Letter: High school game shows bad sportsmanship

I would like to relate an incident that took place during a recent woman's high school soccer game. There was less than five minutes to be played and a long shot was taken. The defending goalie ran out in an attempt to grab the ball with an opponent rushing toward her trying to score. The outcome resulted in a violent collision that could have been avoided, if you look at the following circumstances.

Little time was left in the game, the score was 8-0 in favor of the incoming striker, and that striker had already scored five goals.

So why did the striker have to violently run over the goalkeeper, causing a bloody scene that resulted in a broken nose to the goalie? The infraction was so obvious that the referee immediately gave the striker a red card that ejected her from the game and was punishable by an additional game suspension.

My questions are: 1) Why didn't the striker hold back after having scored so many goals already, 2) why hadn't the coach made a substitution earlier to avoid the situation, 3) how many goals does a team have to score before humiliating an opponent, and finally, 4) why didn't the coach have the courtesy to check on the opposing player who was injured, before turning off the lights while the player was waiting for the paramedics to arrive.

As a player and coach of 27 years in this game, the lack of sportsmanship exhibited was beyond my comprehension.

I would like to close with a statement made in a movie about a girl's soccer team, called, "Ladybugs." "What good is being the best when it brings out the worst in you?"

Tino Diaz

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