Cooter coach David Mathis: We'll fight until we can't fight no more

The recent MSHSAA Class 2 Quarterfinal 1 boy’s basketball game between Cooter High School and The Principia School ended five days ago, but veteran Wildcat coach David Mathis is still holding his court board (figuratively) and trying to figure out how to get his team to advance to Friday’s state finals in Springfield.

“I told my team,” Mathis said, “I promise you that I’ll fight until that next game starts.”

What Mathis is “fighting” for is his team’s opportunity to compete in this weekend’s tournament. An opportunity, that he believes his program deserves.

The backstory (for the few sports fans in Missouri, who haven’t read on the topic this week) is such: Midway through the second quarter, a Cooter player scored a two-point basket. However, the points were initially put on the scoreboard at the Farmington Civic Center, and in the official scorebook, but then minutes later, the points were inexplicably taken off the scoreboard and out of the scorebook.

The game ultimately was tied at the end of regulation, with Principia winning in overtime.

“Our scorebook keeper goes over,” Mathis explained, “and we throw a big fit. They wouldn’t change it. It turned into a big deal, and the referees said, ‘We’re not changing it.'”

Mathis alerted the game officials that Cooter would be playing the remainder of the game “under protest.”

He spoke with MSHSAA Executive Director Dr. Jennifer Rukstad, on Monday, and she acknowledged the mistake, both to Mathis, as well as in a public statement, but much like the game officials during the game, would not do anything to alter the situation.

“She said that she has the power to do something about it,” Mathis said, “but I think that they don’t want to face legal ramifications over it.

“I told her that ‘No one is ever, ever going to punish you for doing the right thing.’”

Rukstad asked Mathis ‘Where does it stop if we do the right thing here? Does it stop with fouls during a game? And you are shooting free throws?’ I told her what is right, is right. You know it. You sent the email and admitted to it. What is right, is right.”

For the record, Dr. Rukstad’s public response read: The MSHSAA has reviewed the situation from last night’s game, and it was clear a scoring mistake was made. There are rules in place to address errors during the game, and the final score was approved at the end of the game will stand. Our review confirmed that a mistake was made by the adults at the scoring table, personnel that feel terribly about the honest error, that was made during the course of the game.

Mathis appreciates the honesty from MSHSAA, but that doesn’t leave him content with the result.

“It was a pretty heated discussion,” Mathis said of his phone call with Dr. Rukstad. “I wasn’t disrespectful about it, but I asked her how am I supposed to walk into the locker room and tell a group of seniors that they just won a game, but they don’t get to move on.”

Which is precisely what Mathis has been dealing with for five days.

“Nowhere in sports,” Mathis continued, “do you score more points than somebody, but not win.

“This is awful.”

As of Tuesday, Mathis said that the Cooter R-IV School District was researching its legal options.

“We can’t help that there was incompetence,” Mathis said. “The adults dropped the ball on this. It was a helluva game between two good teams, but two points decided it, and it was two points that were shaved off our score.

“There is adversity in life, and obviously, there are going to be good people, and there are going to be bad people. There are going to be bad things that happen to you. You’re just going to have to deal with it.”

The Wildcat student-athletes are trying to navigate their frustrations through this unfathomable situation, but Mathis said he is not going to relinquish what he feels is his responsibility to his players, his assistant coaches, and the Cooter community.

“You’re going to have to move forward,” Mathis continued of his message to his players, “but when you are right, you are right. You always fight for it. And you fight until you can’t no more.”