Giving coaches a silly reason to run up the score

In Houston last week, a high school basketball game ended with this score: 170-35. At halftime, things were almost as lopsided: 100-12.

The victors were the Yates High School Lions, for whom trouncing opponents comes easily and often. The Houston Chronicle reported that Yates is 14-0 this season and on a 39-game winning streak. The Chronicle also noted that this was the eighth time during the season that Yates had scored more than 100 points and the sixth time its victory margin exceeded 60.

This game also featured a fight, which can happen sometimes when, as the Lee High School squad was, you're down by 77 or 78. No one was ejected, but the teams "finished the second half with five players each, and the other players were asked to sit in the stands."

No doubt, the Yates coach has done a great job assembling an unstoppable team. But why make a habit of pummeling high school opponents?

No mystery, really. Check out the latest Fab 50 rankings at ESPNRise where, last I checked (Week 3), Yates was fifth in the country. No doubt, the Lions are hoping to be fourth next week, riding the notoriety of a 135-point blowout.

These national rankings for high school sports are fabulous for ESPN, USAToday and other media giants, who use them to attract millions of eyeballs to their prep Web sites. Anyone want to make the argument that they're healthy for kids?

ESPN makes its move into high school sports

If you're sick over missing your teenager's game at the high school gym last week, here's a thought. Watch the rerun on ESPN.

Not an option for most of us, of course. But the iconic sports media conglomerate has moved into high school sports coverage in a big and - for those of us concerned about the commercialization of kids sports - slightly unnerving way.

Last month, ESPN announced it's staging what sounds a lot like a national "Final Four" for high school boys and girls basketball. The tournament will be televised on ESPN2 and ESPNU and the title game on ESPN on April 5.

That move follows a two-year stretch in which ESPN has been gobbling up smaller (by definition, compared to ESPN) competitors such HoopGurlz.com, StudentSports.com, RiseMag.com, DyeStat.com (a boys and girls cross-country and track Web site) and the entity now known as ESPN Scouts Inc. All that was prelude to ESPN's big move last August - the launch of a high school sports Web site ESPNRise.com.

For me, the most startling thing about coverage of prep sports is to turn on the TV and see a game being telecast live around the globe, with six cameras, replays, analysis, all the trappings of a pro game on TV, knowing some of these kids are 14 years old. At that age, I would have been mortally embarrassed to drop a pop up in front of six fans. Imagine fouling up in front of a worldwide TV audience. I'm trying, but I can't.

Last year, ESPN networks - ESPN2 and ESPNU - aired 19 high school football games from 15 different states, ending with an Arizona prep game Nov. 7.

For a piece in this week's Sports Business Journal, I spoke with a principal at a high school that played in one of the games. John Graham, principal of Our Lady of Good Counsel High School in Olney, Maryland told me that he had concerns about how a football game beamed all over the country can shape perceptions. “We want to make it clear, our kids are here to get an education, not play football,” he said “We don’t want football to be more important than it really is. Yet any time you’re showcasing high school athletes on TV, there’s a danger of that.”

On the other hand, Graham said that he was pleased with ESPN's telecast of Good Counsel's game against DeMatha Catholic High School on Oct. 2 (including the final score, a 42-21 victory for Good Counsel).

“The telecast showed the school in a very favorable light,” the principal said.

One of the more surprising things I learned doing this story is what the schools appearing on ESPN are paid for inviting the TV cameras to their football games. Each school receives a rights fee of....$1,000.

ESPN Rising

ESPNRise, the new and (needless to say) well-financed kids sports Web venture, debuted August 25. I've already learned that Trinity High School in Euless, Texas is No. 1 in prep football and have been invited to join the social networking group for Harpeth High School in Kingston Springs, Tenn. The target audience is high school kids, 14 to 18, which I suppose disinvites me.

Speaking of social networking, Weplay is also plugging away in cyberspace, trolling for kid athletes and depending on pro stars to reel them in - investors include Derek Jeter, LeBron James and Peyton Manning.

Kid sports players making virtual connections - in a safe environment - feels like a positive thing. So does a Web site that parents and coaches can use to "organize their schedules, share pictures and communicate information such as practice dates," as Weplay explains itself.

On the other hand, who benefits from national rankings of high school teams? Serious question.