Commentary; Posted: 12/15/04
Keep sportsmanship in all youth sports
By Don Heinzman
With all the concern over basketball players fighting with fans in the National Basketball Association game between the Detroit Pistons and the Indiana Pacers, the spotlight is on sportsmanship throughout all levels of sports competition.
While it is a leap to suggest that what happens in little leagues is a precursor to unruly fans and players in the big leagues, Minnesota Hockey has started to educate parents and coaches on the values of maintaining good sportsmanship on the ice and in the stands.
To enforce cleaner play on the ice, Minnesota Hockey awards a penalty point if players spend fewer minutes than prescribed in the penalty box. Even if the team wins which normally gains two points in the standings, it could lose its fair play point.
The second part of Minnesota Hockeyís action is offering classes to parents stressing the importance of kids developing skills at certain levels and encouraging more practices and fewer games and good fan behavior.
There are 40,000 boys and girls playing hockey at the mite, squirt, pee wee, bantam, midget and junior gold leagues in Minnesota, focusing on kids 19 years of age and under. A total of 7500 are registered as coaches in the program. Minnesota Hockey is the governing body of youth hockey in Minnesota.
There is general concern in all youth sports that parents, anxious to see their kids succeed, are more hostile toward referees and in some cases coaches.
Most cases of parental abuse toward coaches and referees are settled at the local level, mainly by other parents. The possible loss of the fair play point may quiet some parents who will be under pressure from other parents to shut up.
According to a story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Minnesota Hockey, however, acted after noticing that more referees are being escorted off the ice, more referees are quitting, thereís more fighting in the stands and more coaches are being abused by parents who think their kids should be playing more minutes.
Whatís alarming is half of all hockey officials are quitting after their first year on the ice and half of all boys who start playing hockey at age 8 are quitting.
Most parents are good fans, but some who have a lot of time and money invested in their kids become frustrated when they see them sitting on the bench and take it out on the coaches.
Some hockey observers believe Minnesota Hockeyís two-point program to tone down the roughness is unnecessary, citing there are few serious incidents and the game itself has penalty shots to enforce discipline on the ice.
As for the increasing number of games, which keep families going to tournaments on weekends, most kids would rather play games than practice skating around the cones.
Minnesota Hockey should be commended for acting to control unruly parents to limit the amount of penalty minutes. Perhaps, parents of players should be mandated to take the Hockey Education Program.
A 14-year-old Armstrong bantam player from Crystal told a writer from the Minneapolis Star Tribune that it ticks him off when his parents yell at him for a bad play or at referees for bad calls. That could sum up what other kids are thinking when parents get out of control.
The action Minnesota Hockey has taken could be a model for other sports to use, because playing ball in the little leagues should be educational and fun in a pastime which is valuable for youth development.
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