Texas high school football team wins 91-0 -- winning coach accused of "bullying" other team

Wow ...

Aledo football coach Tim Buchanan was sitting in his Texas office Saturday morning watching game film from a 91-0 victory over Western Hills on Friday night when an email popped up on his computer.

The subject line read: Bullying report.

Buchanan couldn't believe it and thought it was a joke, until he read the email and realized a Western Hills parent had filled out the district's online form, accusing the coaching staff of bullying thanks to the lopsided score.

Buchanan spent an hour in the superintendent's office this week and the school is currently investigating, as mandated by the state. The Aledo principal told Buchanan that a written report is expected in the next day or so, something required by state law. Buchanan, who is in his 21st season as head coach at Aledo and has never been accused of bullying, said that he has the support of the Aledo administration.

http://espn.go.com/dallas/story/_/id/9863505/aledo-football-coach-tim-buchanan-accused-bullying-91-0-win

Wait are parents crying and saying it's bulling because the other team didn't start playing easier against a team that was 'beaten' by mid game because they were not as talented?

Exactly. I was talking to a colleague earlier today about this and she pointed out that it was probably just something done by one of the parents because he/she was feeling emotional but hit "send" anyway. Unfortunately, the way the law is written, that emotional "send" set off a mandatory state investigation.

This is compounded by the fact that the coach has a bit of a reputation (which he no longer really deserves, actually) of liking to run-up the score -- and the fact that he had a player who was looking to break a state record, so of course he's going to unleash his offense.

by run up the score you mean win by as much as possible?

because thats what coaches are supposed to do. I think they are probably right, emotional send    

Yeah, but there's an idea popular in Texas high school football circles that it's dishonorable to keep piling up the score once you're ahead by 40-50 points. On the other hand, if teams tie for a berth in the playoffs, the decision often goes to things like points differential, so it's in each team's best interest to score as much as possible.

Even so, it's not unusual for coaches to pull out all their best players when they're blowing out another team -- it's not only seen as sporting, but it gives players normally on the sidelines some experience if they're ever really needed. That's what the Aledo coach actually did in this game -- pulled his starters, then their back-ups and was literally putting his worst lineup on the field, and they still just kept scoring. The only other thing he could have done would have humiliated the opponent worse -- actually instruct his players not to score; to stop before they reached the end zone or something.