Friday, January 30, 2009
How Long Must We Sing This Song?
37 years ago today, 27 unarmed civil rights demonstrators in Derry were massacred by British soldiers. The Brits are still investigating.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
They Just Don't Learn
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota lawmakers will have an abortion-related bill to debate this session.
The legislation, SB92, would require abortion doctors to be at the clinic the day before the procedure to provide consultation, even if the woman doesn't want it, refuses to acknowledge the consultation or has no intention of showing up for it.
Republican state Rep. Roger Hunt of Brandon, a staunch abortion foe, is one of the sponsors of the legislation, which was assigned to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee for a hearing.
South Dakota voters have defeated proposed abortion bans the past two general elections.
Sigh
The legislation, SB92, would require abortion doctors to be at the clinic the day before the procedure to provide consultation, even if the woman doesn't want it, refuses to acknowledge the consultation or has no intention of showing up for it.
Republican state Rep. Roger Hunt of Brandon, a staunch abortion foe, is one of the sponsors of the legislation, which was assigned to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee for a hearing.
South Dakota voters have defeated proposed abortion bans the past two general elections.
Sigh
Pierre Stays Perfect
By Josh LinehanCapital Journal Staff
PIERRE — Through 11 games, the Pierre Lady Govs still sport an umblemished record.
But here’s the scary part for teams who still have to play Pierre this season: They might be only now hitting their stride.
The Lady Govs used stifling defense and a balanced offense to take all the drama out of a showdown of unbeaten teams Tuesday night, cruising to a 51-29 win over the Brandon Valley Lynx.
"That was a very nice night," Pierre coach Lisa Kannegieter said. "That’s probably the best full game we’ve played all year. We put four quarters together."
The Lynx entered the game unbeaten and ranked third in the state. But the Lady Govs held Brandon Valley scoreless for nearly five minutes to open the game, staking themselves to a lead they would never relinquish.
The game also featured a milestone for Pierre guard Steph Paluch, who scored her 1,000th career point on a three-point play in the third quarter.
Paluch, who led all scorers with 19 points, stole the ball near midcourt and blew past two Lynx defenders for a layup and 1,000 points even. After the Riggs Gym crowd gave her a standing ovation, she sank the free throw to give Pierre a 43-25 lead.
Her 1,001 points put Paluch second in Lady Govs history, 29 points behind the 1030 Karen Hasek scored from 1981-83.
"Steph is a very unselfish player, and as much as she passes the ball, it’s amazing that she hit 1000 at this point in the year," Kannegieter said.
Paluch finished 7-12 from the floor and added six rebounds and two assists.
"It hasn’t really sunk in yet, I’m just kind of excited that we won this game," Paluch said.
While Paluch was reaching a milestone at one end of the floor, the Lady Govs were owning the other end. Pierre held Brandon Valley under 10 points in every quarter. Katie Lingle led the way with seven blocked shots — and at least as many altered.
The Lady Govs also hounded the Lynx into 22 turnovers en route to the win.
"I would have to say that was our best defensive game," Paluch said. "We put a lot of pressure on them and forced a lot of bad shots."
The lone down spot for the Lady Govs was inbounding the ball. Pierre was whistled twice for five seconds on inbounds plays and turned the ball over another two times.
Lingle scored 10 points for Pierre, follwed by Alexa Berg with eight. Tristan Rogers, Linsey Peterson and Amanda Stout had four each and Amber Olson had two as the Lady Govs got all 10 players into the game and Pierre looked exactly like a team that has won its first 11 games.
"Our kids played their hearts out tonight," Kannegieter said. "The quote I heard in the locker room was, ‘We just played,’ and that’s what we’ve been trying to get them to do, just play."
Pierre gets back in action Friday night when the Lady Govs travel to Spearfish to take on the Spartans.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Ugly Score Leads To Uglier Situation
By now, you’ve probably heard the story.
A girls basketball team in Dallas beat another girls basketball team 100-0 earlier this month.
The winning team was up 59-0 at halftime, and continued to press full court and jack up 3-pointers until they hit the 100-point mark with about four minutes to go.
But the story doesn’t end there.
Officials from the Covenant School — the winners — apologized and offered to forfeit the game to the poor team from Dallas Academy. Dallas Academy, it turns out, is a school for children with learning disabilities such as dyslexia, and hadn’t won a game in almost four years.
Covenant’s coach publicly disagreed with the school officials, and was soon fired, leading to Covenant canceling the rest of the girls basketball season.
Now, of course, with the story all over the internet, people are piling on the victors just as shamelessly as those victors piled on Dallas Academy.
But the whole sad saga does raise an interesting question: What, exactly, constitutes running up the score? What obligation does a clearly superior team have to an inferior opponent? And, conversely, what obligation does a weak team have to at least be able to compete at the level for which they register?
I fear that the definitive answer to this question might be like the Supreme Court’s definition of pornography — you can’t define it, but you know it when you see it.
Still, I do think that intent matters.
What got me about the original story — and, I suspect, what got the Covenant coach fired — was reading the Covenant girls were up 59-0 at the break and continued to press into the fourth quarter. There’s no place for that.
As a former coach, I do feel somewhat for both coaches in this situation. I’ve been on both ends of these blowout games, and there’s no perfect solution. And scores alone don’t always tell the tale.
Stanley County’s girls, for instance, were on the winning side of a mismatch earlier this season. The Lady Buffs downed McLaughlin on Jan. 8, 99-15. I only caught the first half of that game, but I didn’t see Stanley County looking to run up the score. They certainly weren’t pressing full court up by 60.
Some friends of mine who are coaches or sportswriting colleagues would argue that, at the varsity level, it’s not the job of a coach to stop his own team. I am sympathetic to this point. When you’re the coach of a clearly superior team, it isn’t your job to stop your own kids.
And when you’re the coach of a team that isn’t likely to win a game all year, it isn’t your job to win basketball games, either. It’s your job to try and teach the kids who are willing to tough out a rough season that playing the game can be its own reward. And it’s your responsibility to stay upbeat and positive and find successes to celebrate.
I don’t want to pile on the coach from Covenant. He probably didn’t go into the game with any kind of malice in his heart. But, still, in pushing forward as hard as he could until the score was 100-0, he accomplished nothing but the sporting equivalent of beating up on the littlest kid on the playground.
I remember playing pickup hockey games on the outdoor rink when I was a kid. We’d pick teams by throwing our sticks in a pile at center ice. One of us would then dutifully get on his knees, pull his stocking hat down over his eyes and throw sticks toward each end.
We’d play for a while. And, if the game was one-sided, inevitably, someone would stop the game and we’d shuffle a player here or there to even things out. And then we’d play on.
So, no, it isn’t a coach’s job to stop his or her own team from scoring.
But it certainly is a coach’s responsibility not to short-circuit what kids everywhere know when there isn’t an adult to be found — on the bench or in the stands.
If you lose sight of that, maybe it’s time to find something else to do.
A girls basketball team in Dallas beat another girls basketball team 100-0 earlier this month.
The winning team was up 59-0 at halftime, and continued to press full court and jack up 3-pointers until they hit the 100-point mark with about four minutes to go.
But the story doesn’t end there.
Officials from the Covenant School — the winners — apologized and offered to forfeit the game to the poor team from Dallas Academy. Dallas Academy, it turns out, is a school for children with learning disabilities such as dyslexia, and hadn’t won a game in almost four years.
Covenant’s coach publicly disagreed with the school officials, and was soon fired, leading to Covenant canceling the rest of the girls basketball season.
Now, of course, with the story all over the internet, people are piling on the victors just as shamelessly as those victors piled on Dallas Academy.
But the whole sad saga does raise an interesting question: What, exactly, constitutes running up the score? What obligation does a clearly superior team have to an inferior opponent? And, conversely, what obligation does a weak team have to at least be able to compete at the level for which they register?
I fear that the definitive answer to this question might be like the Supreme Court’s definition of pornography — you can’t define it, but you know it when you see it.
Still, I do think that intent matters.
What got me about the original story — and, I suspect, what got the Covenant coach fired — was reading the Covenant girls were up 59-0 at the break and continued to press into the fourth quarter. There’s no place for that.
As a former coach, I do feel somewhat for both coaches in this situation. I’ve been on both ends of these blowout games, and there’s no perfect solution. And scores alone don’t always tell the tale.
Stanley County’s girls, for instance, were on the winning side of a mismatch earlier this season. The Lady Buffs downed McLaughlin on Jan. 8, 99-15. I only caught the first half of that game, but I didn’t see Stanley County looking to run up the score. They certainly weren’t pressing full court up by 60.
Some friends of mine who are coaches or sportswriting colleagues would argue that, at the varsity level, it’s not the job of a coach to stop his own team. I am sympathetic to this point. When you’re the coach of a clearly superior team, it isn’t your job to stop your own kids.
And when you’re the coach of a team that isn’t likely to win a game all year, it isn’t your job to win basketball games, either. It’s your job to try and teach the kids who are willing to tough out a rough season that playing the game can be its own reward. And it’s your responsibility to stay upbeat and positive and find successes to celebrate.
I don’t want to pile on the coach from Covenant. He probably didn’t go into the game with any kind of malice in his heart. But, still, in pushing forward as hard as he could until the score was 100-0, he accomplished nothing but the sporting equivalent of beating up on the littlest kid on the playground.
I remember playing pickup hockey games on the outdoor rink when I was a kid. We’d pick teams by throwing our sticks in a pile at center ice. One of us would then dutifully get on his knees, pull his stocking hat down over his eyes and throw sticks toward each end.
We’d play for a while. And, if the game was one-sided, inevitably, someone would stop the game and we’d shuffle a player here or there to even things out. And then we’d play on.
So, no, it isn’t a coach’s job to stop his or her own team from scoring.
But it certainly is a coach’s responsibility not to short-circuit what kids everywhere know when there isn’t an adult to be found — on the bench or in the stands.
If you lose sight of that, maybe it’s time to find something else to do.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Sweet, Sweet Words
This is William Kristol’s last column.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/26/opinion/26kristol.html?_r=1&ref=opinion
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/26/opinion/26kristol.html?_r=1&ref=opinion
Sunday, January 25, 2009
When They Come To Write Our Obit
Let them write that newspapers died when people who were supposed to be running newspapers started writing like PR hairdos and HR hacks.
http://stevebuttry.wordpress.com/2009/01/24/uncertainty-fuels-rumors-and-questions/
-30-
http://stevebuttry.wordpress.com/2009/01/24/uncertainty-fuels-rumors-and-questions/
-30-
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Huron 7, Pierre 2
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)