Coach hit pause on replay and realized his team hadn’t actually won — what the girls did next showed true sportsmanship
Skill and talent are nothing if not coupled with integrity and honesty. Every trait and strength a person has must be enhanced with hard work and truth. They’re one of the pillars to strive toward and when it comes to games, sportsmanship is defined by these traits. The Academy of Classical Christian Studies high school girls’ basketball team was celebrating a victory against Apache High School in a match in Oklahoma City, CBS News stated. When head coach Brendan King looked back on their victory, he realized they hadn’t really won and the title was given to them due to some miscalculations. It was a dilemma that rendered the most beautiful result.
"As soon as I walked out of the locker room, my stomach kind of turned into knots. And I said, 'I'm going to need to know if we really won this game or not,'" King recalled. He watched the tape and realized that instead of the Academy leading with 44-43, Apache should have won 43-42. He was in a fix because it meant accepting loss while holding the trophy and also breaking the news to his players. “It tore me to pieces,” he remarked. The team already had the trophy; they had likely already begun celebrations. It was their first championship win. It felt like the best thing that had ever happened to them.
The easier option was to just let things be. Either way, the scores were deemed final post the match. But King knew better than that. He knew his players deserved to know the truth, even if it meant breaking their hearts. So many must have prayed, trained and gone above and beyond and were finally relieved at the win. One of the players mentioned how they had worked so hard and how the win felt like it was all so worth it. However, King made a call to break the news regardless. When his players learned the truth, they were saddened but prioritized sportsmanship at that very moment.
They unanimously made a decision — to return the trophy to its rightful winners. King himself hand-delivered the prize to Apache High. "It would have felt wrong, I think, to have taken the trophy, regardless," one of the Academy players said. "It was a really good teaching moment for us to just be, like, this is not the whole point," another added. So they lost the game but they won a lot — experience, integrity, reliability, credibility and so much more. Their opponents were happy to have defeated the team but were even glad to see honesty and fair play displayed by their rivals.
Sitting on their shelf, the award means more than just the game — it means hope. One of the team members titled it “special” for the Academy to humbly step down from the victory. Apache head coach Amy Merriweather noted that more than the victory, the lesson learned has been more important. "It showed us, you know, there are still good people in this world. It's something we'll always remember,” she remarked.
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