Finally, a good sportsmanship story

[Mark Padgett]

Today was the last day of the season for our local kids rec league. I had four games in which I was training some HS kids. My first two were 5th/6th girls games and the last two were 8th boys games. In the first girls game, team A won by 6. After the game, I was talking with one of the parents from team B who I've known for quite a few years. He told me this was the first game they lost all year (meaning they were 11-0 before this) but at a practice this week, their coach told everyone he was going to give as much playing time as possible to the "players who didn't play as much" this season, regardless of the score. Apparently all the girls and their parents supported this. He has a guard and a center who are probably the two best players we have at that grade level and they each played less than half the game. I noticed every time a girl on his team made a really good play, the kids on the bench would cheer wildly and when one girl made a basket, they "went nuts". I asked my parent friend about it and he said that girl only had about 2 baskets all season. She played almost 3/4 of this game.

I hope this guy comes back again next year. BTW - most of their games were relatively close (I was told their biggest victory margin was 12 points) and they never "poured it on" anyone.

Gee - I wonder what that Texas HS coach in that other thread would say about this.

BTW - I had to toss a coach in one of the 8th grade games, so the day wasn't all good. Or was it.