No-Mercy Mercy Rules

24 hour tummy bug yesterday, which was a really crazy day in the kids' schedule.  Made it through--I am a conscientious mom, dammit--but I'm glad it's over.  That sucked rocks.

On a slightly more cheerful note, thinking today about mercy rules in kids' sports.

Last weekend, Thing One's travel soccer team played in a tournament.  These typically involve four games, two each on Saturday and Sunday.  This time around, all of the first three were good, well-fought, evenly-matched games, one of which his team lost.  For various reasons, I was only able to make the fourth game, which was absolutely awful for everyone involved.

In the tournaments, the teams assigned to play each other are not always in the same flight (approximate level of ability), and in this particular game, our kids just outmatched the opposing team.  We were up 5-0 in the first fifteen minutes, at which point the coaches started rearranging our players so that nobody was playing in their usual position, just to make it a bit more fair.  At halftime, it was still 5-0.

The entire second half was effectively a giant game of keep-away.  Because the rules of the tournament strongly discourage running up the score (defined as score differentials of more than 5) our boys were not permitted to shoot at the opposing goal.  They spent the entire second half dribbling and passing around the field (mind you, the other team was still trying to score on them while this was going on, but didn't manage it.)  It got so bad that our goalie was playing halfway up the field and calling for the ball to be passed to him too, since it wasn't going anywhere near his position and he was bored.  

I understand what the coaches were trying to do--if our boys played normally it would have been a ridiculous final score--but it seems to me that playing keep-away and not actually taking any shots on goal isn't much better for the morale of the other team.  I think everyone left that field bummed--it was no fun for anybody.

In our local Rec soccer league, if one team gets too far ahead, that team has to bench their best player.  If they go up another goal, they bench their second-best player as well.  In some games last year 8 of our kids were playing only 4 or 5 opponents (it was a tough year), but at least it was reasonably balanced play at that point!   This is another way to keep games even, but not exactly good for the morale of the losing team either.

Believe me, I'm not one of those "everyone is a winner" kind of parents, and I think that kids do need to learn to lose with grace, but I haven't yet seen a good way to keep things balanced on a soccer field that isn't just as humiliating for the losing team as a massively lopsided score.  The question is whether the occasional blowout is a useful reality check and life lesson or something that drives kids out of sports.  Thoughts??