COMMENTARY : Ugly Trend in Prep Athletics--Decline in Sportsmanship

An ugly trend has been showing its face in high school sports the past few months. The trend is violence, and it’s been happening with unusual frequency.

Three times in November in the Tacoma area, football games were marred by brawls. This month, members of a boys basketball team got into a fight with fans after a game.

(In Southern California, three football players were charged with misdemeanor battery after an on-field attack of two officials during a game between Palmdale and Saugus high schools on Oct. 13. And a St. Genevieve High School football player and an assistant coach were suspended this season for their role in a brawl that was triggered by an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.)

Athletes, coaches, administrators, psychologists and game officials all have their own views on why such violence is occurring in high school sports. Blame ranges from poor role models in professional and college sports to poor officiating.

The causes are many.

Frank Smoll, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Washington, believes that values are being distorted in high school athletics--and that this might be leading to violent incidents. Smoll believes that high school sports should provide an arena for learning and enjoyment. Instead, he feels there is too much emphasis on winning by coaches, parents and athletes.

Smoll believes high school sports are being treated akin to professional sports with regard to the emphasis on winning.

“Professional sports is wonderful in our society,” Smoll said. “But you want to keep a professional model of sports separate from a developmental model.”

Smoll said that a developmental model recognizes the role of sports as an educational medium, where the No.1 value is the quality of experience, and not winning.

“The athlete always must come first and winning second or certainly down the list,” Smoll said of the developmental model. “If you overemphasize winning, the people who don’t win are frustrated, and it could cause a greater tendency to aggress.”

The importance of winning at the high school level can come as much from parents as athletic coaches and players.

A group of parents whose sons play football at Capital High in Olympia, Wash., recently signed a petition asking for head football Coach Wayne Sortun’s dismissal. The reason--Sortun’s Cougars have had back-to-back 1-8 seasons.

Others blame poor officiating. Ed Troxel, head football coach at Kennewick High School, feels that lack of control by officials plays a role in the cause of violent incidents.

A month ago, Troxel’s Lions engaged in a brawl with Kentwood players in a state semifinal game in Kennewick. The incident began with shoving matches among players on the field and escalated into a full-scale brawl. After the fight was brought under control, three players were ejected from the game.

Troxel believes officials could have handled the situation better. He feels the officials delayed too long before breaking up the shoving matches. “The officials should have been right on it,” he said. “They stood there and watched it happen.”

Longtime high school football referee Richard Hammermaster agrees with some of these claims against officiating. Hammermaster, a referee at the high school level for more than 20 years, admits that sometimes calls are missed. But he attributes that to the number of officials on the field.

Only four officials run a high school football game. Colleges use six and seven officials, the pros seven. That makes it tough for officials to see every violation that occurs on the field, Hammermaster said. And with every violation that goes by unnoticed, there’s a player out there getting more and more frustrated.

Hammermaster said the high school game has changed dramatically over the years, making it tougher for four officials to handle.

The biggest change he’s noticed is abusive language by players--something he attributes to the increased violence in high school athletics.

“We are constantly talking to players about that,” Hammermaster said. “With some of those teams, probably Bear Bryant would have a hard time controlling the verbal abuse. That’s what I think is the main ingredient in potential brawls.”

Hammermaster blames this verbal abuse on professional sports. He said kids watch games on television and copy what they see and hear.

Mt. Tahoma Athletic Director George Nordi said he seldom watches a pro game on TV without seeing some kind of violent act take place. He sees it in college games, too.

“Every high school kid’s secret ambition is to play in the pros,” Nordi said. “They see what’s going on and they hear what’s going on there. (The pros) are mature adults. (The kids) see that and they say, ‘Can I do that too?’ ”

As punishment, ejections and suspensions are immediate penalties for athletes who participate in fights. But there are other penalties--some that athletes may never know about.

Central Washington University football standout Mike Estes believes participation in fights also can deter college scouts. He believes it happened to him.

Estes played football and basketball in high school. After one basketball game, Estes struck an opposing player--an act he feels cost him a football scholarship to the University of Washington. He said Washington had offered him a full-ride scholarship before the incident. When he heard from the Huskies again, he was told all of their scholarships had been committed.

Smoll believes public education, especially for coaches, parents and athletes, is needed to prevent violence from continuing in high school sports. He said that the values and goals of sport need to be kept in the proper perspective without so much emphasis on winning.

“This isn’t just a natural outcome of sport,” Smoll said. “It’s something that can be fairly easily overcome with appropriate education.”

At some high schools, sportsmanship has been a trademark, sometimes leading to post-season bowls, coaches say.

“We talked to our kids about walking away from (confrontations),” said Coach Bob Lucey of Tacoma’s Curtis High School. “They started to take pride in the fact that by doing nothing, you actually show a lot more courage and you maintain your poise in playing.”

Lucey’s Vikings won the state AAA title.

“I think we’ve worked so hard at it, but it can go down so quickly,” Lucey said.

Hammermaster agrees. “Sportsmanship certainly has to be the key word in high school sports,” he said. “They need to bring back the best word in the dictionary, and that’s sportsmanship.”