In high school athletics, coaches ask their players to give their best effort. When that isn’t good enough, most console their players with a “we’ll get ‘em next time” pep talk or the “we just got beat by a team that wanted it more” speech.
Sometimes, coaches and fans like to take it a step further.
The most recent example of adults taking a game too seriously came Tuesday when two Spartanburg lawmakers sponsored a bill that would require officials to use television replays on close play.
It could lead to instant replay for high school sports in South Carolina.
The two guys are Rep. Harold Mitchell and House Speaker Pro Tem Doug Smith. Both are from Spartanburg and are hacked off that a half-court shot at the buzzer in Friday’s Class AAAA state championship game was waived off.
As a result, Spartanburg lost to Summerville 50-48.
“Those kids played their hearts out only to have human error steal it away from them,” Mitchell said. “We want to make sure neither our high school, nor any other high school has to go through anything like this again.”
Nice argument. I would actually buy it if Mitchell was a Summerville fans who felt his team won on a bad call.
But he’s not.
He’s a Spartanburg fan. Sounds like sour grapes to me. Our state follows national high school rules that do not allow referees to check replays. Summerville won the state title under those rules.
Nice try Spartanburg. Better luck next year.