HomeMy WebLinkAbout2004-04-19; Parks & Recreation Commission; 404-3; Sportsmanship News ArticleAB# 404-3
MTG. DATE: 04-19-04
STAFF: GRANSE
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
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INFO - TITLE:
SPORTSMANSHIP NEWS ARTICLE 0 ACTION
ITEM EXPLANATION:
For the information of the Commission, attached is an article from the Sunday, April 4, 2004
edition of the San Diego Union Tribune. The article highlights the City of Carlsbad’s
Sportsmanship Program that the Commission has been instrumental in establishing.
In a recent presentation, staff updated the Sportsmanship Program implementation to the
Commission for other recreation programs within the department. As part of that presentation,
staff also emphasized efforts to acknowledge the programs’ importance to all the community
organizations that utilize Carlsbad facilities. This is an ongoing program and there is no need for
Commission action on this agenda item.
EXHIBITS:
1. News Article
COlvtMmnY SPORTS
Kevin Granse. recreation supervisor for the city of Carlsbad. said coaches, parents and officials must sign a
"code of ethics" before participating in the city's youth basketball league. NodiaBmskiScoft/ Union-Tribune
PLAYING NICE
- Carlsbad mandates sportsmanship program for parents, coaches
By Whitelaw Reid
COMMUNITY SPORTS WRITER
CARLSBAD -A Little League player, no more than 10 years old, stood on the side of a field with his head down. Through a chain-link fence, a parent was berating him in Bobby Knight-like fashion. ’What were you thinking?” the adult screamed. “You just lost your team the game!” The incident - an example of how not to behave -was the video portion of a sportsmanship program the City of Carlsbad Recreation Department has made
mandatory for all parents, coaches and officials in its youth basketball leagues. ‘We didn’t get involved with this program to stop problems we were having in Carlsbad,” said Kevin Granse, the city’s recreation supervisor. ‘We’re trying to pre- vent them.”
is adopted from the National Al- liance for Youth Sports, which is based in Florida. Since its inception, there has been tangible improvement in the
. behavior of coaches and parents in the leagues. In 2000, coaches were assessed 43 technical fouls and were ejected from seven games. The numbers decreased to 35 technical fouls and four ejections in 2001; 26 and three in 2002; and 13 and zero in the recently completed season. “It blew my mind when I saw that,“ said Granse of the latest sta- tistics, “and not all of those (13 technicals) are for coaches acting
The program, in its fourth year,
like knuckleheads. Some were for kids playing illegal defenses.” Granse says the program, which costs the city about $2,000 a year, is the only one of its kind he is aware of in the county. It consists of separate training semi- nars for coaches, parents and offi- cials, all of whom must sign a “code of ethics” before the season
starts. Coaches go through six hours of training, including watching in- structional videos, attending a lec- ture and taking a written test. “It’s not teaching them how to
coach basketball,” Granse said. “It’s how to be a role model and what realistic expectationsare for parents and kids; basically proper behavior on the court.” One question from the written test reads, “A positive youth sports experience requires the coach to:” A) Play only the best players B) Apply pressure to perform C) Focus only on winning D) Keep it fun and participatory. The answer is D, but Granse says there are some who miss that type of question. The parents’ seminar, which lasts about 20 minutes, is less in- tensive, but all parents must at- tend or their kids will not be al- lowed to play. The seminar for officials, many of whom are high school students, teaches them how to effectively deal with coaches, parents and kids. “Being yelled at by a 30- or 40- year-old guy can be intimidating,” Granse said. They need to know how to handle the situation.”
Granse said he plans on adding a training session for all the play- ers in the program next year. That is currently not part of the Nation- al Alliance program. “I think their thought is that it’s going to trickle down to the kids once it gets through the coaches,” Granse said. “But we want to (in- clude) them, too, because you’ll get the seventh-grader out there who’s kind of a smart aleck and will talk back to the coaches. You can’t have that because it could es calate into an ugly situation.” Granse says his long-term goal is to have participants in all of the city’s sports rec leagues - youth and adult - participate in the sportsmanship program. “Eventually we want to make it so any organization (such as) Lit- tle League (or) soccer has to go through the program in order to get use of our fields,” Granse said. Russ Nielsen, who has coached his son, Craig, a seventh-grader, in the league for the last five years, says the program has been benefi- cial. “I thiik the league has really evolved,” Nielsen said. Teams want to do well in the standings but also have good sportsmanship. There’s a good balance. “Teams want to win, but when it’s all said and done, nobody’s out of control. It’s been really positive, and I think a lot of that is attribut- able to Kevin. He’s done a great job.”
Whitclaw Reid can be reached (619) 293-1829 or whitelaw.reidQuniontrib.com