Michael Ko, Seattle Times
The Seattle Times

 

"It is part of the game," he says. "Different coaches have different philosophies. Some coaches don't mind sticking it to you. Other coaches understand, 'It could come back to haunt me.' "

For the teams leading a blowout, there seem to be several unwritten rules: substitute liberally; don't do anything overly aggressive like full-court press or throw the ball downfield; and run the same play over and over again.

But coaches were also almost unanimous in saying they would almost never tell a kid to not play hard. And playing half speed can result in injuries.

So what happens if the other team stops trying? What if they're so discouraged, they don't even try? What if the talent difference is overwhelming, even between the winning team's reserves and the losing team's starters?

Should a football coach ever tell his offense to take a knee for an entire quarter? A basketball coach tell his team to miss their shots? A baseball coach tell a player to strike out? How disrespectful is that to the opponent? To the game?

Mercer Island swim coach Jeff Lowell believes the balance between respecting a weaker opponent and still providing a meaningful experience for his own team often requires collaboration with the other coach beforehand.

Lowell coached his school's dominant girls water polo squad for seven years. Before one obvious mismatch, he challenged his players to run a specific counter-attack to the right side of the pool for the entire match.

Not only that, he told the other coach beforehand that that would be his game plan, to let him plan for it. Mercer Island still won 23-3.

Lowell says he feels that didn't cheapen the game for either team because that counter attack was "the foundation for everything else we were doing that season. It's like basketball, we're running our base play. I've got to know every guy on my roster can run my base play."

Then, there's the issue of back-ups, who have been practicing too, and want to show what they can do. Is it wrong if, in a blowout, a third-string running back scores on a long touchdown run?

"Who am I trying to appease? If the coach on the other team knows it's my third-team running back, I don't think the other coach is going to have a problem with that," says O'Dea football coach Monte Kohler. "I'm not going to ask a kid to fall down."