A tennis player willing to share knowledge with an opponent after the match.
A program where students provide hospitality for visiting referees and school officials on game day.
And a kind word from the players to the officials during a heated volleyball match.
Just a few of the examples of why Edgewood, Eastern Greene and Lighthouse Christian found themselves among the top schools in the state in the IHSAA’s new First Team All-Sportsmanship list after the fall sports season.
It’s a new program meant to reward better behavior during sporting events and after football season wrapping up, Edgewood, Eastern Greene and Lighthouse were among the 193 schools to maintain the highest rating along with Bedford area schools Orleans, Mitchell, Medora and Paoli. BNL, Martinsville and Monrovia were in the group of 108 earning honorable mention.
Each school begins the year with 100 points and points may be accumulated through teams completing an online NFHS Sportsmanship Course, parental meetings, student attendance at fall principals’ meetings and other leadership opportunities and submitted exemplary sportsmanship reports. Points are deducted by contest ejections of players, coaches, administrators, and fans and other negative reports.
First Team honorees have 100 points or more with honorable mention for those with 95-99. So sportsmanship literally counts.
“I think the big part is they want to push us to compete at a high level but being education-based athletics, there are a lot of things to learn along the way,” Edgewood athletic director Jerry Bland said. “Sportsmanship is how you conduct yourself on and off the court and all of it is what education-based athletics is all about.
“It’s learning to compete and at the same time, doing it the right way.”
‘It’s pretty important to us’
The IHSAA has rewarded good sportsmanship in prior years. Eastern Greene was one just a few schools in the southern half of the state to receive a banner for its behavior last school year.
Eastern started a hospitality program through a student leadership team. The students fill a role as ambassadors at three events each season, greeting the game officials and the attending administrators from the opposing school bringing them water and snacks or meeting any other needs they might have.
The T-Birds had 117 points after the fall season.
“It’s pretty important to us,” Eastern AD Aaron Buskirk said. “It shows the coaches put a lot into being good sports and good human beings, just holding themselves and the team accountable to that. it shows that our community is on-board with it as well.”
With Lighthouse, there is a religious aspect to it as well, in the Lions living out their faith.
“It’s kind of what our school values and believes in,” LCA AD Joseph Hasseman said. “Sportsmanship and having good values is the Christian way. So honestly, we couldn’t be more happy to get it.”
Trying to change the tide
This is just one way the IHSAA’s members and leadership are attempting to reverse a trend of the shortage of officials in all sports. Lessening the temperature in the gym, pool or fields helps with that since bad behavior often feeds and builds on itself.
One way to change the course of that is by encouraging athletes, fans and coaches to display a more calm response to negative outcomes.
“The IHSAA is trying to do its best to keep high school sports sacred with how people act,” Bland said.
A positive environment is certainly more attractive for all involved.
“I think it’s very important,” Hasseman said. “They should have done this a long time ago. It keeps teams and coaches and fans in check. We don’t have a lot of officials and people don’t understand how hard the work they put in to go out there in front of people.
“Losing or winning, we have to be able to lose with integrity.”
The Mustangs program is winning. The right way.
“That’s why we’re real excited,” Bland said. “Four years ago, we struggled in that area, so we wanted to make that an emphasis, getting the kids and coaches on board and heading in the right direction.
“How they act in victory and defeats the whole gamut of that is what it’s all about.”
South awarded grant from IHSAA
Bloomington South was among four new schools to receive grants from the IHSAA and the IHSAA Foundation to foster an Officiating 101 program within the schools’ P.E. curriculum.
The grant provides multi-year support to activate officials’ education and training within the curricular day while receiving PE credit towards graduation. When the students’ finish the course, they are able to apply for a provisional officiating license to officiate youth and community contests. Upon graduation from high school, students will be eligible and prepared to become fully licensed IHSAA officials.
The IHSAA has partnered with RefReps, an online training program that Bloomington’s David Pillar helped get off the ground, to combat the shortage of officials in all high school sports. Bloomington North, Edgewood and Owen Valley have programs in place already.