Ah, March. The season of madness. A time when men, women and children come together and worry about basketball teams from Gonzaga, Western Michigan and Valparaiso. It is a time when dreams are made and broken — sportsmanship reigning supreme.

Speaking of sportsmanship and basketball, this March Madness season wouldn't be complete without two stories from complete opposite spectrums.

Covenant School, a private Christian high school in Texas, pummeled Dallas Academy, another girls team, 100-0 earlier this year. The losing squad has eight girls on the team and only 20 girls in the entire school.

The "winning" coach, Michael Grimes, decided to quit having his team drain 3-pointers and their full court press when they crested the century mark with about 4 minutes left in the game. Fans supporting Covenant continued to cheer louder and louder until reaching a crescendo when they hit 100 points.

Coach Grimes responded to criticisms of his team's effort via e-mail, stating "We played the game as it was meant to be played. My values and my beliefs would not allow me to run up the score on any opponent, and it will not allow me to apologize for a wide-margin victory when my girls played with honor and integrity."

Excuse me? If honor and integrity means humiliating and embarrassing others in an attempt to stroke your own ego, this coach got it spot on!

Did I mention that the losing team is a school that hasn't won in four years or that their entire purpose is to serve young women with learning disabilities such as dyslexia, short attention spans and other learning differences?

Coach Grimes was later fired.

A few weeks later in Cumberland, Maine, a high school basketball team manager with Down Syndrome had the opportunity to play in the team's final game of the season when one of the starters agreed to sit out for the game.

Patrick Thibodeau calmly trotted onto the court and shot an air ball in his first attempt. But then, moments later, Thibodeau planted his feet, jumped and threw a perfect arc through the hoop, draining a 3-pointer.

With the game in hand and time winding down, the crowd cheered louder and wanted Patrick back in the game.

The coach obliged and Thibodeau sprinted onto the court, allowing the cheers to rain on him like confetti. With about three seconds left Patrick showed perfect form and his final shot as a member of the team went through the hoop for a buzzer-beating 3-pointer. The crowd erupted and Thibodeau's teammates carried him off the court on their shoulders.

Sam Thompson, the young man that gave up his spot on the team that evening so that Patrick could play, humbly smiled when asked about his actions. "It's really all about sportsmanship," he smiled.

Ironically, Patrick's father, an assistant coach on the team, almost missed the game, having suffered a stroke two weeks earlier. Thankfully, he was able to see his son play.

So there you have it, folks: two stories, and both coaches professing that they really wanted to teach kids a lesson. One coach apparently felt the need to teach young ladies with learning disabilities a lesson they won't soon forget, and another who eagerly approached an opportunity to teach his players a lesson they wouldn't ever forget.

Which one will you remember longer? It's madness, I say.

Christian Ola, a community columnist for the Butler Eagle, resides in Mars with his wife, son and daughter and can be reached at christianolac@aol.com and through his Web site, www.christianola.com.