[A Pennsylvania Coach]

I've been on both sides of games that could've turned out, well, not like this one, but not sportsmanlike. Up 55-9 going into a fourth quarter, we went all JVs and put the old four-pass rule in. I think it was 65-23 at the end.

I've also lost a game 106-38. A lot of it was my fault, trying to press and run with a pressing and running team. But the opposing coach's daughter, gunning for the career county scoring record, didn't have to be in the game, much less scoring 14 fourth-quarter points. That stuff goes around and comes around.

My take is that there are sometimes circumstances around these games that have to be considered. This one, with the open postseason tournament style, well, I can't fault the winning coach as much as in a regular season game. Our playoffs aren't open but sometimes they get filled out with low-record teams. Those low-record teams have the option to not apply for the tournament in the first place. If you go into a playoff game 0-20 against a powerful 18-2 team, well, your eyes were wide open.

Scoring 115 points is not that many more (maybe 20 to 30) than a really good girls' team gets on a really good day. Some of this 113-point margin can be put on the opponents scoring just 2. If they were not pressing, in a zone without traps, well, I think that's the problem. If your varsity puts up 75 in the first half (never call the dogs off before halftime, no matter what), and the second team gets 20 more in the third, and the JVs get 20 in the fourth, well what can you do? Those JVs get into their first district playoff game and you tell 'em not to shoot? They work hard in practice. They've earned it.

The thing for the coaches to consider is what message they are sending to the kids. I don't think I could pull my team off the floor just because they are getting whooped; they'd pick up a quitter mentality. On the winning side, you can't quit until the opponents do. Once, up 44-17 with 3:30 left, we put the JVs in. With 1:40 left it was 44-31 and we put the varsity back in. The opponents hadn't quit, so why should we have? It nearly cost us.