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Recently, the Covenant School, a Christian academy in Dallas squared off in a girls’ basketball contest against Dallas Academy, whose female enrollment totals 20. The game ended in a 100-0 victory for Covenant, and the coach of the Dallas Academy, which hasn’t won a single game in the last four years, estimated his team took seven shots for the entire game. Reports indicate that despite a huge lead, Covenant continued to full court press until it reached the 100 mark with four minutes left in the contest.

After the game, school officials from Covenant met with their counterparts at Dallas Academy and expressed remorse over the actions of their coach and team. The apology was accepted.

However, Micah Grimes, then-head coach of the Covenant team, later sent an e-mail to the Dallas Morning News saying that he would not personally apologize for the outcome.

“In response to the statement posted on The Covenant School Website, I do not agree with the apology or the notion that the Covenant School girls basketball team should feel embarrassed or ashamed,” he wrote. “We played the game as it was meant to be played. My values and my beliefs would not allow me to run up the score on any opponent, and it will not allow me to apologize for a wide-margin victory when my girls played with honor and integrity.”

Grimes was subsequently fired after his e-mail was published as Covenant immersed itself into more damage control. Kyle Queal, Covenant’s head of school, told the Dallas Morning News that Grimes “now only represents himself” when discussing the game, which by that point had become a national embarrassment for the school. In the end, the team that had won the game lost its coach. And the team that lost the game gained empathy from everyone but the person most responsible for the final score.

Some states, such as Pennsylvania, have a mercy rule for basketball, and the use of a running clock after a large point differential is aimed at keeping the score respectable. But where does responsibility lie in the absence of a mercy rule? Ed Burleson, the director of the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools, told Fox News that while nothing needed to be legislated to avoid one-sided scoring in association games, the “golden rule” should be applied.

When you think of it, you would not want someone beating your team 100-0. The head coach controls how long starters remain in the game. Coming out of the locker room at halftime and looking at a score of 69-0 should have raised a red flag. If not, it would be hard to miss the white flag waving on the other side.

In my own experiences, I can recall watching a 7th grade girls’ basketball game when the opposing coach employed full court pressure from the start of the game to the end of the game. Our girls had difficulty handling the ball and could not break the press. The final score was a resounding 72-12 loss. This game was the first of two the teams would play that season. The second time around the game was at our place. The opposing coach used same approach, with similar results. It was not easy to watch, and I can’t imagine what it felt like to be one of our players during those games.

Reflecting on the outcome of the game played in Texas is tough because of the disparity between what each team was trying to achieve. While the players and coaches from Covenant may have been excited about reaching the century mark, their exuberance turned to dismay when they realized what they had done. Did their coach lead them to believe that scoring 100 points was an important milestone?

Meanwhile, the other team was in survival mode, watching the scoreboard, hoping not to see the board light up with a three-digit mark. They had to wonder if the game would ever end and if they would maintain any self respect afterward.

The head coach of Covenant defended the actions of his team, and the school moved swiftly to right a wrong, which ended in firing the coach. But what if this particular resolution had not occurred? What if the coach had remained? Would he have stayed on, continuing to reap the benefits of his successes while building a solid program?

Administrators of the interscholastic athletic programs go through a rigorous interview process when hiring head coaches. Most often they look for someone who has the proper perspective on the role of interscholastic athletics in education. In the absence of a mercy rule, head coaches have to dig deep and call upon what I call the “right stuff.”

We tell our coaches that when someone beats you badly, keep quiet, file it away, and use it as a motivational tool. If your dominance over the other team is growing too wide, ease off the gas by taking the press away, and reward the kids who work hard in practice by playing them early on in the contest. Because of their position, coaches are entrusted with the well being of not only their own squad, but also the welfare of their opponent and the game itself. Sometimes, enough is enough.

Dan Cardone is Athletic Director at North Hills High School in Pittsburgh, Pa. He is a frequent contributor to Athletic Management.