I've followed South Granville HS for a long time, and Gates County HS for a long time before that, and at both places, I have seen teams where either the kicker was so bad that the ball never went more than 20 yards anyway, and/or the defense was so bad that you felt like it didn't matter if the other team got it at their own 20 or at the 50, the only hope of them not scoring was if their offense got sloppy with penalties and/or fumbles, and in those situations, why not roll the dice and try to steal a possession? I've been on both sides of it: Oct. 24, 1997: Chocowinity at Gates Co.: (Context: Barons didn't have soccer back then, could be wrong but I don't think we attempted an extra point or FG all season; went for 2 after all TDs...on kickoffs the guy (no longer with us, killed in car accident 22 years ago, was also leading rusher the following year) just squibbed it into the ground, hard enough for it to go 10 yards; sometimes it would bounce for 20-25-30 yards and they'd get a short return and other times it would die in the 10-15 yard range and if the receiving team didn't field it cleanly, our guys recovered at least 5 or 6 that season)....anyway, back to 10-24-97: Gates Co. won the toss and defered; squib kick; kicking team recovers: Baron offense goes down the field and scores TD +2...squib kick...Barons score another TD +2, offense scores another TD (missed 2)....it was 22-0 before Chocownity ever possessed the ball, but after the third one they adjusted and took their best athletes off the 10 yard line and moved them up to around the 35 or 40, and the next squib they returned for a TD to make it 22-6, then on next Gates possession Choco. forced either a punt or turnover, Choco. eventually came back to tie it up 30-30 but Barons won 36-30 on walkoff TD pass: Moral of story: If you don't like the other team pulling shenanigans on the kickoff, the two ways to stop it are 1: Don't let them score and have the opportunity to kick off and 2: Always be prepared for it and recover the kick and get great field position....Fast forward to Oct. 11, 2013: Franklinton at South Granville: SG Vikings start with explosive 3rd quarter to extend lead to 48-21, then Red Rams return kickoff for TD and it's 48-28, then they onside it, recover it, go down the field and score to make it 48-35, onside it again, (with at least 3 guys offside/encroaching and no flag), recover it again, hit a long pass and make it 48-42, those three TDs came in less than 5 minutes of game clock time...SG recovered next kickoff and went down the field to score to swing momentum and went on to win....anyway, again: Moral of the story: To stop getting beat with onside kicks/squib kicks/short kicks; whatever: 1-Don't let them score, 2-Make the adjustment on kickoff return and be smart and execute.....I don't think it's any more bush league to repeatedly do short kick offs than to keep running the same offensive play over and over and over when the other team doesn't adjust to it or simply can't stop it....no different than running a fake punt; both are actually very risky when you think about giving opponent that great starting field position if you try to get tricky on special teams and it doesn't work