Michael Ko, Seattle Times
The Seattle Times

 

If it's apparent there's a wide discrepancy between two teams in a specific sport in one league, Ennis believes it should be addressed by people above the coaches, principals and school administrators.

"Kids shouldn't be in a situation week after week after week where they can't compete on a relatively level playing field," Ennis says. "No one's going to benefit from being overwhelmed each and every time. They need a taste of success."

If anyone has experience being on the bad end of a blowout, it would be Vanessa Crabtree, a senior at Juanita who played three years of varsity basketball. The Rebels haven't won a KingCo 4A game in four years.

Crabtree says her teams worked hard but the talent gap was too big and confidence was low. The emotional toll added up.

"The blowouts just bring down everything," Crabtree says. "It feels like you've wasted a lot of time because no one respects you as a person or a team or a player."

It was sometimes "just as humiliating" when the other team took it too easy, she says, "because they're not respecting us as a team. That would torch me too, if they slacked off. It's kind of a fine line, though. It's hard to say when they're slacking off."

Crabtree says she's learned a lot about herself while losing: working through difficulties, motivating herself and others, achieving goals. The lessons are greater, she says, than anything she learned playing on club soccer teams that twice made state tournaments.

"I've learned perseverance, no matter what happens," she says. "You can't judge success in wins and losses. We did a lot of things right."