Sportsmanship is all about etiquette, so maybe it figures the Illinois High School Association likes to be polite in its battle against bad manners.
Sanctions aren’t polite, nor is naming names. The IHSA ought to try both, but don’t expect it soon.
That’s not how the association works. Principals basically run it, and principals aren’t going to call each other out if they can avoid it, so when it comes to sportsmanship, the IHSA sends messages.
That’s the idea behind its most recent sportsmanship proposal, which is aimed mainly at students who make us view their bare, painted torsos. The proposal, approved 8-0 last month by the IHSA’s Sportsmanship Advisory Committee, stipulates that during state series events students must dress according to their schools’ dress code or policy.
The IHSA Board of Directors will consider the committee’s recommendation June 11. It likely will delay action because the Athletic Administrators Advisory Committee has recommended the proposal be reworked, but don’t be surprised if it’s a bylaw in some form within the next couple of years.
Let’s hope the board dumps the idea. I’m no fan of guys who cheer shirtless, particularly those with guts the size of Hummers, but worrying about dress at games, except in extreme cases, trivializes the sportsmanship issue and shifts the focus from the real problem.
That problem is what people say and do, not how they look.
Proponents of the recommendation say it’s all related, that inappropriate attire sets a tone and that a kid shouldn’t be able to dress differently at a co-curricular event than he or she does in a classroom.
“The committee is just trying to make the game the focus,” said IHSA Assistant Executive Director Beth Sauser, adding that kids still could paint T-shirts the way they now do their bodies. “You couldn’t walk into a restaurant or classroom dressed the way some fans are dressed.”
What’s odd about this proposal is it won’t really change much. If it becomes IHSA law, it won’t force schools to alter their dress codes for games or how they enforce what they have on the books.
Nor would the IHSA start tossing inappropriately dressed, undressed or underdressed kids from the stands in state series games. That would still be up to school administrators.
The goal, said Thornton Fractional North athletic director Therese McLaughlin, a member of the sportsmanship committee, is to coax schools into setting and enforcing more consistent guidelines.
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“We’re hoping that with some suggestions some schools will rethink if it’s appropriate letting people wear no shirts to a game,” said McLaughlin, whose school’s regular dress code carries over to athletic events, including the prohibition of hats and skimpy tops.
The idea, in other words, is to hope schools get the message. That’s in keeping with two major IHSA sportsmanship programs, Sport a Winning Attitude and the new Do What’s Right!, both of which stress education and positive behavior.
Such initiatives attack poor sportsmanship the way chicken soup combats a cold: It may not help much in alleviating the worst symptoms, but it can’t hurt.
Given the woeful state of sportsmanship, which includes profane chants and personal attacks on players, the IHSA should do more. Its program awarding banners for good sportsmanship at state finals in bracketed team sports underscores that.
Of the 80 teams eligible for banners last fall and winter, only 25 got them.
In football it was five of 16; in basketball it was five of 32, giving March Madness yet another meaning.
The sportsmanship at the girls basketball Class AA Elite Eight was so abysmal no team earned a banner. In the boys Class AA finals, only state champion Simeon got one.
The IHSA should release its ratings of each school’s cheering section, detailing why schools didn’t receive banners. In extreme cases it also should eject fans who don’t heed warnings to clean up their acts.
That, of course, should include adults, who often are the worst offenders, especially when it comes to high-decibel, non-stop berating of officials.
Sometimes the IHSA does get tough. Last fall, Assistant Executive Director Sue Hinrichsen said, it took the rare step of threatening a school with forfeiture after administrators failed to rein in a particularly unruly crowd during the state volleyball finals.
“We asked a few times for administrators’ help and didn’t get it,” she said. “We finally pulled an administrator in and said, ‘We’re not afraid to stop play and send the teams to the locker room and wait for your crowd to be controlled, and if it isn’t taken care of, forfeit the match.’
“That helped a lot.”
The offending behavior included language, negative group cheers, drinking and fans who returned to the arena after being ejected.
Hinrichsen, as expected, declined to identify the offending school.
That should change if the IHSA really wants to send a message.
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