Coach needs to address what led to 88-point win
One of the guiding principles of Sacred Heart Academy, a girls Catholic college preparatory school in Hamden, is compassion. It’s stated right there at the top of its website.
You wonder at what point Monday night during Sacred Heart’s ungodly 92-4 beating of Lyman HallWallingford did coach Jason Kirck catch the scent of a decided lack of compassion.
Ninety-two points in a 32-minute high school girls basketball game with no shot clock does not happen by accident.
When did it hit Kirck, whoa, this SCC game has gotten out of hand and I better do something about it? Was it 29-0 after one quarter? Was it 56-0 at halftime? Was it 80-0 after three quarters?
Or did he never feel he was involved in anything wrong? If he didn’t, there most certainly is something deeply wrong.
Kirck coached the Staples boys varsity from 19972007 before spending a dozen years as boys assistant at Notre Dame-West Haven. He also was the director for the girls AAU teams in the Connecticut Basketball Academy for four years before taking over a Sacred Heart team in April 2019 that had been 2-18 the previous season.
Kirck has successfully built the program to the point where it is ranked No. 3 in the state. Sacred Heart is deep. It is talented. It is experienced. Kirck is not inexperienced. He knows the game. He knows the score.
What he sorely lacked Monday night was any hint of sportsmanship and compassion. He failed to demonstrate a control of a situation or himself. Coaching at a school of choice where quality athletes attend for a sports program as much as a quality education, that is doubly concerning.
You know what 92-4 is? “Humiliating,” one former state high school girl coach said.
“Gross,” a current one said.
When the score was