Coach,
If we are going to turn the tide of sportsmanship in the Great State of Texas, we must do the work ON PURPOSE.
- We must CELEBRATE our athletes and coaches ON PURPOSE!
- We must TEACH good sportsmanship ON PURPOSE!
- We must LEARN from the consequences of bad sportsmanship ON PURPOSE!
But what does that look like in practice? How can we take our goal of improving sportsmanship and turn it into action?
In this week’s Texas Way Weekly, I am going to propose three questions you can ask to maximize the impact of The Texas Way for your district. Let’s go!
1. What acts of sportsmanship should be celebrated?
One of the implementation hurdles ADs have to overcome with The Texas Way is thinking that BIG, GRAND, and VIRAL are the only acceptable levels of implementation. While we absolutely want you to follow the lead of Texas Way presenting sponsor, Mammoth Sports Construction, and #DoSomethingBig, understand that sometimes the biggest and best thing we can do is get started and not stop.
Rome wasn’t built in a day. State championships aren’t won overnight. And The Texas Way can’t change the game on sportsmanship in one grand motion. It takes coaching the LITTLE THINGS again and again…and again and again. ON PURPOSE!
One great example comes from Lubbock ISD Middle School Girls Athletic Coordinator, Hope Harris. She sent in this awesome example of her girls playing The Texas Way:
“For our Volleyball Program, when our B or A Team warms up before a game in the 4-4-2, it is an expectation that our teams shag the volleyballs for each other and hype each other up. During the B Team warm up this past week, our opponent’s B Team was hitting at the net and some of our A Team girls noticed that they did not have anyone to shag the volleyballs for them. They ran on to the court and wanted to lend a helping hand and hyped them up after good hits as well.”
These girls didn’t change the world by shagging balls, but they did display great sportsmanship, and no act of good sportsmanship is too small to be celebrated.
I am really proud of these young ladies, and grateful for Coach Harris’ leadership, and sharing this story. When you see your students or coaches doing the little things of sportsmanship well, celebrate them!
Remember: What gets rewarded on purpose gets repeated on purpose!
2. What are we TEACHING, and what are they LEARNING?
The Texas Way has a great set of resources to help you TEACH good sportsmanship. The pillars of Respect for Others, Control of Self, and Spirit of Competition are simple, repeatable, and most importantly, DOABLE. But resources have to be used if they’re going to be helpful.
If you’re having trouble finding or making time to use the video resources provided by The Texas Way, consider this:
- If timing is an issue, you could watch one video a week over the course of three weeks.
- If gathering coaches together is an issue, you can have individual coaches register for The Texas Way on the website and send you proof of completion.
- If flow of the year and different sports seasons is an issue, consider having your head coaches show the videos to their assistant coaches at the beginning of each season.
At the end of the day, teaching resources can’t teach your coaches and athletes if you don’t use them. If people came preloaded with good sportsmanship we wouldn’t have to do this. But BAD sportsmanship is the default, so we must teach GOOD sportsmanship ON PURPOSE.
There is a difference between teaching and learning. If we want our athletes and coaches to LEARN good sportsmanship, we have to remember that it is caught as much as it is taught. Meaning, our lives must mirror the sportsmanship we want them to display. Those we lead won’t go further than we are willing to go.
Your example as leader is not just in how to interact with your coaches or athletes, or how you respond in stressful situations, but in what you value.
Your values will determine your actions. Your actions are what your team will “catch”. Do you like what your team is catching from you?
3. How can students and coaches learn from BAD sportsmanship?
It is a given that there will be players who are ejected because of bad sportsmanship. What isn’t a given is if they will learn from their mistakes.
One of the most important factors in learning from a mistake like an ejection is having a teacher to help you get it right. Consequences, by themselves, don’t teach students a lesson. Coaches, who walk with a student through consequence, do.
I asked five ADs from across the state what their protocols were for helping students, coaches, and fans learn from their ejections. Here is a summary of what they said:
Student-Athletes:
- Write a letter of apology (typically to the official involved): This teaches ownership of a mistake and the importance of apologizing for your actions. It also humanizes the official or person wronged.
- Behavior counseling with their coach or campus counselor: Bad sportsmanship can be the “sideways manifestation” of something deeper. Having a caring adult to talk through things with can be really helpful.
- Behavior contracts: This lays out what the student did wrong, and what they must do to earn their reinstatement. Clear explanations and goals help students to make up for past mistakes and to make better decisions in the future.
Coaches:
- Meet with the Athletic Director in person: Speak with your supervisor directly to discuss your actions. Even non-ejection-related incidents like taunting or unsportsmanlike behavior is better addressed through an in-person discussion.
- Write a letter of apology (typically to the official involved): Just like with students, this emphasizes ownership of a mistake and the importance of apologizing for your actions. It also encourages humility in your dealings with others.
- Sportsmanship classes: Formal reprimands and suspensions shouldn’t be discounted as options. But punitive measures like this are better paired with opportunities to learn, such as mandatory educational courses on sportsmanship and appropriate conduct during games.
Fans:
- Removal from venue: Fans who exhibit unsportsmanlike conduct should be ejected from the venue immediately. This communicates to the misbehaving fan and others that such behavior will not be tolerated at school events.
- Meeting with district administrators: Fans who have been ejected from an event need to be told the exact reason(s) why they were removed from the venue. This helps to keep communication open and avoid misunderstandings.
- Event attendance restrictions: Depending on the severity of the incident, fans may be issued warnings or banned from attending future sporting events or other school events. This may be a necessary step to protect the students, coaches, and other fans from someone who refuses to meet sportsmanship expectations.
Of course, these are just a few examples of what some districts do. The point isn’t that you hit these check boxes, but that you have a plan of what you will do to coach your people up. You don’t teach without a lesson plan, and if you don’t teach, how will they learn the skills to change the behavior?
No one stumbles into success; they have to achieve it ON PURPOSE. The same is true for achieving success in our goal of turning the tide of sportsmanship in school sports.
Thank you for being a part of The Texas Way. Thank you for your work. If I can help you or your district in any way, or you want to tell your story, email me at Mackey@2words.tv.
Until next week: Let’s teach good sportsmanship ON PURPOSE!
Mackey