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Violence Connected With Prep Sports Is a Major Concern

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McCLATCHY NEWS SERVICE

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

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

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.

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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 thinks high school sports should be 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 similarly to professional sports in 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.

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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.

Nearly four weeks 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, prompted by a hard tackle to the ground of the Kentwood quarterback. But the incident escalated into a full-scale brawl when a Kennewick player kicked a Kentwood player in the back. That caused players from both sidelines to rush onto the field.

After the fight was brought under control, three players -- one from Kentwood and two from Kennewick -- were ejected from the game.

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

Long-time 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.

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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 takes place on the field, Hammermaster said. And with every violation that goes by unnoticed, there’s a player out there getting more and more frustrated.

“In the high school game, there really should be five officials,” Hammermaster said.

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.”

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