Girls Basketball | Coach apologizes for blowout

Kennedy High School's 112-16 thrashing of Evergreen in a girls basketball game Tuesday has resulted in a reprimand from the Seamount League commissioner and apologies from the first-year JFK coach.

"That won't ever happen again," said Kennedy coach Tom Mummert.

The coach said the score "ballooned out of control and it was something I probably should have stopped. ... Nothing was done intentionally.

"If anyone is going to take the blame, it's me because I'm the head coach," said Mummert, a Kennedy assistant for 11 years before being promoted this season.

Mummert said his starters and key substitutes played longer than they usually would have in a mismatch because he wanted to sharpen them for a big game tonight against Mount Rainier.

It had been 11 days since Kennedy's previous game.

"I wanted to give them playing time to get back into the flow of things," he said.

While Mummert sounded sincere about regretting the blowout, he also said it is difficult to switch gears and back off against a much weaker opponent.

"It's hard to justify the score, but at the same time it's hard to tell the girls not to do something [play hard] that I've been preaching to them the whole season," he said.

Mummert noted that his third-ranked, undefeated team (10-0) didn't start the game with its usual starters, never used a full-court press and stopped fast-breaking and trapping in the second half. He said the Evergreen coach declined an offer at halftime to go to a running clock to end the game quicker.

Mummert said Thursday he was trying to reach the Evergreen principal to apologize for the score.

Gary Schaplow, athletic director at Hazen High School, is commissioner for boys and girls basketball in the Seamount League, and the score irritates him.

In an e-mail sent Thursday to all the league's girls basketball coaches but admittedly targeted at JFK, Schaplow said he "expressed displeasure with what is going on" and "asked them to show compassion and respect to opponents."

Schaplow said Kennedy is the only school with lopsided scores this season. JFK beat Highline 85-18 on Dec. 18 and Tyee 84-6 on Dec. 20.

Schaplow, a former basketball coach, said his e-mail included specific suggestions about how to keep scores reasonable. They include: 1) Go to a 2-3 zone defense with each player having at least one foot "in the paint and let the other team get a shot off;" 2) Run the offense repeatedly and don't take a shot until fewer than 5 seconds remain on the shot clock.

Schaplow said there is "no excuse" for extremely lopsided scores.

"As a longtime coach, it flies in the face of everything we are trying to teach kids about sportsmanship and respect," he said.

The Kennedy blowout is particularly touchy because JFK is the only private school in the Seamount League.

"Kennedy is such a high-profile school that every time we do something wrong, everyone is going to jump on it," Mummert said.

The last high-school slaughter to make headlines came last spring when Woodinville beat Franklin 64-0 in a fastpitch softball game. The last girls basketball game to raise eyebrows across the state was Chief Sealth's 87-3 win over West Seattle in December 2005.

Craig Smith: 206-464-8279 or csmith@seattletimes.com