Okay, for those of you who do not know, we were forced to shorten our field because of repairs that were not finished in the alotted time frame. This basically created a possible short from anywhere. The referees agreed that the field was playable at approx. 95 x 55. We played Stall the following night and won 9-0 with 9 players. Two or three of those are true JV players. Also, referees could suggest before an obviously lopsided game to play 30 minute halves or at least adjust the second half time to help.
Those of you who suggest a mercy rule need to remember that both coaches must agree to the game. For the most part, coaches know what they are getting into when they schedule games. When I was the head coach at Stall, we played at Sumter who was ranked in the top 5 of 4A and had several all-state and North-South players on that team. We lost 19-0, and I have posted numerous times that i do not fault the coach for that. They did put essentially a JV team in, they invoked criteria before they could go to goal. They did everything possible to keep the score down. Stall opted to schedule that girls game just as I opted to schedule Sumter. The option is that the current Stall girls would have one less chance to play a game and represent their school which is the best part of high school soccer.
Against Sumter, I would have been more embarrassed and my players more disheartened if we had travelled 2+ hours and then turned around 30 minutes later to come home after surrendering 10 goals. It all has to do with what kind of a spin a coach puts on it.
I completely disagree with total keep away and never going to goal. If a team goes to goal, it at least gives the other team a chance to steal the ball or the keeper to make a save and punt the ball out of danger. I also think it is ludicrous to even mention giving up a goal and losing the shutout.
Baseball has a mercy rule because if they did not, baseball could theoretically go on forever because it is not a time based game like soccer.
I think high school players are more resiliant than we give them credit for. My players were upset about our Sumter loss, but the year before i got there, they had 4 games. I had 26 scheduled. They enjoyed playing games. I could not schedule Goose Creek or Stratford who would have been a better opponent because of the region agreement that ADs have.