More High School Sports Titles Decided By Technicalities

A Kansas gymnastics team was docked one point at the state championship meet—enough to drop them from first to third in the final standings—because their coach made an "illegal inquiry." She asked was the score was.

Shawnee Mission Northwest High School actually posted the best score at the Girls State Gymnastics Championships (103.950) which should have given them a victory of less one half point over rivals Lawrence Free State and Newton (who were tied at 103.525). However, their head coach "inquired about her team's scores on the balance beam after the 5-minute window in which coaches are allowed to do so from the time scores reach the judge's table after a rotation." The coach says "she gave verbal intent to inquire within the 5-minute window," which makes even less sense than the rule that she allegedly broke. Shouldn't the window really be 3 minutes and 14 seconds? That's just common sense, people!

This whole thing probably makes sense to some gymnastics expert out there, but will sound pretty pointless and arbitrary to dummies like me who don't get why teams with the highest score don't always win. Losing—and winning—on a rule violation that has nothing to do with the actual competition cheapens the game and drives reasonable people bonkers. But it does give old people (me again) something to gripe about so keep them coming.

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