Youth sports rules are made by adults. For school sports, those rules are based on the premise that they promote positive learning opportunities.
I have been told, and I believe, that more than 1 million rules can be found written in sports rule books decreeing how players should play. Even though I haven’t counted them all, that seems a bit excessive just to make sure adults teach the lessons education sports are intended to provide.
Let’s face it. The design of modern youth sports rules has become focused on protecting the games and kids from adults who make athletics unfair or unsafe. Game rules are not the problem. A few – very few, I trust – leaders of youth find ways to ignore or circumvent the purpose of rules.
Even more puzzling is this: in nearly all violations for which adults are responsible, players are penalized. A violation by a school or coach results in a penalty to kids.
Last week, the unbeaten Oregon Class 3A Vale High School football team forfeited five of its six victories because a player played more than five quarters during Thursday-Friday junior varsity and varsity games. The forfeitures eliminated the team from the playoffs. Violation by school or coach – kids penalized.
A fundamental responsibility of any coach is to teach the rules and uphold them. What could be a more glaring example of poor education than a player knowing a coach was intentionally asking a player to violate a rule? Coaches are always coaching skill fundamentals, and all the while the fundamentals of character are also being developed.
Character development might be more effective if those responsible for violating the codes and rules of sports were penalized. Correction should apply to the adult who caused or directed a student-athlete to violate a rule.
It is encouraging that the penalty phase of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association’s ejection rules apply to coaches as well as players. Players and coaches ejected from a game are ineligible for the next game. A third ejection brings the proverbial third-strike consequence, lasting the rest of the season.
Maybe, when a player is ejected from a game, he or she ought to be accompanied by the coach. When school districts select a new coach, maybe the applicant’s credentials should include the won-lost-ejected record.
Here are some suggested revisions of the consequences of rule violations WIAA member schools might consider:
Cliff Gillies, former executive director of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, writes weekly during the school year for The Herald. His mailing address is 7500 U.S. Highway 101, South Bend, WA 98586. His e-mail address is cliffsal@techline.com.
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