The coach of a New York high school football team was suspended after running up the score on an undefeated opponent last week.
Plainedge High School coach Rob Shaver was suspended for a single game after his undefeated team was accused of running up the score against the also undefeated South Side High School football team, the New York Post reported.
The final score was 61-13, a result that district officials felt violated its “lopsided scores policy.” School officials charged that Shaver left his best players in the game despite having a 35-point advantage.
Shaver refuted the decision of the school board saying that he did not violate the rule which prohibits winning by more than 42 points. He also said that he did not run up the score on purpose.
“They thought it was a mismanaged game, which my opinion is, that isn’t the rule,” Shaver said. “It should be: You ran up the score on purpose. That’s what the intent of the rule is for.”
“What made me the most upset,” Shaver added, “to be honest is, listen, if the South Side coach complained and said, ‘This guy definitely ran up the score on us,’ well, then they should investigate. Because that’s the intent of the rule. The spirit of the rule is to prevent better teams from running up on lesser programs and sportsmanship and dignity and all that stuff. I get it. That didn’t happen.”
Indeed, South Side coach Phil Onesto said he did not complain, did not have a problem with the game’s outcome, and even told coach Shaver so.
Coach Shaver will now miss his team’s final regular-season game.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.