Are coaches and players better behaved today than they were in years past? Frankly, I haven’t found anyone who states conduct in the pursuit of victory has improved. A good deal of that behavior is directed at us. That is why I never pass up an opportunity to participate in seminars and conferences designed to address the issue of sportsmanship.

Such a conference was recently convened in Southern California and I was included as a panelist. “Pursuing Victory With Honor” was held at Cal State-Long Beach and the hall was filled to capacity. In fact Character Counts, organizers of the day-long conference, expected 450 to attend; 700 showed up. That fact alone spoke volumes that sports needs to reflect the best in us, not the worst.

My assignment was to answer this question from the officiating perspective: “What would you like to see less of and more of in sports?” I distilled my thoughts to three Points:

1. Less “hot” bodies and more “warm” bodies.

2. Less lip service and more muscle.

3. Less gamesmanship and more sportsmanship.

Let me explain.

Point 1: The hot body was in reference to the boorish and often physically abusive behavior toward officials. The warm body reference addresses the continuing need for more officials. If the hot body count continues to rise, the warm body count will continue to decrease. Simple as that.

Point 2: Administrators need to be proactive in supporting officials. Many give lip service to that concept, but then quickly wilt from such a course of action when the heat gets turned up by the media, fans or a school.

Point 3: This point was an underlying theme for the entire conference and I was glad for the opportunity to talk about it at some length. Sportsmanship is learning the rules and assiduously playing within those rules. Sportsmanship also has a component of fairness attached to it. “Being a good sport” means not trying to take advantage of an opponent by consciously bending or breaking a rule based on your expectation of not being caught. Gamesmanship is the antithesis of sportsmanship. If you win because of gamesmanship you have “won” but you do not have victory. You have no victory because you have “won” without honor. Without honor there can be no victory.

One coach on the panel told the audience that for a long time she taught her players to play strictly by the rules. After some years, she had to relent and teach gamesmanship in order to compete with the other coaches in her league. I was struck by what she had told us.

I finished with the following thoughts: When coaches teach and players practice gamesmanship, it becomes just about impossible for officials to deliver a performance those participants will find acceptable. We need their help to do our best. We need their help to permit us to concentrate on the critical needs of the contest. We should not have to spread our focus trying to catch someone purposely subverting the integrity of the game. That is a lose-lose situation.

— Barry Mano
Referee Magazine