By Staff
Coaching Management, 13.2, February 2005, http://www.momentummedia.com/articles/cm/cm1302/bbsportsmanship.htm
How does your team stack up against other teams in your conference on sportsmanship? Teams in Division III can now answer that question based on numerical data, thanks to an initiative by the Empire 8, a league in New York state.
Three years ago, the Empire 8 coined a special term—conduct fouls—for infractions involving unsportsmanlike or unethical behavior by players or coaches, and began requiring its member institutions to report them to the conference office.
Last year, Empire 8 Commissioner Chuck Mitrano received a grant from the NCAA to bring the program to all of Division III. D-III institutions were not required to participate, but 80 percent did so voluntarily. This year, the program is being piloted among select Division I and II schools, with the hope that it will eventually be made available to all three NCAA divisions.
The program’s primary objective, according to Mitrano, is to reduce unsportsmanlike behavior simply by putting a spotlight on it. “We believe that making people aware of unsportsmanlike behavior will change it,” he says.
For coaches, the program provides a way to raise the sportsmanship issue with players in a concrete, definable way. However, since the program tabulates bad behavior by coaches as well as athletes, some coaches feared that they would no longer be able to question an official’s call without risking a conduct foul. But most Division III coaches have found those fears to be groundless and now embrace the program, according to Mitrano.
“In the heat of a contest,” he says, “a coach may not realize a student-athlete has received a conduct foul, but with this program, a coach can see when a student-athlete is trending toward a sportsmanship problem. That allows the coach to open a dialogue with a player.”
Don Guido, Head Baseball Coach at Empire 8 member Utica College, sees the initiative as a much-needed effort. “In my own program,” he says, “I’ve had two ejections in the past two years—two incidents where players just lost their heads. Individual programs can educate their athletes on how to conduct themselves on the field—and we do—but getting them to follow through with that every single time in the heat of a game is a tough challenge.
“Having a conference- and division-wide program has helped,” Guido continues. “When the whole league is doing it, it’s much easier to enforce. It allows our players to see that it’s not just Utica College, but it’s everywhere, and it’s not just a side note. It’s a main emphasis.”
Keeping track taps athletes’ and coaches’ desire to be the best. “Allowing institutions to see where they rank has motivated schools to work harder to come out better in the rankings the next year,” Mitrano says. “And having data will give us a baseline and allow us to measure whether steps we are taking to improve sportsmanship are actually working.”
Woody Gibson, Head Athletic Director at High Point University and Chair of the NCAA Committee on Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct, agrees. “When we talk about sportsmanship issues with conferences, we’re often asked, ‘What evidence do you have that sportsmanship is a problem?’ Gibson says. “This program is the beginning of producing annual data that conferences and institutions can look at to examine the trend. Institutions can see how they compare to other institutions or to their own figures from a year ago, rather than speculating on what’s happening.”
Following a change for 2003-04, Mitrano hopes the program will help schools deal with sportsmanship problems continually, not just at the end of each year. Schools now report conduct fouls to their league office within three business days, rather than once each year. “Now that we’re doing it in real time, schools can notice trends with individual student-athletes or teams,” Mitrano says. “If a student-athlete has a significant number of conduct fouls, the coach can see that he needs to intervene.”
The new system appears to be working. Compared to 2002-03, when schools reported annually, Empire 8 schools in 2003-04 reduced yellow and red cards in men’s and women’s soccer by 20 percent, technical fouls in women’s basketball by 50 percent, and technical fouls in men’s basketball by 35 percent while eliminating all ejections.
The program also works because it makes programs more accountable to their administration, Mitrano says. An institution’s report is available to its athletic director and president, and if a conduct foul occurs, the athletic director signs off on the form before it goes to the conference office. “Athletic directors often are not aware of how frequently unsportsmanlike behavior may be taking place,” Mitrano says.