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Pacific SportsBlogOkinawa-based sports reporter Dave Ornauer on military-related sports in the Far East. |
Reverse: DODDS-Europe adjusts football mercy rule
Posted September 27th, 2007 by Dave OrnauerDODDS-Europe made some tweaks Wednesday to the mercy rule that governs how high school football games are played and reported to the press.
The key plank where Stripes is concerned: No more are coaches bound to report victory/defeat margins of 39 points when a game turns into a blowout.
"We want the actual scores to be reported to the public," DODDS-Europe's deputy director Linda Curtis told Stripes.
Prior to Wednesday, if a game ended in a 76-0 verdict or otherwise, the coaches were required to report it as 39-0. As a result, Stripes in Europe last weekend declined to report scores of all DODDS-Europe athletic contests due to concerns over accuracy.
That was reversed as well, in the hours following DODDS-Europe's meeting.
The new rules, passed during a Wednesday meeting of DODDS-Europe's athletic council, also permit coaches to determine the course of the remainder of games that do become one-sided.
Coaches may decide to call off the rest of the game, or continue with such things as a running clock and using only second-team players.
What's your take? Did DODDS-Europe do the right thing in reversing its field? Should Rule 39-0*, as I called it in a previous post, have remained in effect? Let us know what you think.
All mercy rules are jokes
..and as such should not even exist IMO. If the game is out of control and a coach is dumb enough to continue using his starters to beat up on outmanned kids, the losing coach can forfeit and the "winning" coach can go look at himself in the mirror because he's the only one who would want to see him.
I was fortunate enough to help a number of kids in DODDS-Europe go on to get college sports scholarships, but was dismayed by the number of parents whose disconnect with reality was all too obvious. Sometimes a kid isn't good enough to play Div. I sports, BUT he/she can go on to play at other levels and enjoy a sport he/she loves if they make a realistic choice.
The worst enemy of the aspiring prep athlete is the pitiful level of "competition" found in DODDS, but what can one do about that? Not mercy-ruling for sure. A buttkicking is a buttkicking, whether it's one quarter's worth or a whole game.