Youth Basketball League Targets Unruly Parents

Taking a cue from Little League and the American Youth Soccer Organization, the nation’s largest youth basketball organization is cracking down on unruly behavior in the stands.

Starting this season, Orange County-based National Junior Basketball began holding coaches responsible for the conduct of fans and has threatened them with suspension or banishment from the league if parents misbehave.

The stepped-up code of conduct comes on the heels of recent incidents in other youth sports, such as last summer’s youth soccer brawl among parents in San Juan Capistrano and a T-ball melee in Miami four months ago that was touched off by an umpire’s call.

Although the basketball organization has avoided such violent episodes, league President Dennis Murphy said he didn’t want to be the next youth league official apologizing for boorish and abusive behavior by parents and coaches.

At the start of the winter season, Murphy gave referees the authority to punish coaches who are unable to keep overzealous fans in line. Referees hand offending coaches blue cards--the equivalent of the yellow and red cards used universally to penalize or expel players and coaches in soccer.

A coach who gets two blue cards in one game is ejected and suspended for the following contest. If a third card in a single game is handed out, the coach is banned from the league and the team suspended for the season.

Coaches such as Chip Stassel, who works with a seventh-grade boys’ all-star team in Newport Beach, said the corrective measures are needed. He said he has seen parents’ behavior become more outrageous each year.

“People are becoming more and more brazen,” Stassel said. “They’re getting more comfortable with being verbal. They lose sight that it’s for the kids. The kids come out for fun; the parents come out to win.”

Murphy, who founded National Junior Basketball 18 years ago, said the new rules are an effort to be proactive. “We want to preach sportsmanship,” he said.

The league began a sportsmanship crusade last year with “silent Sundays,” a game requiring fans to stay quiet for one hour except for applause. The effort to curb potential problems also called for league coaches to sign a code-of-conduct form. This year, for the first time, coaches and referees are also being fingerprinted.

The league, which has more than 25,000 participants in six states, had handed out about a dozen blue cards through the first three weeks of play in its Southern California winter season, said referee administrator Steve Brown.

“I’ve gotten no feedback from parents,” he said. “I think that means people are accepting it and going with it. Any feedback I normally get is critical.”

Sherman Patterson, who has officiated league games for 10 years, said he has yet to hand out a blue card.

“It’s a great tool to have, especially for the young referees,” he said. “I know a few other refs who have used it. Each time, the coaches backed off and got the message.”

During pregame meetings, referees are required to show coaches the blue cards and issue a gentle we’ll-be-watching-you warning. “We tell them we expect great sportsmanship out of you, your fans and your bench personnel,” Patterson said.

During the game, the blue cards may be handed out without a whistle being blown. Referees can hand coaches a blue card or drop it at their feet if they refuse to accept it.

“We wanted to see if we could be a little more diplomatic,” Brown said. Still, he said, the effect of the card is usually dramatic.

Youth basketball’s effort to rope in overbearing parents follows similar attempts by Little League baseball, youth soccer and the California Interscholastic Federation, which oversees high school athletics.

Three years ago, Little League gave local administrators more authority to discipline parents and coaches for inappropriate behavior. This year, the world’s largest youth sports organization will institute a parent orientation program to improve communication among parents, coaches, umpires and league officials.

“We’ll have a video dealing with the overbearing parent in the stands yelling at their kids and with conflict resolution of several issues,” said Lance Van Auken, a Little League spokesman.

Basketball league officials say they haven’t had any serious incidents involving adults. But coaches, referees and administrators said parent misconduct has been on the increase.

“We’re not exempt from those same pressures that exist with youth sports and the potential for parents to get over-excited,” said Mark Erickson, who coaches an eighth-grade, club-level, all-star team in Orange County. “In fact, we sometimes have the disadvantage for increased contact with parents. Instead of being spread out over 80 yards of a soccer field, we’re in an enclosed area with stands surrounding a court.”

In the past, referees have had the nearly impossible task of watching the court for fouls and traveling violations while checking the stands for loudmouth parents.

“This puts the onus on the coach to do that,” Patterson said. “Now, we can focus on the game.”