Experience
This essay doesn’t have much to do with politics, but a lot to do with America today. As any consistent reader of “Our America” probably knows, I spent 36 years as a public school teacher and administrator, and 40 years as a coach (Cross Country, Wrestling and Track). So I know “a little” about high school kids, and even “some” about sports and coaching at the high school level.
And for the last few years since I “retired”, I’ve become a working track and cross country official. So I still spend a lot of time with high school, middle school and even collegiate athletes. And, up front, I need to say that the vast, vast majority of those kids, from the middle schoolers trying to figure out what they’re doing to the national qualifying collegiates, are polite to me, and to each other. In fact, in the pole vault where I do much of my officiating, it’s common practice to cheer on the opposing vaulters. Even though there’s always a winner and loser, the bar becomes the common “opponent”.
Unbelievable
This month I’ve seen on media four different examples of incredibly poor sportsmanship. One case, involved a nearby school. Reynoldsburg boys basketball is a terrific program, one of the top contenders for the state title. In a tough District match with Hilliard Bradley, a Reynoldsburg athlete “took a charge” from a Bradley kid coming up the court. It wasn’t much of a charge, but the kid tried to made it look good for the officials. The call wasn’t made.
So, the Reynoldsburg kid got back on his feet. As the Bradley kid passed the ball, the Reynoldsburg boy made a fist and punched Bradley, straight to the groin. The Bradley kid went down, and the officials, not fully seeing the play, called an intentional (but not flagrant) foul on Reynoldsburg. It was only later when the TV coverage was reviewed, that everyone saw exactly what happened.
Throwing Balls and Punches
A second case of out of control high school athletics took place in Michigan. The Benton Harbor team lost in tournament play to the team from Buchanan. An Assistant Coach from the losing team was frustrated with the “poor” officiating, and threw a basketball hitting the Referee in the head. That was followed by full water bottles and later a clipboard. The Referee went down, and had to be escorted from the court by local police officers.
A third example was the case of a New Jersey wrestler, a three-time state champion. His father, a former MMA fighter, didn’t like the behavior of opposing fans. He determined to go into their crowd and let them know. Not surprisingly, a fight broke out. The wrestler himself looked up and saw his father in the melee, and ran up into the stands to join in. He started punching kids, around but not directly involved with the fight his father was in.
Rule 4, Article 6, Section 1
(Track and Field – Unsportsmanlike Conduct)
And a fourth, and to me most amazing example of bad sportsmanship, was in a track meet. Indoor track is often described by the phrase, “rubbing is racing”. The confined quarters of a 200 meter track, and the banked turns, make it easy for runners to bump into each other. In the final race of a meet in Virginia, the 4 x 400 relay, the third place girl came off of the turn, down the bank, to sweep past the second place girl. Second place turned her relay baton into a weapon, and struck the passing runner in the head, twice, as she went by. That caused the passer to drop her baton, fall into the infield and ultimately have a concussion.
All four of the incidents are being “handled”. Reynoldsburg suspended the offending player for the remainder of the season. The Benton Harbor Assistant Coach was fired. The wrestler was suspended from competition by the New Jersey High School Athletic Association for the rest of the season and charged with criminal assault. (But a local judge reinstated him, and he won a fourth state championship). And the baton wielding third runner was disqualified. Other actions are pending.
YouTube
So what does this say about high school athletics today? Well first, we are in the age of video. Everything, from high school girls 4×400’s to brawls in the stands, are out there for everyone to see (and link in essays like this). We can watch it all, from the referee getting beaned by a basketball, to the punch to the groin. And it’s not like all this hasn’t happened in the past. I used to manage wrestling tournaments, and I personally broke up fathers fighting in the stands.
But there does seem to be an “outbreak” of increased entitlement in our modern world. We can blame it on politics, or YouTube, on the NFL or NBA or professional soccer where every foul is “wrong”. And we certainly can argue whether a local judge should have the power to overrule that State Athletic Association. But that’s not new either. It happened here in Ohio back in 1979.
The Lesson
But what I really think is going on is that we don’t teach kids how to lose. I know, I know: some parent is saying, “I don’t want my kid to know how to lose, I want my kid to be a WINNER”. And as anyone on my teams will tell you, I want to win as well. But it was also our responsibility as coaches to teach our kids to win and lose with “grace”. If you win, there is no need to “grind it” into the losers faces. They know, and there’s a scoreboard to prove it.
And if you lose, the dry facts of the scoreboard are still there. I taught my athletes to take responsibility for their own actions, and demonstrate class. One of the hardest lessons was, after losing a hard-fought meet or match or game; to go shake the winners hands. We as coaches had to lead the way, no matter how “salty” we (too) felt about the outcome. Our highest “rule”: don’t embarrass ourselves, our program, or our school. Maybe that lesson is getting lost in our “go for broke” and “never admit failure” society.
Kids are kids. They will always make mistakes. Maybe that’s the most important part of being a kid. The question is: what lesson will they learn?
Postscript:
Saw this from Saturday in Western Pennsylvania- Meadville v Uniontown – here’s the linkhttps://www.erienewsnow.com/story/52521840/meadville-vs-uniontown-basketball-game-ends-in-brawl
