Coach B...well said.

To "the infamous" benp:

This is a little uncharacteristic of me, but I'm having to make a conscious effort to write this in a manner so that Kyle won't have to come back and edit it.

You seem to be a well-liked and well-respected fellow around here, so your post really surprised me.

Let me see if I have this straight:
You have a school that is just trying to start a team (or restart it after a couple of seasons without one--not much difference, really) and you want to intentionally "rape" them and embarrass them until you force them to disband the team, disperse their players to a rec team, and stop polluting your elitist world with their inferiority, is that how I should have read that? Did you really mean that, or did I misinterpret a facetious post?

I'm sorry everyone can't magically appear on the soccer scene playing up to your standards, and I'm sorry you think it's such a burden on your team's time to have to play them, but thank God they don't need your permission to play. A lot of young people would miss out on a lot of important lessons, not to mention a lot of fun in the long run.

I coach a girls' team that, when I took it over three years ago, was regularly losing 15-0, 18-0, etc. to the high-ranking teams in our area. They hadn't yet entertained the idea that winning matches was a possibility. One thing was for sure, though...they wanted to learn to get better, and they sure as heck didn't want to be a rec team. Had it been up to you, I'm sure they would have been disbanded as a disservice to the other teams in our region, known for producing state champs.

Three years later, we still struggle against the top-ranked teams. We just lost last night to #3 ranked Wando...by a margin of 3-0 after a scoreless first half. Lucky? Maybe. But a proud moment of competition those girls wouldn't have had if they'd let themselves be run off the field by someone who wants to pass judgement on who is "worthy" of playing and who isn't. I hope the Wando girls aren't too disappointed at the level of "practice" we gave them. They're a fine team, I've always had a lot of respect for them, and I'd hate to be a burden.

My compliments, too, for the high level of sportsmanship we've always received from them, even when we were struggling most. I used to hate the vastly uneven games in our schedule, but then, I've never gotten good at anything except by getting my butt kicked by someone much better until I figured out how to keep up with them. If Lake City is willing to take their lumps, stick with it, and learn from every defeat, then it's not for anyone else to decide they can't...

Just like it's not for anyone to say it's time to stop a discussion just because we've heard the word from on high from "the infamous" and he's tired of it. I'd hate to see a good man let his "infamy" go to his head.