Coach suspended after NY high school football team beats undefeated opponent too badly

A New York high school football coach has been suspended because his team beat an undefeated opponent by too many points, violating a sportsmanship rule, according to the New York Post.

 

Rob Shaver, head coach of Long Island's Plainedge High School football team, transgressed Nassau County's "lopsided scores policy" by beating previously undefeated South Side High School 61-13. Teams are only allowed to win by 42 points.

Shaver said that although he kept the starters in until late in the game, his team was not intentionally running up the score. For that reason, he doesn't believe he deserves to be punished.

"They thought it was a mismanaged game, which my opinion is, that isn't the rule," Shaver said. "It should be: You ran up the score on purpose. That's what the intent of the rule is for."

Not even the opposing coach had a problem with the way Shaver and Plainedge handled the game.

"I had no issue with how the game went," South Side coach Phil Onesto said. "I had spoken to coach Shaver, I told him I had no issues."

Onesto's approval of the game further frustrated Shaver over his suspension.

"What made me the most upset, to be honest is, listen, if the South Side coach complained and said, 'This guy definitely ran up the score on us,' well, then they should investigate," Shaver said. "Because that's the intent of the rule. The spirit of the rule is to prevent better teams from running up on lesser programs and sportsmanship and dignity and all that stuff. I get it. That didn't happen."

Plainedge is now the only undefeated team left in its conference, but the squad will play its final regular season game without Coach Shaver — the team's punishment for being too dominant.