It Takes a Village

Earlier this month, IHSAA Assistant Director Todd Tharp and I participated in the “Behavior in Sport Summit” hosted by the National Federation of High Schools, the organization that serves the 51 (including D.C.) state athletic/activities associations.  The summit was part of the NFHS “Bench Bad Behavior Campaign.”  The focus of this summit was how to bring civility back into interscholastic, education-based athletics.  The goal was to share strategies needed to do so.

It saddens me a little that we have changed the words related to the environment at high school sporting events from “sportsmanship” to words like, “civility.”  It shows how far we’ve plunged.

If I could sum up my take-a-ways from the seminar, they would be:

• The problem is fan behavior, and to an extent, coach behavior.
• To solve the problem, it will take a village.

Not exactly revelations.

Let’s first acknowledge that on many game nights, students and adults represent themselves and their communities in exemplary fashion.  Credit to those who make it happen.  The unfortunate reality, however, is at way too many events, people do not. 

When it comes to changing the culture, for too long, we have “dabbled” in benching bad behavior and bringing civility back to high school sports.  And as with many challenges that seem so overwhelming that change is not likely, we shrug our shoulders, put up our hands, and say, “Whattya gonna do?”  Translation – “There’s nothing anyone can do.”  Kudos to the NFHS for refusing to accept that notion. 

So what of this village?  Who will it take to bring sportsmanship back into vogue?  Quite simply, it includes everyone involved in high school sports and specifically, everyone involved in each high school sporting event.  This is not a varsity level problem.  It’s not a JV level problem.  It’s not a freshmen level problem.  It’s an all-level problem.  So it will take everyone at every level to be the solution.  Administrators, coaches, athletes, adult fans (specifically parents), student fans, game officials, P.A. announcers, media personnel, social media personnel, school communications personnel, the staffs of the IHSAA and IGHSAU and the NFHS.  It will take all of us to establish:

• a culture of respect
• expectations for behavior
• accountability for actions

Culture

It all starts with establishing and committing to a culture.  A culture of respect.  Throughout the school and school community.  Throughout every program.  Throughout the entire coaching staff.  Throughout the entire roster of every team.  Throughout the entire fan base.  Quite frankly, I’m growing weary of leaning on the, “If this keeps up, we won’t have officials” approach.  I’ll be the first to say that officials deserve respect and should be commended for the difficult job they do.  But I just don’t see the need to tie anything to the fact that people should behave respectfully.  It should be enough to say people should treat others with respect because it’s the right thing to do.  (And for the record, yes, we are losing officials.)

Expectations

Next comes establishing and communicating expectations for how to conduct ourselves at sporting events.  With a culture of respect, this should be neither difficult nor confrontational.  Fans need to hear from administrators (especially the AD), the coaches, the athletes (and other students), the importance of a positive approach to attending a school’s athletic event.  Coaches need to hear the same message from the same people.  Athletes need to hear from administrators and coaches.  The message needs to be consistent and repetitive.  At back to school nights.  At parent meetings.  At coaches meetings.  During team goal setting.  At student assemblies.  During AD meetings with student leaders (not just student government but also those students who are the student section leaders – those visible students who others look to for how to act.)   Before the event.  During the event.  I’m prone to one liners and the one I tie to the deterioration of sportsmanship is, “We fell asleep at the wheel.”  We stopped focusing on it and now it has become a problem.  The time for, “that’s not my job” is long gone.  It’s everyone’s job.  

Accountability

Once the expectations are established, it’s time for accountability.  Accountability begins with monitoring.  I use the phrase, “antenna up” to frame the approach that’s needed when monitoring is needed.  Be aware.  Anticipate.  It’s difficult to hold people accountable if we don’t know who it was that failed to meet expectations.  It’s sad but the supervisors’ attention needs to be less on the contest and more on the fans.  If expectations have been set and shared with all, then consequences must follow when those expectations are not met.  Remember, a rule, guideline, or policy without consequences is simply a suggestion.  Our fans need to understand that the price of admission does not grant, "carte blanche" to say whatever they want to say.

Yelling at officials.  Yelling at opposing players, coaches, or fans (and sometimes yelling at our own coaches and players).  Ridiculing, trying to embarrass, making vulgar or racist comments toward opposing players, “rubbing it in” (“over-rated”).  It’s all just wrong.  And it’s time for all of us to recognize that and put an end to it.

Sportsmanship is a choice.  It Is also a matter of self-control.  It is the ability to look at something and think to ourselves, “that was a travel” or “that was a foul” without shouting it for everyone to hear.  It is the ability to understand that we are watching a “game.”  It is a respect for the people who are involved with that game.

I am proud to say that the fans at many of our schools have demonstrated respect for officials and opponents.  It is my hope that we continue to work so that “many” becomes “all.”  As I am known to preach frequently, “We either get better or worse; we never stay the same.”  I encourage all of us to keep sportsmanship a priority.  Let’s stay alert at the wheel.  Let’s be the village that raises a generation of respect.