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Competition's Lessons, Not Bruises, Linger

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By TOM JACKSON

tjackson@tampatrib.com

Published: February 1, 2009

Whatever emerges from tonight's athletic epic, no one will be called on the carpet to apologize for running it up, pouring it on or otherwise disrespecting the other team. This will stand as a refreshing change, given the rampant hand-wringing that has attended another sporting cause celèbre, the 100-0 waxing recently administered by one Dallas high school girls basketball team to another.

Afterward, the administration of the winning school apologized for the lopsided outcome and sought to forfeit the game. When, online, the coach who oversaw the pasting "respectfully disagreed," he was dismissed.

All of this has invited amateur philosophers and psychologists to explore, and largely lament, bare-clawed competition in the modern - dare we say "PC" - world.

The condition gathers particular relevancy locally given the resignation, almost simultaneous to the events in Dallas, of Bishop McLaughlin High School boys basketball coach Greg O'Connell, over stakes that are not dissimilar.

In Dallas, Micah Grimes, Covenant School's notorious ex-coach, argued on behalf of the integrity and honesty with which his team played. For that, and not so much for allowing his players to press and shoot 3-pointers deep into the fourth quarter, Grimes got the boot. In the integrity sweepstakes, it's hard to pick a winner between the Covenant headmaster who was less alarmed about the coach's tactics than his failure to feel badly about them, and the hard-headed coach himself.

When It's OK To Go Easy

Similarly, McLaughlin's O'Connell - whose legendary regard for discipline recalls cinema's Norman Dale ("Hoosiers") - quit when parents challenged his tough schedule of punishments over (their impression) minor infractions.

Which brings us, serendipitously, to Les Parker, McLaughlin's interim coach, a baseball man by training who agreed to span the gap to the season's end after O'Connell bolted. A scout for the New York Mets, coaching the Hurricanes is not duty to which he could do justice, long term.

Regarding O'Connell's departure, Parker has been quiescent, saying that he grew up when the coach's word was law, and that he, too, wields a healthy respect for punctuality and dress codes.

Regarding the other, Parker offers worthy counsel laid upon a foundation of firsthand knowledge. That experience, endured 43 years ago, would serve if the tables were turned: Empty the bench, retreat into a tight zone defense and invite the opponents to shoot from outside.

Picked Up, Dusted Off

Not that Parker imagines the guys from Hillsborough were trying to run it up on the upstart runts from King that night, even if it was 30-0 after the first quarter. "Coach Bob Shiver didn't have a mean bone in his body," Parker says. It was just one of those nights - a superior team at the top of its game, and the other guys, "All of a sudden, we couldn't throw it in the ocean."

The final - 111-37 - is not one of those scores you forget, Parker says. "They just whipped us," he says. "It was awful." The take-

away? Says Parker, "I knew I'd better stick to baseball."

Oftentimes, harsh lessons stick best. Whether the sympathy lavished on the players blanked by Coventry or those relieved of O'Connell's stern methods will be better served, only time will tell. But Les Parker never asked for an apology, and no one ever offered one, and, funny thing, he seems to have turned out fairly well.

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