Mead 6 Senior Paper By the definition from Websters New World Dictionary, sportsmanship is defined as characteristics of or behavior befitting

a person who can take loss or defeat without complaint or victory without gloating and who treats his opponents with fairness, generosity, courtesy, etc. (Clark). When most people think about sportsmanship, they find it clich. Most understand that it is important but they do not understand why. As a participant in sports, it is an essential concept to grasp and demonstrate. Athletes should be respectable competitors. This does not meant they need to treat their opponent like they are best friends, but it does mean that they owe it to the other person to be an honest and fair competitor. The concept of sportsmanship is also important for spectators to demonstrate. Sporting events are about the athletes that are participating in them. The focus should always stay on them. Spectators should also understand that officials and athletes are not perfect. Mistakes are going to happen, and to allow the game to be played the way its intended, they need to accept that. The problem is that currently when surveyed, 65% of people believe that sportsmanship is worse now than a generation ago (Stoga). No one seems to understand how easily this problem can be solved. The first step toward a better future involves open-mindedness and willingness to better society. In the past, examples of poor sportsmanship were hard to come by. Athletes played the game the right way, and kept the focus on the game rather than themselves. This attitude is apparent in many different examples throughout sports history. A perfect example of this mentality is the 1954 Texas Christian University versus the University of Oklahoma college football game. In the years before this game, Oklahoma had won numerous national titles and was home to won of the most successful programs of the time. Going into this particular game, the University of Oklahoma was ranked number three in the league and TCU was number four.

Mead 6 Anyone that watches sports would understand that this was obviously going to be a good game, and the TCU team would be out to prove themselves. In the last quarter, Oklahoma led 21-16 but TCUs quarterback managed to throw a pass to a receiver in the end zone with only seconds left. That should have been it, the official in the end zone ruled it a touchdown. It was game over until the receiver did what people now would consider the unthinkable. He told the official he didnt catch it, he trapped it. The call was reversed and Oklahoma won (Clifford and Feezell xi). Athletes of the past did everything they could to just play the game and keep the focus off of themselves. For years, spectators watched men like Mickey Mantle run the bases after a homerun with his head down, as a sign of respect for the opposing pitcher. This demonstrated humility and grace and yet it was seen as a standard for the game. Today it seems as though for every example of good sportsmanship that is promoted, there are hundreds of other poor examples that go unnoticed. One of the most renowned examples of great sportsmanship is the example of the 2008 college softball game between Western Oregon and Central Washington. A senior from Oregon hits her first homerun with two runners on base. As she begins to run the bases, her knee gives out and she can no longer run. Rules dont allow any teammates or coaches to assist her in running, so the most they can allow her is a two-run single. One of Central Washingtons players has a better idea. After consulting with officials, she and another teammate decide to help her around the bases, touching her foot at every base, and successfully completing her homerun (Allen). The story instantly hits national news and is regarded as the ultimate act of sportsmanship. While this is wonderful, why is it that no one heard about the 3A high school state championship baseball game in Georgia? A pitcher and a catcher decide that since they are upset with the home plate umpires call, they are going to try and pass off an intentional wild pitch as a mistake. The pitcher throws a high fastball, and the

Mead 6 catcher pretends like he was expecting a curveball. He successfully ducks out of the way, and the umpire is hit in the facemask (Clifford and Feezell xvi). The combination of these two examples proves that while sportsmanship isn not dead, it needs some serious work. The world needs to find a way to promote the standard examples of sportsmanship once again. The Michigan High School Athletic Association, MHSAA, found a way to try and get the word out there. Throughout the last couple of years, the MHSAA has designed a webpage with the help of Geoff Kimmerly that is focused on telling the stories of student athletes throughout the state of Michigan. Here, Kimmerly shares articles of standard acts of sportsmanship. One of the most recent articles shared the story of a golfer from Michigan that was hit in the hand by a ball that had been hit in the air. His immediate response to the injury was to locate the kid that had hit the ball. Most people would have expected him to be enraged that he had been taken out of the competition, but instead he wanted to track down his opponent to ensure him that there were no hard feelings and wish him good luck. He left the competition to get his hand x-rayed and that was it. No fighting, no arguing, just picture-perfect sportsmanship (Kimmerly). Another article told the events of a track meet two years ago. At this particular meet, the defending state champion, Garret Zuk was running in a typical race. After doing well in his race before this final event, he found himself toward the beginning of the pack once again. Slowly, runners in front of him began to fall behind. Instead of capitalizing on it, he decided to approach a competitor from another team and ask him what he time he was trying for. The opponent, Devin Kimberlin, responded that he was trying for ten minutes but he did not think he could do it. Zuk simply told Kimberlin that if he stayed with him, he would get him his ten minute goal. They ran together, and just as Zuk had promised, Kimberlin achieved his goal. Zuk even let him finish it first. When asked why he allowed him to finish first, he responded that it was because Kimberlin had led for

Mead 6 for the majority of the race and deserved it. This story proves to be yet another example of good sportsmanship that would have gone untold (Kimmerly). Hearing stories like these inspires young athletes to be the example and do their part in being a proper example of sportsmanship. The fact of the matter is we should be hearing more about stories like this and less about the continual acts of poor sportsmanship. The question that remains is where is this bad sportsmanship stemming from? There are many answers to this question. The first, and arguably the most important influence is the coach. Coaches often find themselves demanding too much out of their players and expecting them to whatever is necessary to get the job done. They tend to instill poor values in their athletes at a young age. Their players are often stressed the winning is everything mentality (Clifford and Feezell 6). Instead of stressing winning, coaches should be helping their players understand that when they are young, just gaining the experience is worth their time. More often than not, coaches can also be seen harassing officials as well. Bad calls prompt coaches to make complete fools of themselves in front of athletes and spectators. Parents are also often responsible for changing the way their child plays sports. Many parents expect their children to play perfectly, which is obviously highly unrealistic. Nonetheless, their children often feel the pressure to do whatever it takes to win, whether that means they play a clean game or not. It is also very common to hear stories of parents making poor examples of themselves at their childrens sporting events. Their kids see them acting out and leads them to believe that behavior like that is acceptable under several circumstances. A few years ago, a story went viral about a father at his twelve-year old sons little league game. The game did not go the way the father wanted because the official made a bad call, so he beat up the official after the game. This sort of behavior sends a terrible message to young athletes. The final and possibly most significant negative influence is

Mead 6 professional sports. The news and Sports Center cover everything both negative and positive about sports. A few years ago, they televised reports of the New York Jets coach stealing film from opposing teams. Professional baseball players, Olympians, and other competitors are constantly in the news for using performance enhancing drugs (Clifford and Feezell xii). Even more recent, the NFL is under criticism for wanting to put limitations on touchdown dances and other celebratory actions. Sports lovers have come to believe that this is just a part of the game. They do not realize that years ago, those types of actions would have been seen as a way to take the focus away from the rest of the team and putting the focus solely on the person that completed the action. The lack of respect for teammates and opponents has clouded the views of an entire society. While young athletes may see these professionals being penalized, they still seem to be corrupted because they still idolize the people that are breaking the rules. The question that comes next is how does society go about correcting this view on sports? Unfortunately, the solution lies in the hands of those that are creating the problems in the first place. Coaches need to shift the focus of their coaching experience toward attitude. They need to talk to their athletes about the morals and values that they expect them to uphold (Clifford and Feezell 26). It would be in the best interest of the athletes for coaches to talk to their teams about sportsmanship issues their team may be facing or may have heard of. Consequences for those that act like a poor sport should be verbalized. Being a good sport is often viewed as clich. Athletes do not truly understand all that it entails. It is up to the coaches to help their athletes become better competitors and people. The way that athletes deal with problems in their lives while they are young sets a strong mold for the person that they will soon become. Parents have an equally important rule when it comes to helping this. Parents that expect their children to behave properly should talk with their kids about their performance.

Mead 6 Values of respect should be instilled in their childs everyday life and should carry over into their performance as an athlete. Young athletes should also be reminded by their parents that people make mistakes. There will be times in life when they cannot solve everything with an instant replay. Plays are often out of the hands of the athlete and the way that they handle that can set the tone for the person that they become later in life. Instead of verbalizing disgust and rage toward officials that may make a bad call, parents need to act like a role model and handle it the way that they would want their child to handle the situation. Sometimes, bad calls are made in life, people just need to learn how to accept that and move forward. As times goes on, many high school sport associations across the world have developed programs to reach out to student athletes. The MHSAA decided to do this through a program called the Student Advisory Council, or SAC. The three objectives behind the creation of the SAC included: gaining a students perspective on the high school sport experience and present any issues to those in charge, promote the values of the MHSAA to and through students, and offer an environment for great student-athlete leaders to become exceptional leaders (Blanton). To do this, they created a council made up of four female seniors, four male seniors, four female juniors, and four male student athletes from across the state of Michigan. In April of 2012, I was given the opportunity to serve a two-year term as a member on this council. After becoming a member, my views on the importance of sportsmanship were completely changed. In the past, I had never really realized how serious the issue was. I had heard adults constantly talk about how bad it was, but I was never aware of how it should be. I received numerous opportunities to help open the eyes of other students. I have worked with students from across the state from very diverse backgrounds. In the end though, we are all working toward a common goal: positive sportsmanship in high school athletics.

Mead 6 Last fall, I worked with three other members of my council to create a session at a sportsmanship summit. The focus of our session was to address the gray areas of sportsmanship. We created an activity called crossing the line and if students thought that an action crossed the line into bad sportsmanship, they were asked to cross the rope line that we created in the conference room. For example, we asked if yelling air ball or you, you, you after a player makes a mistake is crossing the line. After everyone made their decisions, we asked them to share their thoughts and even personal experiences or stories (Mead). This allowed the other students that were taking part in the activity to realize that there is always more than one point of view. There are always going to be people that see issues differently but it is important for young athletes to realize that it is important that they learn to respect different opinions. The SAC is also in charge of the newly-created Battle of the Fans competition. This competition focuses on student sections and a positive cheering atmosphere. My council created a way to get everyone involved in the game and to help these sections understand the importance of staying positive. The competition served as a wake-up call for many schools that found themselves being frequently negative, and also helped others create programs that helped their school community flourish. The 2012 winner, Frankenmuth High School transformed their section into something that got the entire town involved. It became a standard for nearly everyone to show up and cheer on their team. The beauty of it for us was that it was all done by remaining positive the entire time. Buchanan High School, the 2013 winner had never had a student section prior to attending one of the MHSAAs sportsmanship summits. At the summit, they learned how to create a positive cheering environment and they used it to help cope with the loss of a classmate, and allow their small town to come together and be proud of something. As a

Mead 6 member of the council that had created the competition, it was an amazing feeling to know that sportsmanship could change an entire town. Seeing people change their attitudes and become better people was incredibly rewarding. I chose to focus my senior project on sportsmanship because I felt like it was something that had really influenced me these last two years. It amazes me how far society must go before it is ever truly restored to what it once stood for. Before becoming a member of the Student Advisory Council, I had never really taken the time to analyze the way that I viewed and valued sportsmanship. I found myself upset with the way that our school displayed our sportsmanship. The students in our student section were by all means atrocious sports. I wanted to do something about it. I decided to take the knowledge I had gained from being a member of the council and try to share it with my peers. Last year was the first year that I attempted to turn things around. It was still a complete wreck, but it was a learning experience. This year I decided, to use my senior project and my position on the council to take things even further. With the help of Mr. Blower, and ideas from my mentor Mr. Stephens, I have decided to work with a group of students to turn things around. The first step toward change meant using leadership to eliminate all negativity. No more cheering against other teams, no more bad language, and no more negativity toward our own team. After this was done, everyone began to cheer more cohesively. Now that football is done, I have plans to create a group of student leaders from each grade to help organize the cheering done at basketball games. We plan to create new theme nights and activities and hopefully implement new incentives for participation. So far, our efforts seem to be heading in the right direction, and we still have a long way to go. I do not care if we win the Battle of the Fans this year; that is not what this is about for me. I just want to leave this high school on the right track toward positive sportsmanship. The desire to change has to come

Mead 6 within, and the fact of the matter is, who knows when another student will come along that wants to change the behavior of an entire school? The time to change is now and its never too late to head in the right direction.