Above, Arroyo Valley coach Michael Anderson coaches in a game last year.

The score was outrageous: a typo perhaps. On Monday, the Arroyo Valley High girls varsity basketball team defeated Bloomington 161-2 in a game that was 104-1 at halftime.

Read my story I wrote today about it.

I know Arroyo Valley coach Michael Anderson fairly well, and have known him for several years now. I will believe him when he says he wasn’t trying to embarrass anybody.

But, he didn’t take care enough to make sure that didn’t happen. He knew how lopsided it would be and he needed to keep an eye on the scoreboard to make sure it didn’t get to a 161-2. You can’t make Bloomington score, but you can keep your own score down.

I realize it’s tough when you have a pressure-style defense and the other team has trouble handling the ball. But surely you can work on your passing, something so you don’t score 161 points, especially 104 in the first half. Does Bloomington need to get better? Sure. But with only one player who had ever played basketball before, there was little chance the game would be competitive.

Ironically, it was about 20 years ago when Don Markham took over the Bloomington football program en route to winning CIF and set all kind of scoring records. I remember the first score I saw that I thought was a typo: 86-8 over Big Bear. It took some time for the running clock rules to change in football. In this day and age, I don’t think  you’ll see more 161-2 scores out of Arroyo Valley, or if you do, you won’t see Anderson coaching there any more.

Share this