The agony of the blowout
In girls basketball, scores can get so lopsided even the winners feel it
By Shannon Russell
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Ashleigh Hendricks blinks twice. Sweat trickles from her brow to her cheekbones, beading along her jaw before splashing onto her St. Bernard basketball jersey.
The opponents have just scored again. They lead by 64 points.
Enough, she wants to say. Stop the humiliation now.
Ashleigh imagines she's in a bad movie, running in slow motion, while the winning team fast-forwards to the basket.
When the buzzer blares to end a 77-13 loss to Seven Hills, she trudges off court, thinking of the Titans' other lopsided defeats: 72-26. 71-31. 68-31.
"It's so frustrating and embarrassing," Ashleigh says. "We don't have any confidence after games like that."
In Cincinnati high school girls basketball, "games like that" happen almost every night. Blowouts - victories of 30 points or more - are messy affairs disguised in neatly packaged box scores. In 562 girls games reported to the Enquirer since November, nearly one of every five has been a blowout.
The scores are the result of teams mismatched by size, wealth, talent and desire. Lopsided scores may even be an unintended consequence of Title IX, the federal law that says girls must have the same athletic opportunities as boys.
As schools created hundreds of new girls teams, the potential for disparities grew. Last season, 18,352 Ohio girls played on 784 varsity basketball teams - a significant increase over the 12,000 girls who played in 1974.
As the Ohio high school sectional tournament begins Monday, more blowouts are guaranteed as the best teams feast on weaker teams in early-round competition. Regardless of the reason, blowouts will lead to hurt feelings, empty wins, finger-pointing and locker room debates about ethics and good sportsmanship.
"Some teams have personal-trainer type situations, where they can go to Fitworks or a Nautilus and work out in the offseason. My girls play softball," St. Bernard coach Rick Stalder says. "Those teams can throw the ball the length of the floor. My girl is lucky to get it to halfcourt."
Blowouts aren't exclusive to girls games, but they don't occur nearly as often with boys.
Boys and girls are directed by different societal and parental perceptions of sports' importance. Girls are more likely to be late bloomers, and some learn basketball fundamentals as late as high school. Winning isn't always everything; some play to be with friends, or to exercise.
"There's just not the same pool of athletes in women's sports as there are in men's," says David T. Hellkamp, a Xavier University professor of psychology and consulting sports psychologist.
Hellkamp says that as good teams get better and weaker teams improve, someday the playing field "will start evening out."
No thrill in victory
Melanie McGraw has been dreaming of this season her entire life. The Seven Hills senior, a two-time all-conference forward, has imagined playing in the state championships since third grade.
It's why she and her teammates dragged themselves out of bed at 5:30 a.m. for summer conditioning, lifting weights until their arms ached and jumping rope until their lungs burned.
"We thought about what all the other teams were doing and hoped that our hard work would pay off," Melanie says.
Except that it hasn't, exactly.
The Stingers, ranked No. 4 in the Division IV state poll and No. 1 in the Enquirer's Divisions II-IV coaches poll, are widely disliked after winning their first 13 games by an average of 42 points.
Seven Hills plays in one of the city's most lopsided leagues, the Miami Valley Conference, home to private and public schools. Strong programs from Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy, Landmark Christian and North College Hill twice a year play struggling teams from St. Bernard, Lockland, Summit Country Day and New Miami.
The Stingers, who have four starters from last season's school-best district championship team, have crushed New Miami (88-7 and 76-14) and Summit (74-18), among others.
In those games, Melanie doesn't have much chance to showcase her skills. Starters play only about two quarters; subs play to balance competition on the court.
"It's frustrating, because you know you want to play hard. You can't do things like fast-break when you're winning by a lot, and fast-breaking is one of the aspects of basketball I live for," Melanie says.
The Stingers' scores have been criticized by other players and coaches, even their own classmates.
"Some people don't even want to go to our games," junior forward Sofie Mirkopoulos says. "They don't want to watch a blowout."
Instead of being rewarded for extensive off-season work, Melanie feels penalized.
She says Seven Hills has done everything to avoid embarrassing opponents. Not all of the games have been lopsided; on Jan. 22 the Stingers lost to Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy, 46-35.
Yet every time her team runs out for warmups, Melanie senses contempt.
"I don't know why everybody is mad at us," she says. "I feel bad for the other team when blowouts happen. I don't know if they think about what it's like to be in our shoes."
Double perspective
Hughes coach Anita Burke can relate to both sides. As head of one of the Queen City Conference's top teams, she is criticized for trouncing other teams. Yet she says she continually imposes on-court restrictions when playing weaker conference foes.
With Burke's help, Hughes has enjoyed seven straight winning seasons. But when Hughes plays nonleague foes, its fortunes change.
The Big Reds could not survive Mount Notre Dame, No. 5 in the Division I state poll and No. 1 in the Enquirer's Division I coaches poll. On Jan. 11, Mount Notre Dame - the top team in the Girls Greater Cincinnati League Scarlet Division (17-2, 9-0) - thrashed Hughes 72-36.
Two days later, Hughes defeated conference foe Aiken 69-2. Aiken scored only twice, on free throws in different quarters. Hughes dominated Aiken again on Jan. 28, 52-10.
"They just weren't any good. They were inexperienced," says Burke, who called off a press five minutes into the first game. "I played everybody. There's not much more I can do."
Senior guard Farsha Johnson mopped away copious tears after the loss to Mount Notre Dame. It was hard losing that way, she says.
What about Aiken? Well, that was different.
"It was boring (playing Aiken)," Farsha says. "We just ran plays to prepare for better teams. I did feel sorry for them, a little bit. But Mount Notre Dame didn't feel sorry for us."
Aiken coach Wayne Wiggins won't comment, but former coach Patrick Branch says Hughes embarrassed Aiken players so badly two years ago that half the team quit.
"If I ever had a team that could blow Hughes out, I would. I'd shut them down and embarrass them," Branch says. "You see things like this happen in the NBA, not high school girls basketball. It's a slap in the face."
Beefs among coaches are the last thing a game needs, says Duane Warns, assistant commissioner of the Ohio High School Athletic Association.
"If we see a coach pouring it on and beating teams unmercifully, we need to remind them that they need to be teaching better values, like character. That's why we play the games we play," Warns says.
For many teenage girls, blowouts pummel their already fragile self-esteem. Most girls interviewed from losing teams say their coaches try to motivate them, but the best confidence-builder comes from opponents' rare compliments.
"Sometimes it's hard to come back after halftime," says junior Alison Meirose, who plays for winless Turpin (0-19). "When we played Glen Este, their coach (Jeff Click) actually said he respected how we played defense. It was so unexpected, and it made us all feel really good."
Theresa Hirschauer, Cincinnati Country Day's athletic director and assistant basketball coach, has seen plenty of lopsided games in soccer, basketball and softball in the past 13 years. When seasons end and teams disband, feelings of inadequacy and embarrassment still lurk in players' minds.
"When you embarrass a kid like that," Hirschauer says, "it sticks with them for the rest of their lives."
Easier to cheer
New Miami junior center Cindy Johnson describes herself as a dedicated basketball player. Or a boys basketball cheerleader.
Cindy is one of three varsity players who juggle cheerleading with girls basketball. She admits that she doesn't give 100 percent to basketball and that the team could use some extra practices.
In many ways, she's typical of girls who want to participate in an extracurricular activity.
"Our boys have a winning team, so it's kind of easier to be a cheerleader and back someone who wins," Cindy says.
The 1-18 Vikings (0-15 Miami Valley Conference) have won one game a season since 1994. Seven of the 18 girls split between reserve and varsity had never played basketball until now.
Coach Tim Augustine says most of New Miami's girls don't pick up a ball until the season rolls around. Getting them to attend open gyms is tough, because of lack of interest and obligations to multiple sports.
Being blown out is embarrassing, but Cindy says it's even more excruciating when the other team takes one look and laughs.
Augustine says players didn't even want to board a bus to Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy on Feb. 1, knowing the game would be a rout. When they got to the school, Augustine and Cindy say, the opposing players belittled them. Then beat them 75-26.
Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy coach Tim Southerland won't comment.
Cindy sticks with basketball because she likes the sport, and it keeps her away from bad influences, "like drugs." She says Augustine encourages the team to go to Miami University's team camp, but his efforts fall short.
"It's a teenage girl thing. It's their summer, and they don't want to dedicate it to basketball," Cindy says.
'You don't quit'
Giving up was never an option for Williamsburg senior Tiffany Hayes.
The Wildcats, who have won five games in four seasons, beat Southern Buckeye Conference foe Batavia 53-33 on Jan. 30. It was Williamsburg's first league win in five years.
Just weeks before, some of Tiffany's teammates sobbed in Georgetown's locker room after being blown out 74-28.
Tiffany, a three-year varsity player, always had maintained a positive outlook for Williamsburg.
"You don't quit something you love just because you're not great at it. That will never get you anywhere," she says.
Thanks to second-year coach Rick Healey's efforts and offseason work, the Wildcats have made strides. After years of losing, the girls learned that they could win.
So there's hope, Tiffany says, for teams enduring year after year of blowouts.
"You can't hang your head and get frustrated," she says. "If you keep working, it gets better as the days go by."
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Blowouts by the numbers (more reported in the actual article)
CHCA 72, Summit 7
Madeira 64, Deer Park 9
Seven Hills 88, New Miami 7
CHCA 70, Lockland 12
Hughes 69, Aiken 2
Hughes 52, Aiken 10