SIDELINES

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Trivia Test: Which College Coach Did This?
Sportsmanship User’s Guide: Sometimes Players Can Deliver Your Message Better Than PA Announcers
You Make the Call: Should a National Regulatory Body Govern Horse Racing?
Principle of the Month: Hard Work Is Never Wasted
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Trivia Test Answer
Michael Josephson Commentary: Don’t Let Cynics Turn Sports Into a Commodity

FRONT ROW

COLLEGIATE SPORTS

Two Ways to Handle Hazing

Here’s how two universities responded to recent hazing incidents. Which one gets a gold star?

University of Tampa, Florida. After freshmen members of the women’s national championship soccer team were dressed up in embarrassing clothes, written on with markers, and paraded in public, the institution ruled that “no hazing” had occurred because “all activities were voluntary and no individual or group was forced, expected, or pressured to participate.”

Odd, considering the institution’s zero-tolerance hazing policy, which stipulates that any such activity “shall be presumed to be forced activity, the willingness of an individual to participate in such activity notwithstanding.”

St. Lawrence University, New York. After rookie members of the rugby team were hazed at an “unofficial gathering” off campus, resulting in one student being hospitalized for alcohol poisoning, SLU President Daniel Sullivan issued a statement: “Hazing will not be tolerated at St. Lawrence University. Hazing is a serious threat to the well-being of individuals, and it contradicts the values we hold as a community.”

Then he banned both the men’s and women’s teams from competing for four years.

[badjocks.com; watertowndailytimes.com, 5/30/08]

COLLEGIATE SPORTS

Want to Improve Your
“Game Environment”?

Since NCAA Division II introduced its popular community-engagement website last year in an effort to make athletic contests more civil, comfortable, and entertaining, it has triggered almost 2 million hits and provided a forum for Division II members to share ideas, teachable moments, and resources.

In April of this year, the site added a game-environment page to address on-the-field concerns such as student/coach/spectator behavior, pep bands, healthy concessions, and clean restrooms. Traffic spiked even more – by over 25,000 views.

“Members are hungry to improve their athletics operations in ways that align with what the division is all about – and to share those ideas they already know will work with other institutions,” said Division II Vice President Mike Racy. “When it comes to community engagement and game environment, people are seeing the collective benefit of working together.”

For an example of a game-environment idea that one school submitted to the site, see “Sportsmanship User’s Guide” in this issue.

[diicommunity.org]

PROFESSIONAL SPORTS

Horsemanship vs. Sportsmanship

In 1978, Affirmed became only the eleventh horse to win the Triple Crown in more than 100 years of thoroughbred racing. Since then, 11 others have come within a nose, so to speak, of repeating the feat, winning the first two of the fabled three races before faltering in the grueling Belmont Stakes.

The horses that most remain in our memory usually have had two things in common: heart and a human team with character.

Smarty Jones’s handlers were downhome and unpretentious. Funny Cide’s bounced around in an old school bus. Afleet Alex’s raised money for pediatric cancer. Barbaro’s inspired the nation with its devotion to the crippled colt.

Then Big Brown came along this year. Poor thing. It did its part, winning the first two legs of the Crown in spectacular fashion. Its team, however, had issues:

• Its co-president Michael Iavarone was suspended in 1999 by the National Association of Securities Dealers for making unauthorized trades, allegedly didn’t pay for horses he bought at a 2003 auction, and had his trainer’s license yanked for doping a horse in 2005.

• Its current trainer, Rick Dutrow, has been fined or suspended 70 times for violating equine medication rules; has admitted to injecting Big Brown with a steroid each month despite not knowing what the drug does but just “likes giving it”; has been fined and suspended numerous times for his own drug use; has been punished for lying on his license applications, passing bad checks, and attempting to provide a false urine sample with “an apparatus concealed on his person; and has repeatedly trash-talked his horses’ competition.

pfang100/flickr

Rick Dutrow

Postscript thumbs up: Big Brown didn’t have anything in the tank in the Belmont, so jockey Kent Desormeaux pulled him up, even though it meant they would finish dead last in their quest for fame. “This is the best horse I ever been on,” he said afterward. “Something was wrong. I took care of him.”

Postscript thumbs down: At a House hearing on horse racing safety last month, the most anticipated witness was Rick Dutrow. He was a late scratch, citing a virus.

John Veitch, trainer of Alydar that finished second to Affirmed in each of its three Crown wins, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune, “There are situations where you have noble horses that run their hearts out, and the humans connected with them do not respond in an equal manner.”

[startribune.com, 6/3/08, 6/4/08; washingtonpost.com, 6/8/08; sports.espn.go.com, 6/18/08]

JOCKS BEHAVING BADLY

Sorry, Biting a Ref Is Only
Allowed in Transylvania

When Rannord Jones was ejected for unsportsmanlike behavior during a soccer game in Newark, Delaware, he did something even more unsportsmanlike. Like unprecedented.

“He savagely attacked the official, biting him almost in an animal manner about the chin,” a policeman told NBC.

One witness saw the ref go down on one knee. “I thought he was faking it. And then there was blood pouring out.”

The ref suffered a deep laceration and an ugly wound. The player, after fleeing the area, turned himself in to police and was charged with felony assault, abuse of a sports official, terroristic threatening, and harassment.

Bottom line, the ref made the right call.

[nbc10.com, 6/20/08]

Not the Best Sportsmanship
Gesture We’ve Seen

To promote an upcoming soccer match between Peru and Uruguay, Peruvian midfielder Nolberto Solano wanted to motivate players and followers. He decided to appear on the cover of the most-read Peruvian sports daily – pointing a gun at the Uruguayan soccer shirt.

He incited the players all right, just not his own. Uruguay crushed Peru 6-0.

[epltalk.com, 6/19/08]

Beanball No-No #1:
Throwing at the Other Manager’s Son

The Devil Rays, a Little League team in Peabody, Massachusetts, were leading the Reds 5-4 at home in the top of the final inning when manager JoAnne DeFillipo realized two of her players hadn’t played the required amount of time. Her team would forfeit unless the two youngsters got into the game. But how?

She had to let the Reds tie the score so her team could get one more at-bat. Then she could insert the players into the lineup. To do that, she ordered her pitcher to intentionally walk the opposing players one by one until the tying run scored.

To counter her maneuver, opposing manager Dave Cravotta ordered his batters to swing at anything. DeFillipo’s response to that proved her undoing.

She allegedly told her pitcher to hit the next batter, who happened to be Cravotta’s 11-year-old son Anthony. The boy was struck on the knee.

Although DeFillipo, a member of the Salem State College Athletic Hall of Fame, has denied the allegation, she later resigned as manager and as secretary on the league board.

“It’s an unfortunate incident,” Cravotta told The Daily Item. “This is not something we should be teaching kids. Hopefully, the message will get out there.”

[itemlive.com, 6/13/08]

Beanball No-No #2:
Throwing at the Ump

After Cartersville High School struck out its ninth straight Stephens County player, including Ethan Martin, Gatorade’s Georgia player of the year, in the Class AAA championship series, tempers – as well as helmets, gloves, and obscene gestures – flew in the Stephens dugout.

As were, allegedly, plans to retaliate. Not against Cartersville, but the umpire.

The next inning when Stephens County took the field, Martin’s younger brother Cody was pitching. On a pitch to the second batter, Cody drilled a fastball down the middle of the plate. Catcher Matt Hill dropped to his knees and ducked. The ball struck the home plate umpire square in the facemask. He was not injured.

The two players and their coach denied planning to hit him, saying the passed ball was a signaling mix-up.

The Georgia High School Association didn’t agree. After viewing a video of the pitch, the association fined the school $1,000 and placed the program on “severe warning status,” meaning any sportsmanship violation in 2009 could result in forfeits or banishment from the state playoffs. In addition, the coach and his assistants must complete a sportsmanship education program.

Stephens County principal David Friend agreed with the ruling. “I thought we deserved it,” he told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We had the opportunity to be on a big stage, in a state championship series, and we had several players who didn’t represent the school the way they should have.”

[ajc.com, 6/4/08]

JOCKS BEHAVING EXCEPTIONALLY

uctriton00/flickr

Rocco’s Sportsmanship Score:
Better Than Most

In what will go down as one of the classic U.S. Opens in history, Tiger Woods, hobbling and grimacing from a torn ACL and two stress fractures in his left leg, outlasted 45-year-old longshot Rocco Mediate, who has won only five PGA tournaments lifetime, through five days and 91 holes (including 18 playoff holes and one sudden-death hole) to win his 14th major title.

But it was Mediate’s happy demeanor, camaraderie with the fans, and sportsmanship gestures who left the more lasting impression.

His behavior was in stark contrast to Woods, whose temper was often volcanic, language profane, concentration total, and fan interaction zero. Tiger was focused on winning; Rocco was focused on playing.

Not many will forget the final hole on the final day. With Mediate miraculously leading by one stroke, Woods needed a birdie to tie the match and force a playoff. His approach shot to the green was magnificent. As Woods walked up to the green, Mediate applauded his effort.

Moments after Woods rolled in the clutch putt, Mediate told a reporter: “It’s against my nature to root against someone. You just have to hope he makes the putt.”

When Mediate finally fell on the 91st hole, missing a putt that would have extended the match yet again, he shook Woods’s hand as is custom. Then he wrapped his arms around him.

“I got my wish,” he said later. He wanted to win the Open, of course, but what he really wanted was a chance to beat possibly the greatest golfer in history.

He got that and more. He embraced the opportunity – and his defeat – with an historic display of dignity and class.

[wect.com, 6/17/08; Austin American-Statesman, 6/18/08]

Rafael’s Celebration Score:
A Respectful Ace

It’s become commonplace after the final point of each tennis major for the victor to crumple joyously to the ground, roll around, and exhibit any number of histrionics.

After winning last month’s French Open, Rafael Nadal certainly had reason to celebrate. He had just captured his fourth consecutive French Open, becoming only the second player in history to do so; won his 28th straight match without a defeat at the Open, the only player to do so; and dominated Roger Federer, perhaps the greatest tennis player of all time, 6-1, 6-3, 6-0.

But this time there was no revelry after the final point. Instead, Nadal just raised his arms briefly. He respected his opponent too much to display anything more.

la nadalmania/flickr

Later he explained why: “Today it was tough for Roger. I didn’t want to celebrate too much. I have to be respectful with one very good guy. I have very good relationship with him, no?”

[Los Angeles Times, 6/9/08]

Rowers Pull Together in
More Ways Than One

When East Grand Rapids High School’s four-man crew traveled from their home state of Michigan to the Midwest Scholastic Rowing Championships in Cincinnati, they didn’t expect much spectator support when they took to the water.

They were in for a double surprise: Not only did a cheering throng greet them along the banks, but they were from Forest Hills Central, their fiercest hometown rival.

“I thought it was very nice of them to take it upon themselves and go down there and cheer for East Grand Rapids,” FHC coach John Gaskin told Mlive.com. “We try to teach them life skills like sportsmanship. Even through we’re rivals, we still want to help them out. That’s what life becomes.”

It all began when FHC agreed to transport East’s lone boat on their trailer. Then FHC’s crew members noticed East’s four seniors eating lunch by themselves one day and invited them to join their team for a spaghetti dinner.

One of the senior’s parents wrote a letter to FHC afterward expressing her gratitude: “Sometimes your most intense rival can become your most gracious host and enthusiastic fan. If only we could witness more acts of ultimate sportsmanship, we might come to a much better understanding of what it means to be a real community.”

[mlive.com, 6/17/08]

Track Rerun Results in Sportsmanship

At the Division I regional track and field high school championship in Hilliard, Ohio, senior Andrew Sigrest of Grove City, a driven, straight-A student who had battled numerous hamstring injuries during his high school career, was ecstatic after finishing second in the 300-meter hurdles. It meant he had qualified for the state championship meet for the first time.

Or had he? Because another runner had fallen during the race and was disqualified, meet officials told the top finishers they would have to re-run the race.

Sigrest’s hamstring gave out over the second hurdle, and he pulled up, unable to finish. He was devastated. His coach Jane Taylor told the Columbus Local News, “This whole thing was very hard on him and his family. He worked so hard and wanted to make it to states so bad.”

But no one counted on another, equally honorable, runner in the race. Austin Curbow, who won the first race and finished second in the rerun, felt he couldn't accept the medal and presented it to Sigrest instead.

“I was pretty mad when it happened,” Curbow told the press later. “It’s his senior year and he earned it fair and square. He deserves the medal even if he can’t run at states.”

Curbow’s coach Ed Rarey wasn’t surprised at the gesture. “He’s a kid that clearly has his head on straight. He’s quite an athlete, but he’s an even better person. He sees the big picture.”

[columbuslocalnews.com, 6/11/08]