The story of the Covenant School’s 100-to-0 over Dallas Academy in a January 13 girls basketball game has been making the rounds today. Now, there’s a twist: Covenant officials say they have made a formal request to the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools to forfeit the “victory without honor.” It’ll be a rare appearance in the win column for Dallas Academy, which is near White Rock Lake and is known for its work with kids with learning disabilities; the school pulled out of TAPPS league play for the rest of the season following the game against Covenant.
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Oh. By the byline I figured this was about another typical Maverick game this year.
Zing!
Yes, last night was disheartening. I feel partly responsible. When I turned the game on, waiting for the kid to go to sleep so I could watch Lost, Mavs were up 11. Two minutes later, they coughed up the lead and apparently decided to quit.
Micah Grimes = Bob Stoops?
Do you EVER see them at the same place?
This game taught the scoreless kids a good lesson — even when there are rules, such as in a corporate situation, there are people without honor who will pound you into a pulp just because they can.
Parents at that school are sTrAnGe.
That’s not a good thing.
I love how some people are treating the story nationally as if it was an 100-0 victory over a mentally disabled team…I guess also assuming that Texas is such a backwards state that its citizens delight in putting mentally disabled athletes in regular league competition with normal ability athletes.
It’s good to see that the girls aren’t too torn up about the game, and it’s also good that Dallas Academy realizes that their girls basketball teams are REALLY REALLY struggling to be competitive in their division, and that this might be something to reflect on a bit.
Well, the “learning disabled” rubric covers a broad spectrum. Are the girls mentally disabled?
I think that Dallas Academy should insist that the win remain in place. If only to permanently embarrass Covenant.
Didn’t I read this in the Dallas Morning News? You guys are falling behind…
Who cares whether they are mentally disabled, physically disabled, or just bad a basketball. There is no reason in the world to keep running the score up like that against a clearly overmatched team. As the coach of a youth sports team, I would never allow my team to do something like that. And if my son played on a team where the coach allowed — indeed, encouraged — that behavior, I would have went down to the sideline myself and yanked him out of the game.
I know a little bit about these “classical model” Christian schools… Most of the schools will stop a game at a 50 pt lead…
Daniel, as to your questions…DA is a great school. One of my daughter’s friends attends. It is a highly specialized curriculum. The students have learning differences that range from mild spectrum dyslexia, dysgraphia, and other challenges to combined and/or more severe degrees. The kids at DA learn various methods and techniques to survive and ultimately thrive.
Covenant and a number of classical “trivium” schools in DFW have a curriculum based on a Biblical time line which is initiated in phase 1 that runs from 1st to 5th grade. The kids learn Latin at about 2nd or 3rd grade. They have differing levels of immersion in different eras (Greek, Roman, Egyptian in which all subjects focus synergistically to demonstrate a classical education). In middle school, the kids begin to “process,” and by high school are fully (in theory) able to argue and defend their world view. Fairly Utopic, no?
What is happening in Dallas, specifically, is the classical schools are full of these three kinds of kids: refugees from public schools (the sub-class is the kids on a slippery slope to alternative programs or rehab, sorry, but being really honest here…), kids who didn’t get into a top tier private school (St. Marks, Cistercian, Hockaday…), and deeply religious families (some who failed at home schooling). Like the top tier schools, the kids are pressured to achieve, and it bleeds into their athletic activities. I’ve seen it at 2 different classical schools.
I know exactly what happened…there was a game…the refs were in experienced (as many TAPPS refs are), the girl’s basketball coach is probably young (maybe a grad student, alumnus, or aspiring seminary student…maybe even a parent of one of the players, living vicariously through their kid, or I could see it being the “child” of a faculty/board member- nepotism is rampant at these schools)… There are a handful of talented kids, and the situation takes a turn. The parents want to see the kids play. Both mom and dad work (to pay tuition) and the moment takes over…
Can you tell, I’ve seen this before? Almost this exact thing, but in 6 man football. Thankfully, my daughter’s (former) school asked to end the game at halftime 99-0. I saw the parents, refs, and faculty whipped into a frenzy. It was embarrassing. (Not quite WWJD, not what I wanted for my kid, and similar situations have happened before in TAPPS schools.)
Here’s the deal…the kids at DA aren’t going to peak in high school. The best is yet to come for those girls, and they will thrive long after we’ve forgotten this story. I applaud them.
I hope more people watch the video on the DMN link to see the girls that we’re talking about. On the Kidd Kraddock show this morning they reported that these girls have “developmental disabilities”. On the video the girls seem like they couldn’t care less about losing 100-0 in a game they’re just learning how to play, but I can’t imagine they’re too thrilled about the world assuming they’re intellectually/developmentally retarded.
I don’t really have a problem with the kids from Covenant School scoring so much. I have a real problem with Dallas Academy playing in the same league though.
Covenant shouldn’t lose a game that they won fairly. DA should be looking to fire a coach and move to a lower bracket.
Want to point out to the folks that when/if The Dallas Morning News is gone within 24 months, this is the kind of story that’ll never see the light of day. Let’s not forget, it wasn’t until the paper authored the story that Covenant issued all their apologies. Say what you want about The Dallas Morning News, it has the ability to affect change in a positive way. When it’s gone, we’ll miss it.
http://www.advocatemag.com/lake-highlands/blog/100-0_basketball_game_.html?c=y#comments
Check out this blog! Several families in Lake Highlands are experiencing SVAA backed coaches bullying their “returning player” children off of the teams in elementary schools!