I've coached soccer and softball for the last 20 years. Two teams a year, usually.
I have never and will never tell my kids to let up, or to play at less than 100%. If that means winning 100 to nothing, so be it.
What I do to try to balance a pounding is to load up with second stringers. If they continue to whallop the other team, that's a great accomplishment for those kids, too.
Those girls worked hard and should benefit from the feeling they get from a good win.
The kids who got their asses handed to them can learn just as much.
I do agree that there's a "line". There's always an argument about where that line is because this world is so chock full of pussies nowadays.
We used to play State College in basketball when I was in High School. They'd regularly beat us by a 70 point margin. I scored 5 points against them once (from second string) and it felt like the greatest accomplishment of my life to that point, despite the fact we lost by 80 or 90 points.
I can see why the girls on that club were excited, they were about to score 100 points and I'm sure that's something they've never done.
Why a team of that caliber was playing a team full of girls with "learning differences" is a good question. Hopefully someone learned that it's not a good idea to take a knife to a gun fight.
The coach did let up with 4 minutes left in the game after he allowed the girls to achieve the 100 point mark. The Dallas Academy girls said "they were frustrated during the game but felt it was a learning opportunity. They also said they are excited about some of the attention they are receiving from the loss, including an invitation from
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban to see an NBA game from his suite."
I think the grownups involved need to grow up.
