Sportsmanship

[pcohio]

What ever happened to good old sportsmanship in sports?
I am very involved in youth, high school and adult sports in my area and it seems that the parents, spectators and players seem to get worse every year! I try to structure my programs so there is good competition while the participants still get to have fun, but unfortunately, there is always a parent or player who HAS TO WIN at all costs! You know the type...yelling at the referees for missing a call, etc.
Don't get me wrong, I like to win and I have made the mistake of yelling at refs in the past, but being a League Director, Coach, Referee, etc. (I have covered them all) really opens your eyes to how ignorant people sound when they are acting this way! What do people hope to gain by yelling from the stands? Do you think the referee is going to change his call because you yelled about it? When a referee misses a call (and every ref does) I can assure you that no one feels worse about it than the referee himself/herself!
In the past week, I have heard the complaint "the other team got all the calls" FOUR times! It always makes me wonder if their team would have WON the game, would they feel the same way....of course not! Is it ever possible the reason you lost is that the other team was BETTER?
One of these occurences was at an ADULT (supposedly) Futsal Match! I had parents of ADULTS calling me names over a GAME! When this happens, we have truly lost sight of the purpose of the GAME (and as much as you want to win, it is NEVER more important than just a GAME)!
Why are we not teaching our children that there is more to sports than just the winning and losing? Kids should be learning the values of sportsmanship, teamwork, fair play, friendship and physical fitness. When the winning and losing is introduced, children need to learn how to win AND lose with grace!
The negative aspects of sports is a sad reflection on today's "me society"...It starts in the home! If you would like to get your child into sports, PLEASE teach them that it is just a game! Teach them to have fun, make friends and be gracious in victory and defeat! Our society as a whole would benefit from it!

[marshallman]

What ever happened to good old sportsmanship in sports?
I am very involved in youth, high school and adult sports in my area and it seems that the parents, spectators and players seem to get worse every year! I try to structure my programs so there is good competition while the participants still get to have fun, but unfortunately, there is always a parent or player who HAS TO WIN at all costs! You know the type...yelling at the referees for missing a call, etc.
Don't get me wrong, I like to win and I have made the mistake of yelling at refs in the past, but being a League Director, Coach, Referee, etc. (I have covered them all) really opens your eyes to how ignorant people sound when they are acting this way! What do people hope to gain by yelling from the stands? Do you think the referee is going to change his call because you yelled about it? When a referee misses a call (and every ref does) I can assure you that no one feels worse about it than the referee himself/herself!
In the past week, I have heard the complaint "the other team got all the calls" FOUR times! It always makes me wonder if their team would have WON the game, would they feel the same way....of course not! Is it ever possible the reason you lost is that the other team was BETTER?
One of these occurences was at an ADULT (supposedly) Futsal Match! I had parents of ADULTS calling me names over a GAME! When this happens, we have truly lost sight of the purpose of the GAME (and as much as you want to win, it is NEVER more important than just a GAME)!
Why are we not teaching our children that there is more to sports than just the winning and losing? Kids should be learning the values of sportsmanship, teamwork, fair play, friendship and physical fitness. When the winning and losing is introduced, children need to learn how to win AND lose with grace!
The negative aspects of sports is a sad reflection on today's "me society"...It starts in the home! If you would like to get your child into sports, PLEASE teach them that it is just a game! Teach them to have fun, make friends and be gracious in victory and defeat! Our society as a whole would benefit from it!

If you ever found the answer to this century old question you would be a billionaire! Look, this is not all reality. When your daughter or son is crying over a lost game due to a blown call or bad referreed game and the other team is screaming we are #1 why would we want to tell them " it's OK Johnny, The refs just made errors and mistakes that cost us the game, but hey, we are just here for fun, win or lose" Some teams are better than others and some are not but a bad called game can take it away from the better team. We all teach are kids to be winners in sports, grades and life but to do it with grace. Now, if it is at all cost then that means cheating, lying and stealing to get it. This is a small minority that does that. Having fun is winning . Do you have fun losing? I'm sorry but a good ref is seen and not heard, same with parents in the stands. But if you ref then you better have thick skin and be on your toes or get out. It's just a game? then why do we keep score? Why do we charge fans to come watch us play if we don't care if we win or lose? In sports, winning is the goal and losing is the lesson to not let it happen again.

[OZZIEOHIO]

The only way to ever bring it back would be to turn the score boards off. Have refs that know the game and teach as you go at the Pee Wee level. That will never happen!!!

[SouthernohioSB]

I agree it is sad when a ref cheats the kids. This just happened to my team in a local tournament. The ref is a member of the team we were playing school board. He consistently called fouls on my team and only called one or two on his home team. I am a ref and was completely disappointed with the way he called the game. First, he should not have been officiating his home school's game. Second he didn't hustle and acted like he didn't want to be there. He would not even make it to half court and would still get beat down the floor the other way. When the foul difference is 20-8 in one half with the team being ahead having 20 fouls something is wrong. We had 5 point lead with under 2 minutes and had 6-10 fouls called on us they only had 2-3. We ended up losing by 2 due to them shooting alot of foul shots. My girls were disappointed. I never told the girls to blame the refs but it was obvious.

[clevelandbrowns#1]

and this was @ Minford!!!! I heard it was absolutely awful, by several who attended the game!!!!!!!!

[GreenGrass]

He was only one of three refs that were on the floor for both the 5th and 6th championship games - he was not the only one making calls on the floor. It sounds like you are putting the whole game on one ref. There were several bad calls BOTH ways and tons of missed calls BOTH ways.

[SouthernohioSB]

The one ref was the one calling all the fouls on my team. The other two did a decent job of trying to keep it even. At one point it was 7-2 on fouls early in the 3rd quarter. I made a comment that the game needed to be called consistenly. The next 3-4 fouls were against the other team and it was the other refs that called them and some were in front of the one ref who would not call anything against the home team. The point is he should have enough integrity not to call his home teams games. Especially being on the school board. I would say he called about 75% of the fouls that were on my team and only 5% of the fouls that were on his home team.

[marshallman]

Thats why going to skills camps and training camps are fun. They teach the fundamentals and skills needed to be successful without the refs.

[buckwheat]

I know the ref that Blind-ump13 is talking about. He is horrible. It's a shame that kids have to be exposed to such a thing. Hopefully I will never see him call any of my kids games again. I can handle a loss OK as long as its not because of somebody like him.

[Orange and Brown]

You just have to tell your kids to keep there heads up and play hard. I aggree that there are refs out there who couldn't call a bitty leage game. You can't always get good refs. You could try paying them more. That would attract more interest in doing it, and you can hold them more accoumtable for the calls they make good and bad. I also know it is really hard to find refs let alone good ones so that problem has to be adressed first.

[OZZIEOHIO]

marshallman wrote

Thats why going to skills camps and training camps are fun. They teach the fundamentals and skills needed to be successful without the refs

Do you know of any??

[marshallman]

marshallman wrote

Thats why going to skills camps and training camps are fun. They teach the fundamentals and skills needed to be successful without the refs

Do you know of any??

Well, we always go to colleges that are age specific and HS will have camps too in this area. Also, the PEC @ SOMC for footwork and agility work is great.

[rosemount rebel]

we got cheated at minford to it happend to our team in a pitching machine tournament. flat out cheated 7- 8 year olds kids.
it was so bad of a call some of the minford people came up to our kids and apologized for one mans stupidity. and i
heard the burg had one broke off in them the next year also. what a shame.............i fill sorry for someone who has to cheat
little kids. now thier little league is known for cheating. but they know how to win.

[jimmy chipwood]

I am not talking about any game or event that has been mentioned on this thread. I would like to discuss the notion that it always brought up at games (when your team is losing) that because their is a foul discrepency that one team is getting cheated. Many times it is just not the case. The style of play dictates how many fouls a team will have quite often. A team that plays a solid zone defense will always have less fouls than a team that plays in your face man defense. Just like a team that presses the entire game trapping the ball everywhere and going for skills aggressively will/should always be called for more fouls than a team that is passive. I dont know how many games I have set thru where one team believes they are being cheated because the fouls are 3 to 1 against their team. The reason is usually becuase they are settling for outside shots and are not attacking the basket. Also, teams that dont play defense with their feet and are always reaching and getting out of position are prone to get more foul calls because they are putting themselves in bad situations. From watching some youth sporting events I believe the main problem a lot of times is that the officials just dont take it seriously. Just because they are 8-12 year olds doesnt mean that the games dont matter - they deserve the officials to be at their best and at least act like they care about the game.

[Jake Lane]

Our Jr. high teams at Clay always are way above the opponents in fouls. It's got nothing to do with the referees, but our coach is trying to make our kids more aggressive. And with that style of play, and not always the best athletes, usually the fouls will come. Look folks, I find it nearly impossible that a "mature" adult would ever knowingly cheat a child, and still be able to look themselves in the mirror. I do however believe that sometimes a "too close to call" situation they may lean towards the home team. We had a home game against Green this past season where a man from Green stepped in to help ref the games. He did a fine job with 2 highly contested games. We had way more fouls, but our coach, and probably most all our parents and fans knew the calls were correct. By all means get involved in support of your "little Johnny", but that doesn't mean to blame someone else every time things don't go his way. True sportsmanship means busting your hump to be the best you can the duration of the competition you're in, and when it's over you don't look for excuses or blame. You just look for ways to get better, and console, or congratulate the opponent.

[catdad3]

april13th at the life center in portsmouth they are having a ref clinic from 2pm to 5pm

[catdad3]

and its free district 11 is putting it on

[SouthernohioSB]

District 11 Isn't that for baseball/softball. If your serious about being a ref or umpire take one of the classes that are offered to become a OHSAA official.