Dallas Covenant Coach Fired, Says He's Not Sorry for 100-Point Win

**TXCharlie** · 01-26-09, 09:50 PM

I agree with the coach... If the loosing team was so mis-matched in skill, then they had no business even playing in Dallas Covenant's league. Since when is it dishonorable to tromp the other team?

True, the loosing team has learning difficulties and has been winless for 4 years, so who made the decision to match these teams up or even let them play in a league just to get slaughtered four years in a row?

However, I do admire the Dallas Academy players for not giving up - as they say, what does not kill us makes us stronger.

Coach Fired, Says He's Not Sorry for 100-Point Win | NBC Dallas-Fort Worth

Updated 10:54 AM CST, Mon, Jan 26, 2009

Micah Grimes coached The Dallas Covenant school girl's high school basketball team to a 100-0 win and has since been fired by the school.

The coach of a Texas high school basketball team that beat another team 100-0 was fired Sunday, the same day he sent an e-mail to a newspaper saying he will not apologize "for a wide-margin victory when my girls played with honor and integrity."

Kyle Queal, the headmaster for Covenant School, said in The Dallas Morning News online edition that he could not answer if the firing was a direct result of coach Micah Grimes' email disagreeing with administrators who called the blowout "shameful."

Queal did not immediately answer phone messages or email from The Associated Press.

On its Web site last week, Covenant, a private Christian school, posted a statement regretting the outcome of its Jan. 13 shutout win over Dallas Academy. "It is shameful and an embarrassment that this happened. This clearly does not reflect a Christlike and honorable approach to competition," said the statement, signed by Queal and board chair Todd Doshier.

Grimes, who has been criticized for letting the game get so far out of hand, made it clear in the email Sunday to the newspaper that he does not agree with his school's assessment. The entire statement was also published on his own basketball Web site.

"In response to the statement posted on The Covenant School Web site, I do not agree with the apology or the notion that the Covenant School girls basketball team should feel embarrassed or ashamed," Grimes wrote. "We played the game as it was meant to be played. My values and my beliefs would not allow me to run up the score on any opponent, and it will not allow me to apologize for a wide-margin victory when my girls played with honor and integrity."

NBC 5's Lindsay Wilcox spoke with Coach Micah Grimes by phone. He would not say if his firing was a direct result of that statement or of the blowout victory on Jan. 13.

A parent who attended the game said Covenant continued to make 3-pointers -- even in the fourth quarter. She praised the Covenant players but said spectators and an assistant coach were cheering wildly as their team edged closer to 100 points.

Covenant was up 59-0 at halftime.

Dallas Academy has eight girls on its varsity team and about 20 girls in its high school. It is winless over the last four seasons. The academy boasts of its small class sizes and specializes in teaching students struggling with "learning differences," such as short attention spans or dyslexia.

There is no mercy rule in girls basketball that shortens the game or permits the clock to continue running when scores become one-sided. There is, however, "a golden rule" that should have applied in this contest, Edd Burleson, the director of the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools, said last week. Both schools are members of this association, which oversees private school athletics in Texas.

The story has received national attention, and the Dallas Academy team has been recognized for refusing to give up during the lopsided contest.

Copyright Associated Press / NBC Dallas-Fort Worth

**Terminator** · 01-26-09, 10:39 PM

Hoops for Jesus! LOLZ.

**Skyy** · 01-26-09, 11:09 PM

Originally Posted by Terminator

Hoops for Jesus! LOLZ.

WRONG.

Airballs for Jesus! Hoops for teh devil!

**Terminator** · 01-26-09, 11:10 PM

Originally Posted by Skyy

WRONG.

Airballs for Jesus! Hoops for teh devil!

12/22/08 - 25 posts.

**Skyy** · 01-26-09, 11:18 PM

It's quite clear by the disciplinary action to the coach that the hoops aren't for Jesus, otherwise he'd be sittin a nice promotion. If he truly were doing it for Jesus, they'd be hittin the airballs.

**TXCharlie** · 01-26-09, 11:46 PM

What's an airball? That shows how much I know about basketball

**ChesCopPodz** · 01-27-09, 06:22 PM

On one hand the PC crap about running up the score is BS. If a game is a blowout, put the third stringers in and if they keep scoring, they keep scoring.

Contrary to popular belief, sports are played to win.

**MacLean** · 01-27-09, 06:43 PM

We aren't teaching kids to win any more.

**TXCharlie** · 01-27-09, 06:46 PM

The way I understand it, after they got about 50 points ahead the coach told the team to switch to a less-aggressive strategy, and did put some new players in... But the other team was still no match for them.

**irishmick** · 01-27-09, 09:20 PM

It sucks, but damn, so does life sometimes. If there is no "blowout rule" then I don't see the issue.

**Terminator** · 01-27-09, 09:56 PM

Originally Posted by Skyy

It's quite clear by the disciplinary action to the coach that the hoops aren't for Jesus, otherwise he'd be sittin a nice promotion. If he truly were doing it for Jesus, they'd be hittin the airballs.

I'm guessing you missed the obvious joke there.