Covenant coach who beat Dallas Academy 100-0 is fired
The Covenant School fired its girls basketball coach Sunday, the same day he posted a message on a youth basketball Web site saying he disagreed with school officials who had publicly apologized for the team's 100-0 victory over Dallas Academy.
In reporting the firing, Kyle Queal, Covenant's head of school, emphasized that former coach Micah Grimes "now only represents himself" when discussing the game, which has become a national talking point. Queal said he could not say whether the firing was a direct result of the posting and declined to answer any questions.
In a statement posted Sunday on www.flightbasketball.com, Grimes offered his first public comment since the story was first reported.
Grimes also included the quarter-by-quarter scoring on his post: 35, 24, 29, 12.
At the end of his post on the Web site, which identifies him as co-founder of Flight Basketball, Grimes wrote, "So if I lose my job over these statements, I will walk away with my integrity."
Grimes did not teach or work at The Covenant School. He was in his fourth season as girls basketball coach, having built the program from a 2-19 record his first season to a state championship contender last season. Covenant, which plays larger out-of-district schools, is 6-3 this season and undefeated in its Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools district. It has informed TAPPS headquarters that it has chosen to forfeit the Dallas Academy game.
Grimes responded briefly to an e-mail request for an interview, indicating that he might speak at a future date.
On Thursday, Covenant posted a statement on its Web site that said it "regrets ... the outcome of the game with the Dallas Academy Varsity Girls Basketball team. It is shameful and an embarrassment that this happened. This clearly does not reflect a Christ-like and honorable approach to competition." It was signed by Queal and Todd Doshier, chairman of the school's board of trustees.
That was also the day the national spotlight began focusing on the game, following a report in The Dallas Morning News on the 100-point shutout on Jan. 13.
Dallas Academy coaches and administrators say Covenant kept the pressure on until it reached 100 points midway through the fourth quarter.
Until Sunday, Grimes hadn't made any public comments since he e-mailed The News on Wednesday night. In that e-mail, which was also sent to Queal and athletic director Brice Helton, Grimes called scoring 100 points "unfortunate."
"It just happened," he wrote. "Please know Covenant intended no harm against them. I see this as a real learning opportunity, so we can prevent this from happening in the future."
Grimes said in his Sunday post that his team stopped applying full-court defensive pressure after the score reached 25-0 three minutes into the game, then dropped into a relatively benign zone defense and began resting its starters in favor of its three bench players.
Dallas Academy coach Andrew Lott agreed that Covenant stopped pressing at that point but returned with an alternate press later in the game.
"I am 100 percent sure," said Lott, who estimated that his team was able to take seven shots all game.
Dallas Academy, renowned for its work with students who have learning disabilities, is winless this season and has not won a game in at least four seasons.
"He's entitled to his opinion," Lott said of Grimes' assessment of the game. "If you ask 10 people about it, you might get 10 different answers."
Lott said his team did not videotape the game, hosted by Covenant, but he is certain Covenant did.
"Maybe we could look at the tape," Lott said.
Cheryl Bugg, whose daughter is one of Covenant's top players, said she didn't want to talk about the firing.
She said the parents of the team's eight players met with school officials Saturday and outlined three goals for the program:
"We want to represent Christ with the highest respect, we don't want to humiliate anyone ever and we want our students to be enthusiastic in everything they do
Comment(s) »
» Leave a comment
- Your E-mail address is never displayed. If you enter it, it will only be visible to the blog author
- Since there already are comments to this post, your eventual comment might trigger a notification e-mail to the persons that commented before you.
- The line and paragraph breaks automatically
Comment by Burns— 2009/01/26 @ 01:44 PM — (Reply)
Unbelievable. Dallas' coach is the one who should've been fired! They could use a dose of shame!
Comment by Brooke— 2009/01/26 @ 04:10 PM — (Reply)
#1. It's very unsportsmanlike like to just spank a opposing team like that....unless the opposing team was talking sh** prior to the game(lol), and deserved a spanking.
#2. If the losing team was a group of kids with learning disabilities.....why weren't they put against other teams with similar issues...level the playing field so to speak....Shame on the schools that agreed to have this game in the first place...
#3. The one I might get yelled about...lol.....That's called life boys and girls....Not everybody wins, in a competition. Somebody has to lose. Deal with it...If you don't like the heat get out of the kitchen. Failure to achieve a goal, in this case to win a game, is not the fault of the victor, it's the person or persons who lost. That's life's way of telling you to get up, work hard and try harder, and do your best.....self esteem is not a right, it's a hard earned condition (but a 100 to zero?...that's a little shitty....see what I mean about ambivalence?)
Comment by riffran— 2009/01/27 @ 12:05 AM — (Reply)
They hired this coach to win. They were 2-19 and he's taken them to being contenders for the state championship. If the game was so out of hand why didn't the refs call it.
As you said life is full of disappointments and failures. Not allowing young people to experience those things will only make life more difficult for them. What happens the first time they go for a job interview and don't get the job? Are they going to go crying that the guy who did get the job wasn't fair because his qualifications were better?
As far as self esteem it sounds as if the losing team needs to compensate by finding something that they are good at. Evidently basketball isn't one of them. That's what you have to do for children to have a healthy self esteem. They need to realize there are some things that they are good at and some things that are weaknesses, BUT the key is finding something they are good at.
Sports are object lessons for life. We are moved by those who overcome and achieve not by those who lose and feel entitled. I beieve this story is a metaphor for demonizing those who succeed, businesses etc.
Comment by Elmers Brother— 2009/01/27 @ 02:43 AM — (Reply)
Comment by riffran— 2009/01/27 @ 03:01 AM — (Reply)
Comment by Elmers Brother— 2009/01/27 @ 03:15 AM — (Reply)
Comment by riffran— 2009/01/27 @ 03:28 AM — (Reply)
Comment by jim— 2009/01/27 @ 05:02 AM — (Reply)
Comment by Elmers Brother— 2009/01/27 @ 03:54 AM — (Reply)
Comment by jim— 2009/01/27 @ 05:04 AM — (Reply)
The thing that bothers me is how these private schools always tie it back to not being Christ-like. Ugh.
Just play basketball.
Good grief.
So much pressure on kids. It's sports. Play your best. You'll win some, you'll lose some. You CANNOT be perfect, only Christ was. You might get in a fight during a game or two (I did). Your coach might screw up. Does that make him less of a Believer?
Ugh. I've been there, done that.
Yes, this is absurd.
This is EXACTLY why we left our University Model School.
How many hearts will be won by kicking our own when they're down?
Comment by Pinky— 2009/01/27 @ 01:00 PM — (Reply)
Comment by Elmers Brother— 2009/01/27 @ 01:06 PM — (Reply)
Comment by Ed— 2009/01/27 @ 01:21 PM — (Reply)
Is there a link to something about that?
Well IF I were on the team getting spanked I'd hire that coach that just got fired....it's obvious they need some help
Comment by Elmers Brother— 2009/01/27 @ 01:23 PM — (Reply)
So when do you play your second/third stringers? Two minutes left in the 4th?
Comment by FJ— 2009/01/27 @ 02:15 PM — (Reply)
you play basketball to win
just like war there is no such thing as a measured response...you go at it to win
Comment by Elmers Brother— 2009/01/28 @ 04:17 AM — (Reply)
It sounds like Grimes had good sportsmanship. He played his second string, played a zone defense. The other coach could have forfeited, I guess.
Dallas Can Academy is for at-risk youth, not disabled kids.
Private schools in this area are desperate to fill their schedules b/c there just aren't enough schools.
The match ups are often lopsided.
Comment by — 2009/01/27 @ 03:25 PM — (Reply)
Being Christian; after turning 25 people onto Christ you should stop trying, give satan a chance to catch up...
Being Christian; Only people in authority should have opinion? Coach speaks out and gets handed his cross.
Practice; Sounds like the other team needed the 4 quarters of practice on defence and offence.
Practice; Did the other team?
Policy; I have nephews in baseball, when the score difference is great enough after so many innings they call the game. and I'm talking like 10 point diff. I felt cheated as fan driving 1 1/2 hours to see half a game.
Other Coach; said opponent lightened up on them after first quarter and it's eflected in the quarterly scores.
Inspirational Movie; This would be good time for losing coach to turn his team around and inspire an after school movie about it. Wait, that's already been done.
Firing; That school probably would have fired him if the results were reversed. Who did he replace?
Tired; I'd guess they voted for Obama because of his lack of experience.
Concede; Apparently the other coach thought they still had a chance at 25-0, 50-0, 75-0
Call game; Did they have a ref?
Apology; I'm sorry if my responce took up to much space. In the future I will limit my feelings to one sentence of 8 words. I fired my writer for not limiting me to "where to start"
Steve
Comment by 48 miles— 2009/02/03 @ 08:58 PM — (Reply)
Practice; Sounds like the other team needed the 4 quarters of practice on defence and offence.
Comment by Elmers Brother— 2009/02/04 @ 02:49 AM — (Reply)