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Two prep teams banned from postseason after sandbagging

By Chris Craig

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Intense efforts to lose, win two TN prep teams suspension and post season bans

Two slimy high school basketball coaches from the state of Tennessee got both of their teams banned from postseason play earlier this week when each tried to outdo the other in tanking a girl’s varsity basketball game.

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Hoping for an easier run in the state tournament, coaches for both Riverdale and Smyrna told their players to lose the game which they attempted to do in an embarrassingly poor and laughable fashion. Not only did the coaches order their players to miss free throws and shoot at the other team’s basket, one player called three seconds in the lane on … herself!

Some turnovers were so obvious the referees stopped play to tell the coaches to knock it off.

Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association executive director Brad Childress said high school athletic programs are meant to teach students ethics, integrity, sportsmanship, morals and values.

“This situation defeated the purpose of educational-based athletics,” Childress wrote in letters to the principals of both Smyrna and Riverdale high schools.  The winner was in line to play Blackman, Tennessee’s defending Class AAA champion.

Riverdale principal Tom Nolan offered another mea culpa via Twitter for “unsportsmanlike conduct and disrespect for the game.”

Nolan and Smyrna principal Rick Powell asked the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association to allow the teams to continue on playing in the postseason without their coaches. The request was denied, as some players were as complicit in the ruse as the coaches.

On Monday. both were fined $1,500 and also placed on probation for a year by the TSSAA.

Tom Petty once sang, “Even the losers get lucky sometimes.” True, Tom, but only if they actually try to win in the first place.

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