Cotton Center was playing Amherst High High School in a district game. About halfway through the third period, a player from Amherst fouled out of the game. And, since they only had 5 players to start the game, this meant Amherst could only field a 4-person team for the rest of the game. Obviously, this would give Cotton Center a big advantage who had a full team and could finish the game with the customary 5 players on the court. However, Troy Moses, the coach of Cotton Center, asked his team how they wanted to handle this situation. The players quickly decided that they would also play with 4. For the remainder of the game, each team played with 4 players. For the record, Cotton Center won the game 44-32.
Joe’s Perspective: If you are reading this, you either have one of two thoughts. 1) “Why in the world would they do this? It’s not my fault that they don’t have enough players. I say ‘punish your cross-town rival every chance you get.’” OR 2) That is a pretty cool gesture. No one wants to win with an unfair advantage. I would have done the same thing.” Honestly, I can see both sides of this argument. I would like to think that as a young 16-year-old, I would have done what Cotton Center did. I’d like to think that I would have been on the side of sportsmanship. However, what if it was a district game like this one? What if we were only up by a few points like this one? What if I had lost to this team previously and I really wanted to win this time?
Your Turn: So, the question is simple. If this were a district game against your cross-town rivals and you were only up by a few points, would you have voted to sit out one of your players for the rest of the game? Explain.
