machiavellian, athletic teams should never " stop

trying. "

No coach worth his salt should have anything to say about another team "

running up the score " against him. If a game gets to the point where a coach

needs the other team to stop trying, he should just take his team and walk off

the field.

Certain sports have what they call mercy rules, where a game is halted when

one team gets ahead by a certain margin. If society is worried about lopsided

scores, then a mercy rule should be the answer.

Last week in a Newtown High girls' soccer game, the locals scored six goals in

the space of a few minutes against a horrific Stratford team. In a noble

gesture, NHS coach Kim Berglund asked her girls not to shoot on goal anymore

and for the final 30 minutes of the first half, the Lady Indians played an

embarrassing game of keep-away.

The fans at Treadwell Park, though they understood, were put to sleep by the

new game plan and many just left. Things really got embarrassing when a

Newtown freshman ended up with the soccer ball four feet in front of the

Stratford goalie with nobody else around.

She passed the ball back.

While the Stratford coach appreciated Newtown's not winning the game 55-0, his

athletes had to be more embarrassed by the team's obvious effort stoppage.

At the Newtown High football game two days later, coach Bob Zito put his

jayvee players in for the fourth quarter in a 33-0 win over Bethel. On first

down and goal at the two yard line, coach Zito had his quarterback kneel four

straight times to run off the final two-and-a-half minutes of the contest.

Again, noble.

But opposing teams should expect to handle lop-sided defeats. Losing big is

also a lesson of life.

All a coach can be asked to do is put his backup players into the game. But

they should put forth their best effort at all times. If it still gets out of

hand at that point, too bad.

In a college football game several decades ago, Georgia Tech beat Cumberland

College 222-0. Should Tech have been taking a knee after going up 60-0 in the

first quarter?

A ridiculous thought.

Football teams can run the ball up the middle; soccer teams can try for only

header goals; baseball players can try to hit opposite field; and basketball

players can be instructed to make five passes and score only from in the

paint. There are ways of curtailing scoring, but no team should be asked to

fail. It's just not a good lesson to teach.