Sportsmanship Matters - part two

Here is something I wrote for the parents, to explain the new policy:

Sportsmanship: fair play, respect for opponents, and gracious behavior in winning or losing.


Sportsmanship matters: The coaches and referees are volunteering their time – not just for this game, but also in practice, training, and certification. They deserve to be treated as you would expect to be treated.

Sportsmanship matters: Kids make mistakes; shouting directions at them is at best confusing, at worst contradictory to what the coach is directing and training them to do. Let them play, and they will learn to make decisions on the field.

Sportsmanship matters: The referee team has been extensively trained in the Laws of the Game; their knowledge of the Laws and nuances of the Game may be more extensive than yours. Certainly shouting at the referee won’t improve the game, and can lead to loss of points and dismissal from the field!

Sportsmanship matters: The Region, the referees, the coaches, and the players are all counting on YOU, the parents, to be good role models.

Sportsmanship matters: So much, that the Board has instituted a new regulation: teams which don’t earn at least 95% of the maximum sportsmanship points for the year are not eligible for the playoffs. There are 25 possible sportsmanship points each game – losing 2 points every game will make a team ineligible!



Coach’s and player’s behavior can affect sportsmanship points, but so can spectator’s behavior. Of the five categories for sportsmanship, two are related to spectators. Below is an excerpt from the Region’s sportsmanship guidelines that are given to each referee – the sole arbiter of sportsmanship during a game.

These deductions are per incident during the game, and are cumulative.

Conduct of Spectators

For a warning or caution -1

For a send off -5

Violation of the standards of good sportsmanship -1

Noticeable acts of good sportsmanship toward other team +1

Courtesy towards Referee (includes comments about referee calls)

Discourtesy by a coach -1

Discourtesy by a player -1

Discourtesy by a spectator -1

Noticeable acts of courtesy +1

Sportsmanship Matters

I got tired of sportsmanship being a sidebar.
Our coaches can ignore sportsmanship completely, perhaps miss a game or two and move right on.
Normally sportsmanship is a tie-breaker; however the top teams rarely are close enough that they would be in a tie - so there was no real reason to cultivate sportsmanship.

Last year we tried tying sportsmanship to the points accrued; for instance, if the team would have normally scored 10 points for a 3-0 shutout, but only receved 90% of the sportsmanship points (missed 2 points, for instance) - the team would only receive 9 points.

This really only affected a few of the mid-level teams, so once again was not a real attention getter.

THIS year, we have a new plan:  if a team fails to maintain 95% of their maximum sportsmanship points - they are not eligible for playoffs, after season play, etc...

We have met the enemy, and he is us...

Well, our RC had a family emergency, and had to leave the state.
As you may know...August is a KEY time in the life of a region - Games start in September!

So a number of concerned board members got together and started doing what needed doing:
We found and assigned division commissioners.
We tried to prep the field(s).
We inventoried our goals (poor shape).
We generated our calendar:

1. We set regular meeting dates.
2. We set a field prep date.
3. We set a field marking date.
4. We set coaching class dates!
5. (Referees were already handled...)
6. We set a field lottery date.
7. We set a date to FORM TEAMS!
8. We set a date to get the game schedule out.
9. We set Coaches meeting dates.

We got more done in two weeks than what got done in the last four months!