HS softball coach suspended for winning 55-0

[DukeSucks]

...and only played two innings.

LINK

Central Cabarrus coach suspended for 2 games

School punishes Sherrill after latest lopsided win: 55-0 vs. W. Charlotte

LANGSTON WERTZ JR.

Staff Writer


Central Cabarrus softball coach Monte Sherrill will miss two games this week, serving a suspension imposed by the school resulting from a 55-0 win against West Charlotte on April 15.

Cabarrus County athletics director Scott Barringer confirmed Sherrill's suspension Monday when contacted by the Observer. Asked why Sherrill was being suspended, Barringer said the issue was a personnel matter.

"That's all I am going to tell you sir," Barringer said. Central Cabarrus Principal Chris Lowder said he could not comment because it was a personnel matter.

Sources close to the situation told the Observer that Sherrill had been warned by school officials about lopsided scores last year and that he will miss a home game today with West Mecklenburg and one Friday at Independence.

Sherrill, who is 441-43 with five state titles in 15 years, did not return phone calls made by the Observer on Monday. In two years at Central Cabarrus, he is 49-1.

In the West Charlotte game, Central Cabarrus scored 30 in the first inning and 25 in the second, getting 43 hits.

West Charlotte athletics director Tony Guylitto said Sherrill's team was still playing aggressively despite the wide lead. N.C. High School Athletic Association rules call for a game to be stopped if a team is leading by 10 or more runs after five complete innings.

After West Charlotte batted in the second inning, Guylitto said he told game officials to end the game.

"It's one of the worst shows of sportsmanship I've seen in my 20 years of coaching and being an athletics director," Guylitto said. "This is the best softball team we've had since I've been here in nine years and we're trying to teach them the fundamentals of the game and keep their heads up and keep smiles on their faces. I looked at them on the field with their heads down and I told the officials to stop it. A game like that can kill a team."

[Eurotrash]

this sucks.

I can understand if the coach were encouraging aggressive baserunning by his team. However, if he just let them go to the plate and they kept getting hits (i.e. after the score was like 20-0, he stops his runners after advancing one base, regardless of how deep the ball is), there should be nothing wrong with it.

Do they expect him to instruct his team to go to the plate and strike out? That's ridiculous. That would make me feel even more embarrassed if I were the opposition.

[Asufiji2004]

I can see what the other coach was saying, I mean 55-0 after 2 innings. There is absolutely no chance of them coming back I say just bunt it out and get it over with. BUT....i'm sure the suspended coach would like to play as much as possible for the sake of practice and in game AB's. Suspension is overkill IMO.

[The Yugoslavian]

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That would make me feel even more embarrassed if I were the opposition.

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*nod*

I wish we had a bit more context to go on here. If the league doesn't like this, change the rule to 10 runs after 5 innings or 20 runs @ any time...(or whatever)

Yugoslav

[Eurotrash]

[ QUOTE ]

I wish we had a bit more context to go on here. If the league doesn't like this, change the rule to 10 runs after 5 innings or 20 runs @ any time...(or whatever)

Yugoslav

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yeah, I like this idea. They need to add an additional mercy rule like you're saying about 20 or more runs earlier in the ball game..

the opposing coach, unless I'm misinterpreting, said it was *his* best team in a long time and they still got blown out, so he doesn't want them getting discouraged - that's ridiculous

It's competition; if they get blown out, oh well, it happens. suck it up, there's no crying in softball, and try to catch the ball a bit better next time. or stop serving up meatballs for the other girls to jack out of the park.

[slickpoppa]

Yeah, what are they supposed to do, strike out on purpose? If the other team sucked that much they shouldn't be playing.

[skoal2k4]

what kind of message does that send to the players? Play good and you'll get in trouble? Quite possibly the dumbest thing I've ever seen. Would they rather have a coach that sucks and they have a losing record?

[holeplug]

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"This is the best softball team we've had since I've been here in nine years and we're trying to teach them the fundamentals of the game and keep their heads up and keep smiles on their faces."

[/ QUOTE ]

Anyone else chuckle at this? If thats their best team in 9 years well...

[Sponger15SB]

Yeah, you can't really ask the girls to just start bunting and stuff.

This is much different than the idiot coach who had the girls do a full court press in basketball for most of the game, and they went on to win like 105-3 or something insane.

[Eurotrash]

[ QUOTE ]
Yeah, what are they supposed to do, strike out on purpose? If the other team sucked that much they shouldn't be playing.

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this is the sentiment I was trying to explain in my posts above. This isn't tee-ball where the kids play and have a good time and at the end the score ends up "coincidentally!" tied in every ball game so no kid has to lose. It's varsity high school competition... you should be able to field a team that doesnt get torn up so badly.


of course, my comments are all on the assumption that the coach wasn't purposely being overly aggressive with his team once it got clearly out of reach.