Targeting sportsmanship: taming uncivil behavior, especially by parents in the stands, is becoming an unavoidable initiative in school districts.

Superintendent David Prescott heard about the verbal pressure, the parents calling coaches to complain about the player who wasn't any good, the play they couldn't comprehend and the playing time their kids didn't get. He witnessed the bad behavior of raucous spectators at sporting events heckling and ranting vitriol under the watchful eye of impressionable youngsters.

He grew concerned as good coaches resigned and others threatened to, and he noticed that able coaching prospects often were reluctant to step up to the plate because it was not worth their time and sanity to withstand the berating and taunting of out-of-bounds spectators.

"We have actually asked people to leave sporting events, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be better the next time," says Prescott, superintendent of the 3,700-student Albert Lea Area Schools in south-central Minnesota. "Most people will cool it when you talk to them. But the others, you can pick them out because they're usually sitting alone because nobody wants to sit with them. Angry people. And what they yell certainly doesn't set the right tone for our students."

Behavorial Rules

Spurred on by incidents of bad sportsmanship, the Albert Lea district, working through a committee of stakeholders, published a set of standards that spell out for players, coaches, students, parents and community members the school district's expectations for good sportsmanship at interscholastic athletic events. Taking effect this year with the winter season, players and their coaches and families were asked to sign, before play commenced, a compact to uphold the principles of appropriate behavior relative to each group. A parent, for example, signs a promise not to berate or taunt officials, coaches or opposing teams; a coach signs a promise not to force athletes to specialize too soon in one sport at the expense of all others.

The document, titled "Athletics the Right Way," was influenced by last year's "Sports Done Right" report produced at the University of Maine. It takes a broad look at a myriad of issues involving many groups--with a notable focus on spectators at interscholastic sports events in Albert Lea.

Indeed, many school districts have begun to use the comprehensive "Sports Done Right" report, which emphasizes seven core principles and supporting core practices for creating an environment conducive to "discipline, respect, responsibility, fairness, trustworthiness and good citizenship." The report identifies "out of-bounds" issues--troubling trends in behavior on and off the field--that should be remedied.

"The biggest problem we have at interscholastic events is with parents because how do we discipline parents?" Prescott says. "We don't have much control over them. What we're trying to do with this document is encourage peer pressure from other parents. Parents know appropriate behavior, and when they see inappropriate behavior, we hope they will intercede."

A Violent Reaction

Like Albert Lea, many school districts begin to address poor sportsmanship while it's a nagging problem but not necessarily a matter that demands a full-court press. Other school leaders have to confront a volatile situation in the wake of flagrantly foul behavior, which is why in January the Deer Park Union Free School District in central Long Island hosted a packed public meeting to discuss its decision to suspend the boys junior varsity basketball season after three players stood accused of attacking a younger teammate in the locker room.

Tragically, some districts have to deal with the unthinkable, as when a disgruntled parent in Canton, Texas, about 60 miles east of Dallas, was arrested for last year's shooting of Canton High School football coach and athletic director Gary Joe Kinne Jr., who recovered and has since joined the coaching staff at Baylor University. The parent, Jeffrey Doyle Robertson, who had been upset with the coaching system at the school for quite some time, was found guilty in February and sentenced in March to 20 years in prison.

In a society that glorifies athletes and tolerates ethical transgressions in collegiate and professional sports, alarming reports from the field of schoolhouse athletics abound, starting as early as the elementary school and youth league levels.

The allegations of sexual assault against members of the nationally ranked men's lacrosse team at Duke University captured national attention this spring. Compounding the media's glare on poor sportsmanship is the growing competitiveness and rising costs of increasingly selective colleges.

An editorial in the San Jose Mercury News last year put the issue of monetary competitiveness in interscholastic athletics in perspective. Because fewer than 200,000 of the nation's 75 million school-age children ultimately will earn full-ride scholarships for their athletic prowess, the editorial concluded: "It's past time for the 99 percent of parents whose children won't win college scholarships to reclaim control over youth sports and bring back sanity and fun to our children's lives."

Donald Collins, the commissioner of athletics for the San Francisco Unified School District, addresses the issue of sportsmanship on his website (www.donaldcollins. org). There, he keeps track of what he calls the "parade of awful things that happen when you lose that dignified environment."

Noted, for example, is the high school coach who was suspended for cheating after he was videotaped moving a yard marker during a football game and a parent who body-slammed a high school basketball referee after he ordered the man's wife out of the gym for allegedly yelling obscenities.

Collins defines good sportsmanship as the "obligation to make sure that you have a dignified setting, where people can express themselves in a dignified manner while still supporting their team." He welcomes the growing movement to legislate and otherwise establish a more professional service delivery of sports to youth.

"And part of that movement is because people have seen that someone has to help parents put things in perspective," Collins says. "Not all of the sportsmanship activities involve playing athletes and coaches. Some of the acts are simply rabid parents, rabid spectators who have no notion of how to behave, and the reason they have no notion of how to behave is because no one taught them."

With 17 years in sports administration and the past four as commissioner in the San Francisco district, Collins offers a contextual understanding for why good sportsmanship is essential ("We're asking athletes to be dignified while they do an inherently undignified act, which is to beat somebody") and why his district supports that expectation with more than just regulations and penalties. The comprehensive effort, he says, requires education, training and an emphasis on sound game management, which includes making sure the clocks run right, the books are kept accurately, potential problems are anticipated and adequate security is on hand.

Sports coaches in San Francisco are required to become certified through the American Sports Education Program, which will become a statewide standard for all coaches in California beginning in late 2007. San Francisco also uses resources from the Positive Coaching Alliance, which was established at Stanford University in 1998, and the Pursuing Victory With Honor program, which is a product of the Character Counts Coalition, affiliated with the Josephson Institute of Ethics in Los Angeles. (See resources, page 44.)

With increased training and a concerted focus on the issue, Collins says he has seen in San Francisco "far fewer" incident reports related to poor sportsmanship.

"Everyone has a mutual interest in this," Collins says. "And they need to see it's not an intangible you're talking about, but something that becomes part of your daily life involving where you can play, who you can play and what people think about you. My goodness, would you really want to be in a position where you can't come to a game unless you're accompanied by your parents? Do you want to be in the newspaper because you had a hundred people brawling at a game? Do you really want to be putting that much time into athletics when you could be running your school?"

Josephson's Findings

Of course, in the world of interscholastic athletics, coaches, parents and spectators aren't the only ones who need to be educated. Indeed, many school leaders believe the purposes of interscholastic athletics should be instructional and developmental, and that sports are a means to build a youngster's character.

The Josephson Institute conducts a biennial survey on sportsmanship, which is believed to be the most comprehensive measure of the attitudes and behaviors of high school athletes. (Josephson's latest report was to be released this spring.) The 2004 survey of 4,200 high school athletes identified high percentages of students who said they thought it is proper to deliberately inflict pain in football to intimidate an opponent (58 percent males, 24 percent females); trash talk a defender after every score (47 percent males, 19 percent females); soak a football field in advance of a game to slow down an opponent (27 percent males, 12 percent females); build up a foul line in baseball to keep bunts fair (28 percent males, 21 percent females); throw intentionally at a batter who hit a home run the last time up (30 percent males, 16 percent females); and illegally alter a hockey stick to improve shooting (25 percent males, 14 percent females).

Findings such as these prompted Michael Josephson, the institute's president, to warn that "the values of millions of youngsters are directly and dramatically influenced by the values conveyed in high school sports" and that "coaches and parents simply aren't doing enough to assure that the experience is a positive one."

Although the survey found 90 percent of the athletes thought their coaches set a good example, large percentages also endorsed coaching practices that involve intimidating or influencing future calls by referees (51 percent males, 30 percent females); instructing how to illegally hold and push opponents without getting caught (45 percent males, 22 percent females); advising a player to fake an injury to obtain an extra timeout for the team (39 percent males, 22 percent females); and using profanity and insults to motivate players (37 percent males, 15 percent females).

"Too many youngsters are confused about the meaning of fair play and sportsmanship, and they have no concept of honorable competition," Josephson reported in his organization's most recent report. "As a result they engage in illegal conduct and employ doubtful gamesmanship techniques to gain a competitive advantage," he said. "It appears that today's playing fields are the breeding ground for the next generation of corporate pirates and political scoundrels."

The Control Factor

As alarming as this assessment is, it's encouraging to know that dealing with student athletes is among the easiest tasks a school administrator faces when it comes to sportsmanship.

That's the view of David Hoch, who spent 24 years as a coach, including 14 at the college level. Now the athletic director at Loch Raven High School in Towson, Md., Hoch has a doctorate in sports management and 38 years in education. He has written more than 200 articles and has presented across the country on sportsmanship.

"Athletes you have control over," Hoch says. "If your athlete doesn't behave properly [and] exhibit good sportsmanship, the coach can simply say, 'Sit by me on the bench,' or 'We're going to do a little extra work at practice,' or 'You're going to have to sit out the next game.' You have a handle on the athlete. You don't always have a handle on the fans or on the parents."

Good coaches, Hoch says, use practices and games as "teachable moments."

"Every single day our coaches should be helping young people learn and grow and mature," he says. "A good coach goes a long way toward improving things. Consequently, a bad coach, one who doesn't mandate or enforce good sportsmanship, can really be a trigger for bad sportsmanship. If you have one coach out of bounds, you have problems."

Sometimes, though, even the best laid plans and coaches aren't enough. That is especially true when it comes to what Hoch calls "the absolutely hardest group to deal with, the individual who comes to your game who's not a member of your school community."

As Hoch put it, "You have no link, you have no way to communicate with, to educate, the person who drove a hundred miles just to see the game."

Banning Fans

In some instances, school districts have had to ban an out-of-control fan from the season--or at least to civilly escort him or her from the stadium or gymnasium after an outburst of shamelessly uncivil behavior. At a school board meeting in February, Susan Dudley, the superintendent of the Edinburg, Ill., schools, publicly shared one such incident that occurred during a boys basketball game.

"It was a really close game, and it should have been a close game, because there were two highly competitive and talented teams playing a fairly aggressive game," Dudley says. "Our players kept their cool. They played hard and they played to win, but they didn't get overly aggressive and they were respectful to the referees and to the other players."

Meanwhile, two fans in the stands had to be escorted from the gym for what Dudley calls "mouthing in the crowd."

She adds: "There's a way to cheer your team on without being derogatory toward the referee or his call. For the most part, we don't have bad fans, but it's that one or two who makes everybody want to crawl under the bleachers because it's so embarrassing. Even their spouses won't sit with them."

Dudley regularly writes a column for the town newspaper and on one occasion she focused on the decorum of spectators at school sports events. This time, she was responding to some blatantly out-of-bounds behavior during baseball season. "It was just a way to make people think a little bit," she says. "What you say isn't just between you and the umpire at that moment. It's a reflection on the entire student body and the community." Dudley says her comments were received well by parents who told her it was a subject that needed to be addressed.

When push comes to shove, however, Dudley says a school district's best defense lies with its coaching staff. Having capable basketball coaches, she says, is what prevented the fan fracas in February from becoming something worse and that allowed her student-athletes an opportunity to demonstrate their poise under pressure, which she reinforced with praise at the school board meeting.

"The coach is one of the more important parts of your team," Dudley says. "They set the standards. They set the expectations, they model those expectations and they work with the kids every day. Our job is much more than coaching a team and winning a ball game. We're raising children. It's a big responsibility and we have a hand in how those children turn out and what kind of adults they become. We need to take that obligation seriously."

Additional Resources

School leaders interested in addressing sportsmanship in their interscholastic athletic programs might consider the use of these resources.

* Character Counts. The program's website (www.charactercounts.org) is the starting point for links to information about character education and the biennial "Report Card on the Ethics of American Youth." The site also offers a link to the Josephson Institute of Ethics' sportsmanship survey. High schools are encouraged to participate.

* "Pursuing Victory With Honor." A sportsmanship campaign, developed by Character Counts! Sports (www.charactercounts. org/sports/), was inspired by a national conference seven years ago where leading figures in amateur athletics called for major changes in the way sports are coached, played and watched. The site also offers links to banners, certification and training materials, sportsmanship seminars and awareness programs, and the Ultimate Sportsmanship Tool Kit.

* The Arizona Interscholastic Association Academy. This website (www.aiaacademy. org) shows how to apply the "Pursuing Victory With Honor" initiative. There also are links to coach education and parent education, which include codes of ethics for both groups along with a discussion of the realistic expectations for children in sports and the mission and purpose of youth sports. The coach's link offers tips for effective parent meetings, quality practices and effective feedback while the parent's link includes a review of parental responsibilities, commitments and conduct. "Everyday Heroes" is a program worthy of consideration in other school districts.

* "Sports Done Right: A Call to Action on Behalf of Maine's Student-Athletes." Copies of this influential report, issued in January 2005 report, are available online (www.sportsdonerightmaine.org). Districts nationwide are using it to document sportsmanship expectations for coaches, players and fans. Steps for participation and implementation are provided.

* "Online Coaching Eligibility Course." Designed by the Maine Center for Sport and Coaching and accessible through the "Sports Done Right" Web page (www. sportsdonerightmaine.org), the course includes units on the psychosocial dimensions of coaching and effective communication techniques with players, parents and the community. The course meets eligibility requirements set forth by the Maine Principals' Association.

* National Alliance for Youth Sports. Founded by the National Youth Sports Coaches Association (www.nays.org), the alliance educates administrators, coaches, officials and parents about their roles and responsibilities in youth sports. The association offers the most widely used volunteer coach training program in the nation.

* National Federation of State High School Associations. Beginning last month, the federation (www.nfhs.org) has begun to develop its own low-cost program for qualifying coaches in an effort to advance the movement for certification.

* National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association. The association (www2.niaaa.org) offers a certification program for athletic administrators with three levels: registered athletic administrator, certified athletic administrator and certified master athletic administrator.

RELATED ARTICLE: At the core of good sports: good coaches.

As the culture of school sports becomes more competitive, athletic officials say their most promising game plan is to train, certify and evaluate coaches to focus more on the kids and less on the wins.

"There's never been a bigger need for teaching sportsmanship than there is now" says Harold Slemmer, executive director of the Arizona Interscholastic Association and a national faculty member and adviser for the Character Counts! Coalition and Leadership Council. The latter organization has developed the "Pursuing Victory With Honor" sportsmanship campaign used by schools and districts nationwide.

"Sportsmanship is all about a person's character and values and his wanting to be fair, wanting to be trustworthy, wanting to be respectful during and after the game" he says. "These are character traits good coaches teach kids and sport is the medium through which they teach. If these character traits are taught well and enforced by coaches, it carries over into the field and into the stands."

Necessary to counter the rising tide of foul play both on and off the court is a coaching staff that understands that "high school athletics is educational athletics," Slemmer says. "Teaching kids character and sportsmanship has to be done by design, not chance, and you do that through a curriculum that focuses on sports and character building"

The job is as daunting as the need.

Certifiying Coaches

According to Tim Flannery, assistant director of the National Federation of State High School Associations in Indianapolis, Ind., a certification program his group made available in partnership with the American Sport Education Program has been reaching about 16,000 coaches a year. But that's a small number, Flannery says, considering an estimated 750,000 individuals coach high school sports nationwide.

To better reach that market, Flannery's group is in the process of ending its 15-year agreement with ASEP and intends to launch by January 2007 its own training and certification program for low-cost, online and widespread delivery.

"If we have, as estimated, a 20 percent turnover every year, that's 150,000 coaches, so the 16,000 coaches we've been reaching annually isn't really making it," Flannery says. "We need to reach between 100,000 and 150,000 coaches a year if we want to have a chance at changing the culture of high school athletics"

That culture, he says, has been moving more toward winning over the past 30 years and less toward developing young people physically, psychologically and socially. "And when you put winning first" he adds, "it becomes a business or it becomes entertainment, but it does not become an educational experience."

The NFHS, which supports but doesn't govern state athletic associations, was to begin developing its coaching certification program May 1, working with state associations and member schools to encourage coaches to become certified. Slemmer says the Arizona association will require all 239 high schools in its membership to certify its high school coaches.

Flannery notes that about 37 states have some kind of requirement for coaches' training, "but those 37 states primarily are requiring only non-educator coaches to have this kind of training, which means not all coaches are getting trained." California, he adds, "is one of the few states requiring that all coaches have this training and Massachusetts is also taking that jump. Our role will be to get all states to follow the lead of California and Massachusetts."

Training for coaches will cover CPR, sports first aid and "coaching principles," which involves the fundamentals of working with youngsters, Flannery says. Also available in the fledgling national program will be single-focus components of coaching that address pressing issues, such as hazing, sexual harassment, steroids use and sportsmanship.

Non-Educators

John Olson, after 40 years in education, laments no national mandate or legal requirement exists for the training of coaches at a time when the participation level in high school sports has been steadily increasing over the past two decades, up to 7.2 million last year. "We are different from Europe and Canada in that regards, says Olson, who, since retiring from the Madison, Wis., school district in 2000 as assistant superintendent now serves as director of curriculum and instruction for the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association.

Instead, Olson adds, "you see there's some attempt at emulating collegiate or professional coaching behaviors that are not appropriate for developing students."

Olson is behind the push for a national mandate for certification, noting its positive impact on sportsmanship and character development. "Ninety-five percent of amateur sport in the United States is controlled and directed by educational institutions," he says. "Please tell me the justification for swearing at a kid, berating an official or encouraging rough play and then paying for that with tax or tuition dollars."

Complicating the issue is the growing number of coaches who do not have teaching degrees.

"The real secret to the career coach is that when Jimmy or Mary talk back to the English teacher during the day, the coach can say you go apologize before the end of the day or you won't participate in practice," says Olson, who prepared teachers and coaches for careers in physical education and athletic administration for seven years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "The coach who's walking in the door at 3:30 doesn't know what Jimmy or Mary did in school that day."

Flannery estimates that on average 50 percent of today's coaches are non-educators. "Texas is the one state that requires every coach to be an employee of the school district, whether it's a teacher or a custodian or some other position. Most of the other states permit what we call 'off-staff coaching,' maybe not for football and basketball, but for all other sports," he says.

Still, Flannery says, while years ago a physical education major had coaching courses, that's not necessarily true today, which makes the implementation of certification an even more pressing need.

Slemmer's organization has responded with the "Pursuing Victory With Honor" sportsmanship campaign. It advances the "six pillars of character" (trustworthiness, fairness, respect, responsibility, caring and citizenship) espoused by Character Counts, a nonpartisan youth ethics initiative. Arizona schools have been using the campaign for five years and will be piloting and eventually adopting the National Federation of High School Associations model, which Slemmer says will complement the sportsmanship initiative.

Evaluating Coaches

One unmet need, the experts say, is to effectively evaluate coaches, taking into account the genetic and developmental differences of student-athletes. "We should assess coaches on those factors for which they have control," Olson says, "and winning is not always one of them."

Flannery's national federation hopes to eventually train and assess school districts on their training of sports coaches based on the exams the coaches take through the association. He notes that while some evaluation lends itself to checklists, as in turning uniforms in on time at the end of the season, the better part of the evaluation needs to be observational.

"Let's say you lost the game last night," Flannery says. "How does the coach react? Is be or she under control, watching to observe for bad behavior? If a kid is acting inappropriately, does the coach intervene and say, 'Just relax, calm down, it's not the end of the world' and carry that through in the locker room? Or does the coach complain that the calls were bad and that the team didn't get any breaks. To really evaluate coaches, you have to observe these behavior issues."

--Linda Chion Kenney

RELATED ARTICLE: Advancing fair play: East Rockaway's compact.

Winning is important, but it isn't everything in East Rockaway, N.Y., where Superintendent Arnold Dodge says the best defense against offensive sportsmanship is a qualified coaching staff that keeps its players and parents well informed and involved.

Toward that end, Dodge, who runs a small school system with a strong sports program in Long Island's Nassau County, credits his athletic director, Dominick Vulpis, for keeping the playbook straight when it comes to the expectations the school district sets for fair play and fan decorum.

And neither school official is shy about banning a fan if necessary.

"We're aggressive about that, making sure people understand that it's kids playing a game here. They're exercising and feeling good about themselves, and we're not going to have the taunting and teasing and bullying that sometimes goes on in the stands," Dodge says. "Our coaches understand winning is not everything, that wholesome, healthful exercise under the guidance of a trained coach is every bit as important as winning a game."

Pre-season Warnings

To drive the point home, Vulpis schedules mandatory "Tip Off" meetings for all interscholastic sports at the beginning of each season. Coaches meet collectively with athletes and their parents to discuss the purpose of school athletics ("as preparation for life rather than for the limited opportunities for college scholarships or professional careers") and the parent's code of ethics ("applaud good plays; don't dwell on bad ones").

After the large-group discussion, students are assigned to classrooms for meetings with their respective coaches. There, both the players and their parents are required to sign three contracts: a commitment to follow through with team and sportsmanship requirements; a pledge against hazing; and a pledge against substance abuse. Coaches take the opportunity to talk about their sport and coaching philosophy, including how they made their cuts and what they look for in determining who gets playing time.

Parents and students who do not show up for the tip-off meeting are required to make an appointment to watch a videotape and sign contracts before the child is allowed to suit up.

"That's how I can tell if a coach is selling this or not" Vulpis said. "If I see only five or six players show up, it's a sign right away the coach didn't promote this as an important event"

Vulpis says he evaluates his coaches on the same "4 C's" they are expected to teach and model for their students and fans: competence, character, civility and citizenship. "lf you don't evaluate your coaches in these four areas" he says, "they're not going to buy into it"

Spectator Supervision

Even with the best-laid and promoted plans, sportsmanship can turn sour. That's why Dodge's 1,300-student school district hires supervisors--teachers, custodians, secretaries or any other school employee--to wear specially marked orange jackets to athletic events.

"We go over with them what to say to an individual, in a low voice, who is acting inappropriately," Vulpis says. "There are people who will make bad choices, but you're not the Gestapo. I tell them, 'Your job is to note who these people are, address it and if it gets out of hand to call me or go into the office and call the police.'"

But it's not only the fan who gets taken to task if necessary.

"If I think a coach has been out of line with an official, I'll ask, 'How do you think you could have handled that differently?'" Vulpis says. "And they do have a way of taking care of that, and that's with rating cards. I let them know it's not about the immediate second; that if you shoot off the hip you're just fueling the parents behind you. And if you do shoot off the hip, you're going to be held accountable for it."

Southern Connecticut Conference

Spectator Expectations

* Respect decisions made by contest officials.

* Refrain from taunting, booing, heckling & the use of profanity in any manner.

* Sit in the designated area assigned to each school

* Leaving a contest prior to its conclusion, with expectations of returning, is not permitted.

* Attendance at this contest is not a license to verbally assault others or to be generally obnoxious

* Respect athletes, coaches, officials & fans

Endorsed by: NIAAA

RELATED ARTICLE: A toss-up: a Sportsmanship banner or an even playing field?

As I drove home from a Kennebunk High School basketball game not long ago, I wondered why I didn't feel good about the game when our players had played so well. The answer was obvious. Sportsmanship and ethics are lacking, and too many of us just don't seem to care!

During this particular game, a few students from the opposing team were asked to leave the gym by our athletic director because of their foul language and constant belittling of the officials and our players. As they left, several parents from their community confronted our athletic director and argued they couldn't understand why the students had to leave because this behavior was acceptable in their gym.

It is even more disturbing to know that our own students and athletes (who have won the league sportsmanship banner for the past three years) are beginning to question why they have to behave at games. They often comment that we never have a home-court or home-field advantage because "our opponents' fans are allowed to get a lot more rowdy than we are."

I must say that our efforts to prioritize character development and sportsmanship have caused many in our community to become frustrated with our school district's perceived lack of focus on winning. They believe we spend more time and energy on promoting good sportsmanship than we do on winning. Placing sportsmanship as our top priority in school athletics is not an easy challenge. It becomes extremely difficult when many opponents seem to lack positive sportsmanship and model the "winning is everything" belief.

A Ubiquitous Issue

Having served as superintendent in Aspen, Colo., before returning to Maine a few years ago, I can assure you this is not just a Kennebunk or a Maine issue. More than a few schools appear to have lost sight of the value of sportsmanship and character development in interscholastic athletics. The question that lingers in my mind is, "What can we do to even the playing field while promoting good behavior?"

Unfortunately, I am embarrassed to say that I did practice the old adage, "lf you can't beat them, join them," while working in Colorado. I am thankful I was able to realize this was not a solution to our issues. It is now becoming critical that all school administrators join the "Sports Done Right" philosophy to encourage good sportsmanship.

The solution must begin with the school board and superintendent. Clear expectations must be conveyed verbally and in writing over and over again to the athletic director, coaches, athletes and fans. I feel good about how our athletic director, Marty Ryan, promotes good sportsmanship in Kennebunk. It is clear throughout our sports' community as to what he--and our school district--expect.

Unfair Advantage

What is not clear in our community is what sportsmanship is acceptable away from our fields or gyms or is advantageous to winning. Do displays of poor sportsmanship by athletes, rowdy fan behavior or unruly coaches actually give a team an advantage? Does a lack of fair enforcement of rule infractions occur in other league schools? Unfortunately, for many of our fans, the answer is yes.

On more than one occasion I have witnessed fans heckle players or coaches in an intimidating way. In Colorado, for example, fans from one school threw M&Ms at our basketball players when they entered the gym and singled out one outstanding player to call a hateful name every time he touched the ball. This player had a very difficult game because of the unfair pressure placed on him by negative fans. It is easy for one to say that good athletes are able to block this noise out of their minds, but I question why this should ever be allowed in the first place.

When we confronted the administration of this high school after the game, they replied they didn't know what the fans were yelling. The game officials stated it was not their responsibility. On other occasions after similar experiences, opposing administrators pleaded ignorance time and time again. When our fans observe this behavior, they begin to realize that it does give an unfair advantage to the opposing teams. When it does not stop, they want to join in on these negative behaviors to equal the playing field or court.

Multilateral Action

Although our school district does not compromise the practice of requiring good sportsmanship from our side of the field or court, local fans continue to criticize the athletic director. Unfortunately, they do not believe the sportsmanship banner compensates for this unfair advantage. Until all school administrators agree to enforce good sportsmanship, student athletes will not-fully benefit from the true value of interscholastic athletics, and fans will never learn good sportsmanship.

Seeing unruly fans on television during college or professional games only adds to the belief that "anything goes" when it comes to fan behavior at interscholastic sports events. More and more of our society are losing sight of the priorities in sports, and the "winning is everything" attitude is taking over.

The time is way overdue for school leaders at all levels to make good sportsmanship and ethical behavior their No. 1 priority in high school sports. Our student athletes deserve nothing less.

Thomas Farrell is superintendent of Maine School District 71, 87 Fletcher St., Kennebunk, ME 04043. E-mail: [e-mail]

Linda Chion Kenney is a senior reporter with the Sunbelt Newspapers in Brandon, Fla. E-mail: [e-mail]