Chicago: HS baseball game forfeited due to "worried parents".

Every coach I've ever met tries to work around "big events" like SAT/ACT and prom so there are no schedule conflicts. They either play earlier in the day, later in the day, or not at all. If most of the team or most of your starters are missing, what's the point? For just that reason there's not a lot of district games played on Saturday. That way if you do end up with schedule conflicts a loss doesn't hurt you.
There might be a few psychos out there who don't give a shit, but they're quickly exposed as that when they try it and tend not to last long.
Working around those things -- which are generally considered school-sponsored events, and thus legitimately excusable absences -- is part of a coach's job. Any self-respecting principal ought to take it out on that coach's ass if the coach tries to punish a kid for missing a game or practice for those sorts of events.

 

I bet that hot-shit coach in Steubenville doesn't like excused absences.