A habit this team just can’t shake

The Jefferson High football team in Portland, Ore., begins every game with a 15-yard penalty -- and the coaches, players and fans love every yard of it.

The team performs the dance known as a haka before each game. The dance, native to the South Pacific, is routinely performed by the New Zealand rugby and University of Hawaii football teams.

The high school team has seven members from Tonga who introduced the dance as a way to get fired up.

But opposing coaches complained, saying it was a form of taunting, and the state high school association agreed. Coach Anthony Stoudamire put it to a team vote and the players agreed to take a penalty before each game

“I saw how much it meant to them,” Stoudamire said. “It got them pumped up, enthusiastic. That’s something, as a coach, I couldn’t take away from them.”

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Trivia time

The 25th Skins Game begins today at Indian Wells Golf Resort. Who were the four players in the first Skins Game in 1983?

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A leg up

First there was the Six Million Dollar Man; now there are the $13.3-million legs.

Chinese hurdler Liu Xaing has received a $13.3-million insurance policy on his legs from Ping An, an insurance company that sponsors the Chinese track and field team, according to a report in the Beijing News.

“They’re priceless,” Liu, the defending Olympic gold medalist and world-record holder in the 110-meter hurdles, said of his legs. “You can’t really put a concrete figure on this.”

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Bum deal

Robert Tustin, a women’s rugby referee in England, has been suspended for 18 weeks after he dropped his shorts and bared half his buttocks near the end of a match.

“I have never seen anything like it, and I never want to see anything like it again,” said Amanda Walker, captain of Thetford, one of the teams. “It wasn’t comical. It was absurd behavior.”

Coincidentally, Thetford plays its home games at a place called Two Mile Bottom.

And the chairman of the disciplinary committee that handed down the punishment?

Richard Moon, of course.

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Poor get poorer

The Arizona Diamondbacks plan to award season tickets to 12 families “experiencing financial hardships,” according to a report on MLB.com.

“They’re going to be good seats too,” team President Derrick Hall said. “It’s important that the D-Backs experience be all-inclusive regardless of economic status.”

Hall also said that priority will be given to current season-ticket holders who “have seen their economic situations change.”

Of course, when they attend those 81 games next year, they’ll presumably have to shell out at least $8 on parking and $20 on hot dogs, $10 on soft drinks and $5 on peanuts each time.

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Lonesome losers

None of the four countries in the United Kingdom -- England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales -- qualified for the European Championships in soccer, so British Prime Minister Gordon Brown proposed an alternative.

He wants them to play a mini- cup among themselves, reviving the Home International championship that was played among the four teams from 1883-1984.

“I know every football fan in Britain was looking forward to a summer of football next year, so it’s very disappointing,” Brown said.

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Trivia answer

Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson. Player won, but it is most remembered because Palmer, who never earned more than $163,000 in a year on the PGA Tour, won $100,000 on the 12th hole.

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And finally

Mike Downey of the Chicago Tribune was lamenting the breakup of the 2005 World Series champion Chicago White Sox.

Jon Garland and Juan Uribe recently joined a long list of players from that team who are no longer with the White Sox.

“On [Thanksgiving] they may give thanks again for that World Series team they had,” Downey wrote. “But like a turkey, it is being carved up, piece by piece. Try to enjoy what’s left of it.”

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peter.yoon@latimes.com