Small School Considers Canceling Basketball Season Following 100-2 Loss

This is a sad story about kids, sportsmanship and common sense. Pikeville Independent Middle School in Kentucky took on Kimper Elementary in the Pike County Preseason Tournament. Kimper is a small K-8 school with just 180 students. When these two teams met in the tournament, Pikeville crushed Kimper. The details are really quite staggering.

Pikeville starters played 1 minute and 48 seconds at which point they were pulled with a 25-0 lead. The reserves played a soft 2-3 zone from that point on, but the lead still extended to 70-0 at the half. Via Scout Focus:

Johnson reinserted his starters in the beginning of the second half where he instructed his team to stop playing defense and coax Kimper into scoring. Johnson told Scouts Focus that he had two clear options; to stall the ball or keep playing. Johnson stressed that his goal was to not embarrass any of the opposing kids. Pikeville’s attempts of allowing Kimper to score proved fruitless. Johnson told Scouts Focus that the opposition could not hit any of the many open threes or layups they were coaxed freely into pursuing. Kimper did score on a last second lay-in by 6’0 8th grader Adam Thacker.

Thacker probably got all the girls after that game. Anyway, Pikeville went on to win the championship game 75-32 over a team that is described as “very talented.” So is the real story “how good is Pikeville?” Or should we be focusing on the superintendent and school board from Kimper who are considering canceling the rest of the season?

You can see some of the “highlights” in the first half of the video above. It looks like little kids running around playing their big brothers. With such a small school, you have to start weighing alternative options. Is there another school close enough to have the students join that team? Are there any schools nearby that are comparable in size? Should they maybe just stick to half-court in the home gym? Perhaps the Kimper adults should go to the Kimper basketball players and ask them what they want to do. If those kids want to continue taking beatings for an entire season, they should be allowed to. It certainly can’t get any worse than 100-2.

[via Yahoo!]