Today I was quite surprised to hear about my high school making national news. It's pretty bad, however, when the news is that your high school football team has lost
91 to 0. What's up with that?! Here is an editted version of the story that was on Yahoos home page this morning.
GO WILDCATS!!! Win or lose, I still love ya!
ESTERO — The Estero High football staff gathered in head coach Rich Dombroski's office late Friday, almost in stunned silence.
Earlier that night, Estero lost to Naples High by 13.
Not by 13 points. By 13 touchdowns. That's right: Naples 91, Estero 0.
The rout fallout has been growing since the game ended.
"Hey," offered Estero defensive line coach Pat Hayes after the one-sided affair, "I didn't even know 91 was a multiple of seven."
With that, the coaches all got a much-needed laugh.
A half-hour away in Naples, Eagles coach Bill Kramer — the man on the winning end — could use one of those.
He looked at the scoreboard late in the game, saw 91-0, and said he felt sick to his stomach. Kramer's team ran only 31 plays and he kept most of his best players on the sideline — for the entire game in some cases. But still Kramer knew what was coming.
Soon after the game ended, his inbox began filling with angry e-mails, some from Estero parents wondering why so many points were necessary, some from Naples parents wondering why their kids didn't play more in an effort to pad their stats.
"There's only one way to describe it," Kramer said. "Just bizarre."
Dombroski isn't blaming Naples.
"Naples did absolutely nothing wrong," Dombroski said. "We just didn't do anything right." Kramer has been in this spot before.
"The real irony is we've got some of our parents upset that their kids didn't play or didn't play enough. And you just say, 'Wow.'"
"Our team might not be winning or might not be on top right now," said right guard Mike Perez. "But we all have to do the best we can do. We can't forget that."
Three Days!
12 years ago
A lot of people could learn a lesson about sportsmanship from these two coaches. Kudos to both teams.
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