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Sports See other Sports Articles Title: Column: Softball coach snaps the unwritten rules When written rules are broken, punishment follows. It's a basic tenet in sports, and one we see practiced nearly every day. What we don't often see, and frankly, what I can't ever recall seeing, is a punishment for breaking unwritten rules. But that appears to be what took place at Central Cabarrus High this past week. Softball coach Monte Sherrill was suspended by the school for two games after his team, which is ranked fourth in the nation by USA Today, beat West Charlotte, 55-0, on April 15. Go ahead and read that score again; it's not a typo. And to make matters worse, the game lasted just two innings (two innings!) before West Charlotte's athletic director asked officials to end it. According to a published report, the coach and athletic director at Central Cabarrus won't comment on the game or the suspension, but the West Charlotte athletic director said Central Cabarrus continued to play aggressively as the Vikings scored 30 runs in the first inning and 25 more in the second. While I wasn't at the game and can't know all of the circumstances surrounding the game, I did talk with four Union County softball coaches about the score and suspension, and they helped me come to a conclusion: Sherrill could have prevented the score from reaching such laughable heights, and because he didn't, he deserved a suspension. To make things clear, none of the four county coaches could say with certainty that they agreed with the suspension. They all said they needed more information. But Eddie Rivers of Forest Hills, Misty Tarleton of Parkwood, Tad Baucom of Piedmont, and Sarah Keziah of Monroe all said there are a common set of unwritten rules for coaching in a blowout, and those rules shouldn't be broken. "There's a lot of ways to avoid letting (the score) get away from you," Baucom said. "You can hit balls to the fence and stop your kids at first base. On the 35 or so passed balls, you don't take a base. And you don't steal a base." By playing this brand of station-to-station softball, you give the opposing team as many chances as possible to record three outs each inning without an excess of runs crossing the plate. Once you have a big lead, it's also common to put in backups who aren't as good and don't often get a chance to play. Scores can still get out of hand this way - there have been several cases of 15-0 type scores in the county this year - but teams never approach the point of humiliation. The N.C. High School Athletic Association does have a mercy rule that's meant to protect against excessive blowouts - if one team is ahead by more than 10 after five innings, the game is called - but because of the severe gap in talent between many teams, these unwritten rules are often needed to just get to the fifth inning with a respectable score. In all fairness, sometimes it's hard to keep the score down, Rivers said, and he can understand a bad blowout every now and then. After all, he won't actually tell his kids to strike out on purpose or make an out on purpose. "I'm not going to make a travesty of the game to not embarrass you," he said. "On the other hand, if (Sherrill) didn't do the things you're supposed to do, then I think he's making a travesty of the game." The things you're supposed to do ... the unwritten rules ... that's what this is about. Monroe has been on the losing end of a couple 10-run games to county opponents this year, but Keziah said her Redhawks were facing teams with integrity who didn't let things get out of hand. "The Piedmont team, the Forest Hills team, those are the two we've played locally and they've gone out of their way to make sure that we were not humiliated," Keziah said. "Piedmont and Forest Hills have class. They treat us with respect; they don't try to humiliate our girls." If Central Cabarrus was trying to humiliate West Charlotte, the Vikings' motive could have dealt with personal reasons we don't know about. Or, as two coaches suggested, the Vikings may have been trying to pad their stats to improve their national ranking. Both of those are poor excuses, however, and neither can absolve Sherrill for allowing his team's rout. When all four county coaches were asked if there's any reason a team should score 55 runs, they all said no. When they were asked if they could prevent their team from scoring 55 runs, they all said yes. Play by the unwritten rules, and it won't happen. Don't play by the unwritten rules, and you get suspended.
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 2.
#1. To: All (#0)
I'll probably never post another sports article, but does anyone else see what's wrong with this picture?
Here's the school slogan from West Charlotte: "To promote and support student learning in a safe diverse learning community where students, staff, and parents actively commit to academic excellence and personal responsibility." They posted no photos except for the building, but West Charlotte is a little Africa and part of the absolutely awful Charlotte Mechlenberg School system, from which all thinking whites wish to secede. Central Cabarrus (Vikings) is mostly white and a high achieving school in Concord, N.C.. I'd say Cabarrus wanted to put multiculturalism in its rightful place, 55 - 0. Go Vikings! "Love your race".
#3. To: CWRWinger (#2)
Heh--even though vikings could've been considered some of the most diversity-friendly conquerors, they sure didn't pull any punches to make the conquered feel better about themselves. Matter of fact, true viking/Viking fans would've been laughing out loud at the other team while continuing to rack up the points. Then the other teams manhood would've been questioned, and a nithing pole erected to permanently affix the humiliation.
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