Article:What does a 91-0 Win do Besides Stir up Controversy?

High School football…It’s football at its purest. There isn’t anybody out there who’s on the verge of going into high school who doesn’t want to play high school football. If there is, well it’s safe to assume that, that poor child was dropped on his head more than once during his ankle biting years and really should have his head examined! In all actuality though, I guess the chess club needs members too…And all the hard core chess players, (if such individuals even exists) are thankful for this!

Back to high school football…The great thing about it, you really don’t have to have any athletic ability what so ever. Hell, somebody needs to play the line…Which results in nobody actually getting cut. Even if one is 5-9, 350, runs the 40 in 10 minutes, they’ll find a spot for you…And this happens in high schools everywhere across the country. Now true, if these sorts of kids are making the team, odds are likely that the team isn’t going to be that good or competitive…But a team roster needs to be filled somehow, especially in the small towns. A small town such as Estero, Florida would fall into the category.

Like many small towns, nobody has likely ever heard of Estero, that is until last Friday night. This small town in Southwest Florida went from virtually unknown to making national headlines compliments of the Estero High School football team. You could say they suffered a tough loss last Friday evening losing by 13 to Naples High School. Thirteen, a heartbreaker, I know…Just not quite good enough. But wait, I’m not talking about 13 points…My guess is they were down 13 points after two minutes in the first quarter, considering the fact that at halftime it was 70-0. That 13 I’m talking about, yeah, that’s 13 touchdowns! Nope, I didn’t stutter, at least not this time! Thirteen touchdowns equals a final score of, oh, 91-0…Arena Football ain’t got nothing on this shit! 91-0…Hmm, ever heard about calling off the dogs, Naples?

That’s the thing though, Naples, decided not to even play some of their players period. It’s a fair assessment to say that these two programs are on entirely different levels. Lets see, you have one who is the reigning state Class 3A champions, and a contender to win the title again…Having players committed to Division I schools like Ohio State already and a roster filled with talent at every position. To a school having no college prospects and only about 25 healthy or so players remaining on its roster and rebuilding from the lowest level, with a coach in his first year at the school and having inherited a program that had simply crumbled, (I think you can distinguish which is which).

So after the shock and awe of the scoreboard not short circuiting after a big 9-1 was posted, (I wonder how that looked) let the fall out begin…Not from players, but of course the parents and the community. And funny thing was Eagles coach Bill Kramer knew his email mailbox was about to short circuit as well, and that it did! Receiving e-mails, of course some from Estero parents wondering why so many points were necessary, but shockingly some from Naples parents too wondering why their kids didn't play more in an effort to pad their stats. Are you F-ing serious, pad their stats? Since when does fantasy football trickle down to the high school ranks? Am I the only one in the dark about not playing High School Fantasy Football here? Um yeah, that’s really good sportsmanship! Last time I checked high school football doesn’t have a BCS system in place! However, with regards to the Estero folks…Um yeah, it’s not like they set out to score 91 points! Considering the fact that some of their players didn’t even play, knowing full well it was going to be a woodshed beatdown…Not to mention that Naples only ran 31 plays the entire game. Holy shit…Now, that’s what I call offensive execution! Thirty-one plays and 13 scores…So in essence they only got stopped 18 times on the night.

Yes, 91-0 is an eye opener and mind boggling…However, what was Naples to do? Come out and just take knees? An interesting thing here…The Naples Daily News ran a poll asking if Kramer and his team "should be ashamed" over the result, and by Monday afternoon, the vote was nearly dead-even: 239 no, 225 yes. My opinion is NO. He didn’t even play some of his big time players…Only ran 31 plays the whole game. What were players suppose to do, get in the clear, and then "trip over the yardlines" to tackle themselves? Come on, that’s more of a sign of disrespect to your opponent when you have to tackle yourself because they can’t…Yeah, let’s do that and bitch slap’em in the face even more so! Make’em feel even better!

Ironically it wasn't even the most lopsided score in the country this Friday. In Ohio, Beechcroft beat Centennial 96-0, taking knees on plays in the fourth quarter to avoid triple figures. Beatings like these happen all over the country every weekend…It’s a part of high school football. It just goes back to the thing I mentioned earlier about rosters needing to be filled out, someway, somehow in order to fill teams. Just as in basketball at the high school level, we hear of these scores 110-12 and so on. The kids oddly enough don’t care, they just want a chance to play, and high school gives them a chance! It’s always the parents/grown adults bitching and complaining…As again evident here.

Thing I don’t get about these lopsided scores that are a staple of high school athletics…Why not implement the "Slaughter Rule" just like Little League Baseball does? I know it was in play when I was in high school for softball and baseball to eliminate such drubbings. Then the adults/parents would shut stop contributing to global warming and shut their pieholes…Well, at least in this regard.

To read the complete story on this woodshed beating…

http://highschool.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=862709