Sports

Texas HS coach who won 91-0 cleared of ‘bullying’

What’s a coach to do?

Tim Buchanan, a Texas high school football coach, was facing formal accusations of bullying after his team’s 91-0 win on Friday over Western Hills, but he said on Wednesday that the district completed its investigation and found “no grounds” for the claim from a parent of the losing team.

Undefeated Aledo High School, a suburban Fort Worth football power which has won its four district games by an average of 77 points this season, were required to be investigated under state law. The complaint said that Buchanan should have prevented such a lopsided score, which the coach said suggested he “should have made their players ease up and quit playing that hard.” Buchanan did pull his starters and allow the clock to run without stopping in the second half to end the embarrassment quicker.

“It wasn’t good for anybody,” Buchanan said of the Class 4A game, according to ESPN.com. “I’ve sat and gone over and over and over it on what we could have done differently. The score could have very easily been 150 to nothing.”

It wasn’t, largely because Buchanan benched his starters after 21 plays and called for a conservative running game. Even Western Hills coach John Naylor told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that he disagreed with the bullying claim, but under state law, Aledo’s principal must investigate the complaint and file a report. The bullying complaint was filed with the school district and the form was found on the school district’s web site.

There is no mercy rule for 11-man football in Texas, though coaches can agree to end a game early, according to the University Interscholastic League spokeswoman, Kate Hector. However, Buchanan said he did not know that option existed.

Aledo is new to the district, having dropped to a lower-tier division in order to reduce travel times to away games. The furthest location is now 35 minutes away, instead of two hours, according to Buchanan.

The 7-0 Bearcats only ran 32 plays in the offending game, but scored on almost 1/3 of them, with eight rushing touchdowns, two passing touchdowns, two punt returns and one fumble return. Aledo resorted to fair catches on punts after the two returns for touchdowns.

“It certainly didn’t seem like they were trying to run up the score in this case,” Hector said.

According to Hector, any person can submit a proposal for a rule change, such as a mercy rule, which would then be brought to UIL’s legislative council.