WIAA to ban booing at HS games in Wa State?

[zebraman]

Interesting read:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/preps/..._booban03.html

[Nevadaref]

From the article:
"The sportsmanship guidelines are meant to address the dwindling number of people who want to be coaches and officials."

I admire their effort to increase sportsmanship and found their stated reason for doing so of note. They have recognized that they have a shortage of these people and have a theory as to why. Now they are striving to do something to remedy that area of concern.

[WhistlesAndStripes]

I was watching a local rivalry game Saturday night with some officials and we began rating some of the boos that rained down from the stands. One of the officials in our association mentioned that he had heard about this.

All I can say is, good luck enforcing this if it's implemented.

[JRutledge]

I do not know how you are going to enforce such a rule. Booing is probably nicest thing fans can do nowadays. What are you going to do, get rid of all the fans that boo during the game? Good luck with that one.

Peace

[Junker]

I applaud them for trying to change things. The athletic directors will have a lot of work ahead of them. I'll be interested in reading what the exact policy ends up being.

[jeffpea]

The decline in sportsmanship, in my opinion, is because authority figures (coaches, officials, administrators, etc.) do not uphold the standards already in place. If everyone who complained about the "lack of sportsmanship" would do a little bit to hold the violators accountable, then we would see better results.

The mindset that says, "aw shucks, they're just having fun...or...leave 'em alone, it's part of the game..." has to be replaced by a general attitude that says it's OK to point out violators and it's OK to hold them accountable for their actions.

That's certainly easier said than done, because a lot of what is deemed as unsportsmanlike by some, may not be considered the same by others.

[Junker]

Originally Posted by jeffpea

The decline in sportsmanship, in my opinion, is because authority figures (coaches, officials, administrators, etc.) do not uphold the standards already in place. If everyone who complained about the "lack of sportsmanship" would do a little bit to hold the violators accountable, then we would see better results.

The mindset that says, "aw shucks, they're just having fun...or...leave 'em alone, it's part of the game..." has to be replaced by a general attitude that says it's OK to point out violators and it's OK to hold them accountable for their actions.

That's certainly easier said than done, because a lot of what is deemed as unsportsmanlike by some, may not be considered the same by others.

Well said Jeff. Every year we hear more and more complaints about sportsmanship but the people in charge need to step up and take care of it. The states need to make sure the schools enfore sportsmanship policies, not just read their sportsmanship statement before games. I always chuckle to myself every year during our state tournament. All of a sudden schools are sending administrators on the road to watch the students and the host schools have 3 or 4 people on site taking care of their fans. I know money is tight in a lot of schools, but if sportsmanship is the priority it is supposed to be, why not have them there at every game?

[JRutledge]

I think you have to do a little more than banning booing. You should ban a lot of chants and personal comments. Until you stop other forms of unsportsmanlike behavior, booing is one of the mildest things fans can do.

I worked a game in December where one the visiting schools one multiple football championships and the other was primarily a school with basketball success. All the student sections do was throw several chants back and forth about the football season and how one school was better and the other were a bunch of scrubs. The school representatives did nothing and allowed this to go on. Some of the comments were kind of personal or about things I did not even completely understand. I would have rather had them boo.

Peace

[zebraman]

If you read the article, you'll see that booing is only part of a much broader attempt to address sportsmanship. "Ban Booing" is just a catchier article title which is probably why the newspaper decided to go with that.

I agree that it's the gym managers who need to do a better job. The only cases where any negative sportsmanship actually distracted me this year in a game was from some bozo who could have easily been handled by a school administrator.

[Raymond]

They were just discussing this on the Dan Patrick Show on ESPN Radio but I missed most of the segment.

[rockyroad]

I've seen some of the drafts of these proposals (have a friend on the committee) and they really don't talk about booing very much. The only specific instance I can remember reading anything about booing was addressing fan behavior when tho opposing team's players are introduced...most of the proposal had to do with the lovely chants of
"Bullsh!t" rained down on officials (and other things like that) and the insults thrown at players...the whole point is to encourage sportsmanship and cheering as opposed to taunting and insulting. And it really does come down to the game administrators handling thie fans...like the article said, fines and possible post-season berths could be used to help those administrators get on board.