Aurora – Laura Haase is with me, and I can only assume many of you are, too.
Establishing and enforcing rules for fans’ behavior through the Colorado High School Activities Association board of control’s new specific sportsmanship policy will prove challenging, interesting and, in most cases, seem like yet another feeble attempt by administrators to tell the rest of us: “Hey, look at what we’re doing in our schools!”
Keep in mind Haase, a former in-state schoolgirl athlete and longtime athletic director in Jefferson County, is chairing the sportsmanship committee.
“We are now a society of sensitivity and harassment,” Haase said.
We certainly are – apparently, everyone must be made happy, even in prep athletics.
While skeptical, Haase, Alameda’s athletic director who a year ago actually voted against the proposal, said she would keep an open mind: “Maybe it’s no more than miscommunication. … I don’t think I was prepared for how controversial it has become.”
It became controversial because in-state schools last week passed a measure to have something on the subject in writing with the promise to enforce and the threat to punish with restrictions.
Apparently, we have gotten to the point that we need specific guidelines as opposed to using restraint, offering respect and conducting ourselves accordingly.
And I quote from the CHSAA’s positive conduct rule: “All actions are to be for, not against; positive not negative.”
Wow!
That would be quite a trick in which most all athletic events decide a winner and loser and involve young people old enough to know better.
Sportsmanship, formerly a given in all worlds of athletics, is a wonderful, necessary idea that continually needs to be discussed, implemented, monitored and evaluated.
However, when it’s down in black and white, and there’s an attempt by a group of adults who seem convinced they suddenly need to have absolute say over what athletes’ peers and followers can and cannot say or do at prep events, including personal pet peeves, as opposed to using common sense, therein lies the problem.
As I told attendees when I was on the panel of sportsmanship symposiums this school year and in recent years: I only wish I had that kind of power.
This also comes at a time when we are having (thankfully) minimal sportsmanship problems from the actual student- athletes – with few exceptions, Colorado schoolboys and schoolgirls have demonstrated senses of fair play and respect toward others while competing. And they are handling the outcome.
As for the people in the stands, it’s another issue. Being removed from an event as a competitor is one thing; asked to leave one from the stands is quite another. But there is plenty of control to be had.
I’ll give administrators this: Some of their moves have been good, such as separating adults from groups of students in the stands. So has having a visible police presence at events. And most school personnel does a stand-up job when patrolling from the base of the stands or in the parking lots, constantly looking for the start of trouble.
But who wants to go to a game, pay for admission and be in- undated with a range of rules that makes even the most harmless fan cringe?
No this, no that can wear on just about anyone, although, obviously, we don’t want any throwing of objects on the playing surface. No drunk or stoned fans. No fighting or intimidation. No racial slurs, foul language or comments about someone’s sister or mother. No boom boxes blaring music during play. No leaving the stands to confront players, coaches or officials. No dancing in the aisles when someone gets hurt.
That’s about it for my absolute no’s.
Meanwhile, assorted entries on the new policy lack more ideas than today’s Hollywood screenwriters and contain more no’s than a mom speaking to her 2-year-old.
For instance, no chants such as “airball,” as in when an opposing player doesn’t draw iron when attempting a shot in basketball, is a bit much to demand. Also out is “warm up the bus,” a popular chant when a crowd senses victory is assured.
“That one’s been around for years,” Haase said.
And cheering positively? All the time? I don’t think so. This is not Special Olympics, where all competitors deserve our regular applause as do, say, those in a Little League game.
No, these are prep sports for young men and women who know what’s at stake every time they put on a school uniform. It’s a chance they’re only too willing to take.
While presented through an educational background, there is little doubt high-schoolers can deal with winning or losing as well as opposing crowds and their antics. Shutting up a raucous crowd – our crowds generally have been good – through making big plays is what so many Colorado prepsters live for. It adds to their fun.
“Definitely,” said Robby Pride, Kent Denver’s superlative basketball guard headed to Dartmouth.
Ask athletes competing in sports from baseball to track. They are thrilled when they get to perform in front of crowds.
They don’t want robots or first-grade limitations in the seats, no gags or do-be’s or don’t-be’s – this isn’t “Romper Room.”
It also isn’t a pro or collegiate level, where, as we have seen, most anything can go.
“We need to create ways in which (fans) can have fun at the game,” CHSAA assistant commissioner Tom Robinson said. “But it can’t be to get after the other team, it can’t be their focus. If you don’t focus on the other side, this doesn’t happen.”
Agreed. Keep an eye on it. Talk about it. It’s important, particularly for the future of our kids’ games.
Just don’t take away the emotion, the passion we have for high school sports.
Are you with me?
Staff writer Neil H. Devlin can be reached at 303-820-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com.
