Hey, I'm all for playing it out in the pros and high-level college. I don't like this not running up the score in the NFL or not stealing a base with a 5-run lead in MLB. At that level, you are there to compete.

 

 

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What was most annoying, however, were the parents LOUDLY whooping and cheering on EVERY goal. Even when they went up 9-1 they hollered as though they just broke a 1-1 tie. It was equally bad when they went up 10-1, 11-1, all the way to 14-1 before time expired.

All I could think of was "Act like you've been there before." It was the perfect quote for that situation. They were clearly better than we were, but continued to pound the ball into the net at every opportunity. To me, that's classless. The coach can easily call for "five passes before a shot," or "no shots from inside the 18," or only shoot with your "off" foot. Something.

When I was that age playing soccer, the team I was on was very good. In our regular league, there was a 6-goal differential MAX on scoring. So 6-0 was fine, but 7-0 and the penalty was a forfeit for the winning team.

This meant when we went up 6-0, which often happened in the first half of play, we had to start playing keep-away from the other team instead of trying to score. If by some fluke we ended up getting on a breakaway, we would literally turn around or intentionally blow it to avoid forfeiting the game.

In some cases, we were good enough to pretty much maintain absolute possession of the ball. I always felt this embarrassed the opposing team just as much as scoring another goal would have. With that said, I know going up 10-11 zip wasn't something anyone wanted to see.

I don't really have an answer on how to avoid the issue, because sometimes in sports you are just going to have teams that are not equally matched in ability level. I think it is a terrible idea to tell kids not to play their hardest, but at the same time some common sense needs to be applied and common sense isn't easy to legislate into league or state rules.

It would certainly be better in these situations if parents and spectators watching used some common sense on cheering in blowout games.

I agree this would be equally humiliating to the losing team. I don't have answers, but I think a general lack of class is pretty apparent in a lot of these lopsided contests. To Mike's point, however, you can't just legislate out of the that. It's life.

Last year, my son's high school football team was getting it's tail beat by our arch rival. Down 52-13 with about 90 seconds remaining on the clock, we held them to a fourth and short deep in their own territory. On the next play, the opposing team lined up to punt, but then faked the punt and picked up the first. After that, they kneeled on it to end the game.

Our coach was irate, and confronted their coach after the game about the fake punt. The other coach claimed he was just trying to keep the ball out of our hands and end the game.

Do you go for a fake punt when you're up 39 points with under two minutes to play? 

 

Southern Cal would bring their back-ups in with about 90 seconds to go in games in which they were up about 30.  If I went to practice every day as a back-up and gave my all and the coach didn't give the back-ups the field with 5-6 minutes (or more) to go when up by 30 or more, I'd be teed off.  Gotta reward guys for their hard work when ya get a chance.