Prep sports rules are there for a reason

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:

For playing an ineligible player, the negligent coach – along with the player – is suspended until such time as the coach causes the player to meet eligibility requirements. The coach is flunked in record keeping.

For a team or player that breaks the athletic code during an event that requires supervision by a coach or designated adults, any discipline or suspension includes the adult responsible for supervision. The coach is required to write a plan for supervision of youth athletes while representing their families, school and community. Publicly announce the grade for the plan.

Willful violation of recruiting rules should result in the suspension of the coach’s license until 100 hours of community (school activities) service is completed. Sweeping the gym or cleaning locker rooms of the school from which the athlete was recruited would be possible duties.

The high school grade point average of a coach who plays an academically ineligible player should be posted alongside that of the athlete.

A coach – not the players – who arranges for violations of the out-of-season practice rules is declared ineligible to coach postseason games.

For falsifying any student-athlete record – including grades, attendance, residence or eligibility – or failing to comply with the required coaching standards, the coach should be required to teach a course on ethics and “just play fair” before being re-certified to coach.

For avoiding or sidestepping any safety rule, including physical examinations and return-to-play after an injury, the responsible coach/administrator should be required to attend and report to three WIAA Medical Aspects of Sports Committee meetings. The Committee meets once a year.

For failure to fulfill promises to parents and student-athletes, the guilty party should serve the parents and athletes an evening meal followed by a question-and-answer session. Or run 20 laps observed by the parents.

For misinterpretation of rules and/or “I didn’t know” excuses, the coach reviews the rule and submits a term paper to the athletic director for grading. Copies of the paper are distributed to team members. Until the coach participates in five practices as an athlete, he or she is ineligible to coach.

All coaches should be required to listen in silence to team members for a period no less than 20 minutes, four times a season. Each team member would state (1) something of which they are proud and (2) one thing they would change if they had the authority to do so.

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.