IN THIS ISSUE:
FRONT ROW
- Youth- and School-Based Sports:
• Good Behavior Without Trying
• Bad Behavior Without Trying
• Is School Harmful for Athletes?
- Collegiate Sports: Hollywood U -- Limelight Luring Athletes
- Professional Sports: Athletes’ Incidents May Be Signs of Depression
- Sportsmanship User’s Guide: How to Hire for Character
- Michael Josephson Commentary: Life Is Not a Game
SIDELINES
- Trivia Test: This Competitor’s Strength Is Mental
- Sportsmanship Forum
- You Make the Call: Is It Okay in Slow-Pitch Softball for an Umpire to "Sell" a Called Third Strike?
- Principle of the Month: Bending the Rules Is Breaking the Rules
- Say What?
- Upcoming Seminars
- Jocks Behaving Badly:
• Win One for the Godfather…
• Good Thing He Didn’t Seriously Hurt Him....
- Jocks Behaving Exceptionally:
He Did Not Concede Sportsmanship…
Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe something inside them was superior to circumstance.
-- Bruce Barton, author, ad executive, politician (1886-1967)
|
|
FRONT ROW
YOUTH- AND SCHOOL-BASED SPORTS
Good Behavior Without Trying
When the South Florida Middle School Girl's Lacrosse League announced last year it was instituting an annual sportsmanship award, coach Brian Harvey of the Boca Raton campus of Pine Crest School, one of the most elite private schools in Florida, was determined to win it.
So he purposely withheld that fact from his players. "I didn't want to use it as a carrot so the team would behave a certain way just to win an award," Harvey told us.
He and his staff coached the way they always had, modeling and instilling sportsmanship and expecting their kids to demonstrate it with opposing players, coaches and umpires. The team had a so-so season, the school let out for summer and Harvey heard nothing more about the award. In fact, he had forgotten all about it -- until a package came in the mail. It was a plaque with a letter announcing Pine Crest had received the highest ranking from the umpires during the year and had won the inaugural 2006 Carol Rafter Sportsmanship Award.
"It was extremely satisfying to know our team was highly regarded even though we were only treating opponents and umpires the way we would want to be treated," Harvey said afterward.
Pine Crest emphasizes sportsmanship in three ways:
1. Stress ethics to the coaches and players. Sportsmanship standards are reviewed at the beginning of the season, before the first home game and before the first away game.
2. Show the consequences of inappropriate behavior. During a soccer match, a Pine Crest player scored and ran around the field with his shirt pulled over his head. "We pulled him from the game immediately and sat him on the bench," Harvey said. "The team and player knew right away we were serious about what we said."
3. Model exemplary behavior. During a flag football game, a Pine Crest player caught a ball in the end zone, and the lone official on the opposite side of the field signaled touchdown. From the sideline, however, the Pine Crest coaches saw that the player had clearly been out of bounds when he caught the ball. "We informed the referee, who thanked us and changed the call," Harvey said. Later in the game, an opponent broke free and was about to score easily when he accidentally knocked off his own flag. He stopped and held up the flag for the referee to see. "That was great sportsmanship," Harvey remarked later. "I wonder if our calling back our touchdown had something to do with his decision."
The Gold Medal Standards for Youth Sports urges school athletic programs "to stand up for, promote and defend its values with moral courage despite pressures to do otherwise, and to take whatever actions are necessary to uphold these values."
Harvey told us his school has no sportsmanship manual or organized education program. They just do what is right. "We teach our kids what is appropriate, we have consequences for inappropriate behavior and we practice what we preach."
The Gold Medal Standards for Youth Sports are a common framework of requirements that all youth programs should meet. Read about them here.
Bad Behavior Without Trying
It's great to see athletes come together and reap the benefits of their efforts, but not in this case. Last month, 11 current and former students, including seven football players, of Wando High School in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, were arrested after a week-long crime spree during which they robbed a restaurant and grocery store at gunpoint, attempted to rob another and stole a $35,000 BMW coupe.
AP Images/The Post and Courier, Mic Smith |
 |
A Wando team meeting -- in court. |
Principle 7.3 of the Gold Medal Standards for Youth Sports states that parents should "require civil and responsible behavior" from their children and that committing to a sports program involves trust and accountability.
Unfortunately, this isn't the first time Wando students have gotten in trouble. In 2000, eight students and graduates were arrested for a vandalism spree at the school and a string of burglaries in local businesses.
"It's almost like a competition to see who can get away with the worst," freshman student Nick Garritano told The Post and Courier, referring to the increasing number of Wando student pranks and crimes in recent years.
[www.charleston.net/The Post and Courier, 9/7/06, 9/21/06; http://couriercritic.blogspot.com; http://www.wciv.com]
Is School Harmful for Athletes?
"It was a good experience, but it was a disaster. He was out of circulation for six months, out of the magazines. It hurt his career."
That was Gretchen Sheckler, mother and manager of professional skateboarder Ryan Sheckler, commenting to The New York Times about her son's high school experience. One of the youngest pros ever, Ryan won several titles as an eighth grader, including the 2003 X Games skateboard park event, and stars in a bestselling video game.
But he wanted a life. "I wanted to see what high school was all about," he told the Times. "I wanted to be with my friends and go to dances and football games."
So he went back to school. By his sophomore year, however, he realized it was a mistake. His future was slipping away.
With more and more kids excelling at young ages in such sports as skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing, motocross, figure skating, tennis and gymnastics and being enticed by pro contracts and sponsorships, Sheckler is not alone. Brian Bloom, competition director of the Eastern Surfing Association, may not have been off the mark when he told the Times that "In the next few years [sponsors] will be in the maternity ward."
To such young phenoms, traditional high school seems not only archaic but harmful. They can't handle school plus a pro career and sponsorship obligations. They feel they only have a few precious years to grab the gold ring, so school has to suffer.
Careers Are Short-Lived
What many kids and parents fail to realize is that although young stars may peak early, they will also be over the hill early. If they sacrifice their education to make big money for a few years, then what? "It's sad," former motocross racer Jimmy Button told the Times. "With no education, after your career is over, you have nothing."
The option for many is home schooling, independent study or private sports academies. In Vermont, boarding schools such as Stratton Mountain School and Okemo Mountain School offer satellite classrooms. In California, snowboarders and skateboarders flock to Carlsbad Seaside Academy north of San Diego. Students have to check in only every three weeks, allowing them to travel to events or appearances without being marked absent.
Ryan Sheckler is now enrolled at Futures-Halstrom High School in Mission Viejo, California, whose alumni include Olympic figure-skating silver medalist Sasha Cohen. He is allowed to study independently on his own time and earns credit for work experience, charity events, media engagements, foreign travel and, of course, skateboarding (it counts as gym).
[The New York Times, 9/20/06]
I became a good pitcher when I stopped trying to make them miss the ball
and started trying to make them hit it.
-- Sandy Koufax, baseball pitcher
|
|
COLLEGIATE SPORTS
Hollywood U -- Limelight Luring Athletes
It may have all started with Heisman Trophy winner Matt Leinart. No, not his rumored tryst with Paris Hilton (although that may be part of it), but his decision to fire veteran sports agent Leigh Steinberg and sign with Creative Artists Agency, Hollywood's most powerful talent agency.
With Hollywood losing money by the truckload and sports profits soaring, melding the two entertainment arenas with their overflowing celebrity rosters, nonstop TV and tabloid exposure and endorsement-generating goldmines was a no-brainer.
Media Pros Help Polish Images
The problem is, although many college players perform well on synthetic turf, they can't handle the red carpet. Some have had no exposure to the media. Many come from broken homes or poverty. Others arrive from foreign countries with little English skills or cultural experience.
Hence the newest trend in collegiate athletics: sports media trainers. Working with coaches and players, these specialists teach life skills, public-speaking and media savvy to ensure jocks uphold the school's positive image. Kathleen Hessert, president of Sports Media Challenge, says her company's goal is to build communication champions.
It also offers Buzz Manager, which sends red flags whenever negative rumors appear about a school's athletic program, coaches or players and keeps tabs on what fan-generated blogs and websites such as Myspace.com and Facebook.com are saying about their "brands." Gee, that's what Hollywood's been doing for years.
Unfortunately, what goes around comes around. A famous maxim of tinsel town may soon apply to sports as well: "Half the people are dying to be discovered; the other half are afraid they will be."
[Los Angeles Times, 4/13/06; www.espn.com, 8/6/06]
Horse sense is the thing a horse has
that keeps it from betting on people.
-- W.C. Fields, comedian, actor (1880-1946)
|
|
PROFESSIONAL SPORTS
Athletes’ Incidents May Be Signs of Depression
Sullen or egotistical behavior, drunk driving, weapons charges or sexual assaults have become so common among professional athletes that such activities no longer raise eyebrows.
What should be is the fact that some of these individuals may be suffering from depression. Medical studies have not determined if athletes are more prone to the condition than others, but there is little disagreement that multiple concussions, long-term anabolic steroid use and/or stress can cause mental problems. Because of who they are, however, many stars cannot or will not admit that fact to the public, or worse, themselves.
"Depression is a major undiagnosed problem in professional sports," sports agent Leigh Steinberg told the Palm Beach Post. "Team sports is the last bastion of unenlightened thinking."
Case in point: Dallas Cowboys receiver Terrell Owens' recent suicide attempt or allergic reaction, depending on whether you believe the police report or Owens. The incident is the most recent in a long series of bizarre Owens episodes that may stem from something deeper and more serious than egomania.
Depressed Athletes Have Few Option Plays
Since Ancient Greece, athletes have projected a superhuman, almost god-like aura. They are expected to be physically and mentally tough. Sucking it up and playing through pain -- no matter its source -- is not an expectation; it's a requirement. When they do go down, it better be for a twisted ankle or a torn ligament. Sitting out with a broken soul is not a good play call.
When New York Yankee all-star Alex Rodriguez acknowledged he needed psychotherapy to deal with pressure, instead of being lauded for his courage, he was labeled soft with no heart. When pro running back Ricky Williams told New Orleans Saints coach Jim Haslett he had a mental problem, Haslett reportedly used profanity and told him "to stop being a baby and play football."
Other athletes find mental distress too intolerable to accept, especially if they are black and male. An article on the topic in Sports Illustrated stated that: "Perhaps it's because males in general (and alpha males in particular) are much less likely than women to acknowledge their mental illness. Perhaps it's because of the enduring misconception that mental illness somehow indicates inner weakness -- a sentiment that, according to the National Mental Health Association, is particularly common in the African-American community, from which a disproportionate number of athletes hail."
Mastering the Mental Game Can Be Tough
Many try to gut it out, with tragic results. Because of athletes' heightened levels of goal orientation, they may overextend themselves to try to overcome the condition. Sports psychologist Richard Lustberg told the Denver Post: "They think it's not the pill, it's me. I’m the one who has to fix myself. So they get off the medication."
Unfortunately, that doesn't work with depression. It just leads to more dysfunction. Oakland Raiders center Barret Robbins went off his meds on the eve of Super Bowl XXXVII, went on a drinking binge in Tijuana, contemplated suicide and spent what should have been the pinnacle of his career in the hospital.
Some athletes with depression may be unaware they have it. Miami Dolphins defensive lineman Dimitrius Underwood attempted suicide twice and Chicago Bears defensive tackle Alonzo Spellman staged a suicidal standoff with police in 1998. Both athletes' bipolar conditions were undiagnosed at the time.
When police asked Terrell Owens if he was attempting to harm himself the night he overdosed, he allegedly replied, "Yes." He had just broken up with his fiancé, fired his longtime trainer and broken his hand. To the surprise of many, he played for the Cowboys the very next weekend. To the surprise of no one, he told the press afterward, "It's nothing other than the usual."
[www.espn.com, 9/26/06; www.msnbc.msn.com, 9/27/06; Denver Post, 3/10/03; Sports Illustrated, 9/8/03; Palm Beach Post, 4/28/02]
Most people run a race to see who is fastest.
I run to see who has the most guts.
-- Steve Prefontaine, Olympic runner (1951-1975)
|
|
SPORTSMANSHIP USER'S GUIDE
The Ultimate Sportsmanship Tool Kit is an all-in-one resource to help athletic programs achieve sportsmanship and character-building goals. It comes in two versions -- youth and high school -- and covers everything from mission statements and codes of conduct to evaluation tools and ideas for rewarding players and coaches.
How to Hire for Character
Coaches are at the frontlines of your athletic program. They will bear primary responsibility for communicating positive messages to the young people in your program. Perhaps no element is more decisive to the success of a program than the quality of the people who execute it, so you must choose them with great care.
Here are five Pursuing Victory With Honor interview questions for potential coaches that will help determine a candidate's commitment to character development:
1. Describe your previous coaching/teaching experiences and what you've learned from them.
2. What is your coaching philosophy and how will you implement it?
3. How would you promote sportsmanship and character development?
4. How will you reward and discipline players or staff for sportsmanlike and unsportsmanlike conduct?
5. How would you handle an objection from an athlete or parent after cutting or disciplining a player for unsportsmanlike behavior?
Visit the online catalog to securely purchase the Ultimate Sportsmanship Tool Kit and other sportsmanship resources.
Cards are war in disguise of a sport.
-- Charles Lamb, British essayist (1775-1834)
|
|
 COMMENTARY BY
MICHAEL JOSEPHSON
The following is adapted from Michael Josephson's Gabriel Award-winning radio commentaries airing daily on our flagship station, KNX-AM 1070 in Southern California, on American Forces Network worldwide and on other stations throughout the U.S.
Life Is Not a Game
During a training for our CHARACTER COUNTS! All-Stars sports program, the discussion turned to the ethics of trying to injure a competitor. One former pro football player praised the intimidation value of punishing blows delivered when the refs weren't looking. Others talked boldly about the virtues of the hard hit and the pleasure of leveling an opponent. A former Super-Bowler spoke proudly of taking players out with the particularly dangerous, but then legal, chop block aimed at the knees.
When an Olympic track athlete said that, legal or not, that sort of violence could end a career and do serious bodily injury, the response was, "It's part of the game."
I marveled at the capacity of these basically decent men to rationalize unnecessarily brutal behavior. I was wondering what I could say when another former NFL star brought the room to stunned silence by holding his hand up high. In it was a prosthetic leg. He quietly explained that his leg had been amputated from the knee down due to injuries of the sort caused by chop blocks.
How often do we buy into silly game theories to justify wrongdoing? In football, ego demands and financial stakes blind us to the indecency of unnecessary mayhem. In journalism, similar forces cause insensitivity to the serious harm to relationships, careers and reputations caused by socially meaningless stories. And variants of the gamesmanship theory drive politicians to ravage each other for small political advantages and lawyers to conduct scorched-earth litigation strategies for minor tactical gains.
When we ignore moral principles of caring and respect, we not only injure others, we demean ourselves.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
For an archive of Mr. Josephson's commentaries, with audio files, go to: www.charactercounts.org/knxtoc.htm
To receive free weekly e-mail, including all five of Mr. Josephson's commentaries from that week, please sign up at: www.charactercounts.org/newsletters.htm
CHARACTER COUNTS! Sports, a project of the nonprofit Josephson Institute of Ethics, leads the Pursuing Victory With Honor sports campaign, which is endorsed by the country's leading amateur athletic organizations. The campaign's purpose is to help administrators, athletes, coaches, legislators, officials and parents change personal and organizational decision making and behavior in sports.
To view a text version of this newsletter, select "Plain Text" in your View preferences. |
