Michael Ko, Seattle Times
The Seattle Times

 

In spring 2006, the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference passed a "50-point rule" for all the state's high-school football games, in which the coach of a team that wins by more than 50 points can be suspended for the next game.

A committee of coaches and administrators approved the decision as a reaction to a 2005 football season that saw scores of 90-0 and 75-6, "at the cost and humiliation" of the losing team, says Paul Hoey, CIAC associate executive director.

The initial reaction to the rule was "outrage," Hoey says, but the desired results were achieved.

In 2005, 29 games were won by 51 points or more. In the 2006 season, there were just two.

"We're knocking heads a little bit over the values out in society right now," says Hoey, a former high-school principal and basketball coach.

"It's a tough battle, but it's one worth fighting. [High school] is the last bastion of real amateur athletics, and we're trying to hold the line on what's important, at least while they're in high school for those four years."

Aside from specific scores, one of the fundamental issues is how each coach defines a blowout.

Rainier Beach boys basketball coach Mike Bethea, who has won three state titles, says there's usually a moment in every rout when the other coach throws up the white flag, "when you know you can score anytime you want, when you know you can do pretty much anything you want to out on the court."

But there's no standard. A 30-point lead might mean different things against different teams. And what could be excessive in some situations might not be in others.

Bethea remembers a state tournament game in the mid-1990s, when his team was down by 37 in the fourth quarter. The opposing coach pulled his subs, put his starters back in and started pressing. Bethea interpreted it as a message that his up-and-coming Beach team still had a ways to go.