Administrators Seek Renewal of Sportsmanship

A new ritual popped up late this season at Palmdale High: As players charged onto the field before a football game, they were greeted by Principal Linda Janzen, who flashed them the victory sign while wearing jersey No. 78.

The ritual represented more than school spirit. It was created by Janzen after three players were charged with misdemeanor battery in connection with an on-field attack of two game officials during a game against Saugus High on Oct. 20.

“I wanted the victory sign to be a symbol from now on,” she said. “I told the players and the student body that one side of the V would stand for the score on the scoreboard, but the other side would stand for self-discipline and control.”

It took “an ugly incident,” she said, to wake her up to what has become a growing problem in high school sports all over the country: a disregard for fair play and sportsmanship by players, coaches, students and parents.

At the National Federation of State Assns. convention in Tampa last summer, “The theme was ‘Speak Out for Sportsmanship,’ ” said Tom Jacobson, principal at Corona del Mar High and president of the Southern Section Council.

“There’s a general feeling throughout the country among principals, athletic directors and coaches that we need to renew our commitment to good sportsmanship,” Jacobson said. “The days are long gone when an opposing player can shoot a free throw in silence--now it’s bedlam in the gym--and there are 100 tales along those lines.

“Fights, open cheating, recruiting of athletes. We as educators have a job to do to get things back in perspective.”

Things were certainly off kilter this season. In the Southern Section, the Palmdale incident, says Southern Section football administrator Bill Clark, “was the absolutely worst we had this season,” but it was by no means the only major one. A St. Genevieve High player and assistant coach were suspended for their role in a brawl that was precipitated by an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

“The severity of the incidents is up this year,” Clark said. The number of incidents, he added, is down, which might be explained by the fact that game officials were asked before the season to tighten up the behavior of players and coaches.

Football players have been making headlines off the field, too. Five Hart High players allegedly abducted a 17-year-old girl and then abandoned her in a canyon, and a North Hollywood High player was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon after he allegedly went to a Grant High practice and fired seven rounds into the air as revenge for a fight that had taken place at a party.

But are these incidents merely unrelated, isolated aberrations or symptoms of a larger problem? “If sportsmanship has deteriorated, then all this is a reflection of that and is not a fluke,” said Karl Bergenstal, a sports psychologist in Westlake Village.

Unsportsmanlike conduct hasn’t been limited to football at the high school level. Five years ago, soccer was put on probation by the Southern Section because of a high number of fights and ejections, and “we’ve considered putting other sports on probation,” Jacobson said. “Baseball is a big concern. So is basketball. But so far we’ve let the individual leagues deal with the problems in those sports.”

In 1989, it may be naive to think that high school sports could remain the pure essence of the athletic experience, with clean-cut players and pink-cheeked cheerleaders innocent of the ways of the world. The emphasis that American society places on success, say most educators, has had a corrupting influence on young athletes.

“The win-at-all-costs attitude seems to be prevalent and we’ve gotten away from the goal of athletics, which is to teach ethics and values,” said Morris (Mo) Freedman, football coach at Camp Kilpatrick, a Los Angeles County probation facility that uses sports as a positive force in the lives of juvenile delinquents.

Bergenstal, who specializes in sports psychology for young children, has a similar outlook. “There’s too much pressure to win, especially at a young age,” he said. “The emphasis should be placed on maximum performance and the joy in that, not on beating the opponent.”

Besides, he said, “Research shows that when we get too competitive and focused on winning, we tend to get too aroused--agitated and anxious--and our performance deteriorates.”

San Jose State sports psychologist Thomas Tutko believes that today’s powerful emphasis on winning has made game officials easy scapegoats for players. “When things are not going well, we get frustrated,” he said, “and we find an agent to take it out on. Instead of looking inward to find the problem and admitting that maybe you screwed up, today’s generation finds the nearest authority figure to blame it on. It is more acceptable today to attack the rules and authority instead of blaming yourself.”

In college football, winning has become a financial imperative: A successful team brings in megabucks, which in turn drives the entire athletic program. While the dollar amounts are much less in high school football, it’s still football gate receipts that provide “80-90% of the revenue for the school’s entire athletic program,” Jacobson said.

“I would agree that winning is not the purpose of playing,” he added, “but there is pressure to win.”

Nice guys supposedly finish last. Would a school principal tolerate a loser? “Yes I would,” said Palmdale’s Janzen. “I’d prefer to lose and maintain good sportsmanship.”

Not so for Yvonne Healey, Antelope Valley High principal. “Winning is great,” she said. “It makes you feel good. But I think you can emphasize winning in a gentlemanly manner.”

But sportsmanship has suffered, she says, because television and movies have portrayed violence as a way to settle differences, “so things that used to shock us don’t anymore. We have just become more accepting of violence in society.”

Tutko, who is writing a book on the breakdown of self-control among athletes and sports fans, doesn’t think high school sports can survive through the 1990s.

“Not at the rate we’re going,” he said. “Unless school systems are able to show that it is a great and productive experience for kids, I would abolish high school sports. What we’re teaching our kids today through sports is basically unhealthy. Beating up sports officials is the best example of that. That is a terrible thing to teach our kids.

“After all, what is our educational system for? It is to prepare people to deal with real life. And if beating up officials and authority figures is what sports is now teaching them, then it’s time to reevaluate the whole system.

“If kids attack referees and umpires, and if the school administrators then make excuses for the kids, then we no longer have any morality. And when society no longer has morality, then there is no society anymore.”

But who should be held accountable if a player belts a referee? The player? His coach? His parents? The school principal? Where does the buck stop? Freedman thinks that overzealous coaches often “transmit their personality to the team,” he said. “I hold them responsible.”

But Rudy Trujillo, the principal at St. Genevieve, believes “the administration is ultimately responsible for the quality and integrity of their staff.”

At many schools, the administration is only peripherally involved with the sports teams, seldom monitoring their coaches to see what is being taught.

At Palmdale, Janzen didn’t really pay close attention to sports until after the incident involving the game officials, but she vows to stay on top of the action from now on.

“The players gave me jersey No. 78”--a defensive number--”because I’m tackling the situation,” she said.

But Ray Monti, principal at Quartz Hill High, believes that a lot has to be done. “Maybe we need to step back as educators and take a look at the real meaning of high school athletics,” he said. “The whole idea of sportsmanship, fair play and participation for the sake of participating needs to be reemphasized area-wide.”

After soccer was put on probation, officials held league meetings to stress sportsmanship, “and within a year, there were dramatic results,” Jacobson said. Education in all sports is a key, he added, “but there is no magic program. It begins with the coach taking a stand with his kids, with the principal requiring that attention be given to sportsmanship, with parents and booster clubs.

“All of us.”

Staff writer Rich Tosches contributed to this story.

BACKGROUND * A scoreless Golden League football game between Palmdale and Saugus Oct. 13 at College of the Canyons was suspended midway through the fourth quarter after a Palmdale player attacked an official. Darius Wilson was arrested by sheriff’s deputies and, along with two other Palmdale players, faces misdemeanor battery charges.