Sports are supposed to be fun, especially when being played by young people.
Once we get up to pro sports, it starts to get more intense. But kids in our community aren’t playing for millions of dollars. They’re playing for fun.
For this basic but essential reason, we strongly support Habersham County’s parks and recreation department and county commissioners supporting a “zero tolerance” sportsmanship policy Monday night.
The announcer at GHSA high school sporting events usually reads a sportsmanship credo before the game begins, and our younger participants deserve the same courtesy.
The new policy allows for rec league officials to immediately diffuse tense situations that arise during a game, whether it be with parents, officials, coaches or players. They will immediately remove the offending parties from the field and de-escalate situations that could otherwise become more dangerous.
County Attorney Donnie Hunt said the impetus for the discussion of a specific policy was derived from a recent incident where an off-hand comment from a spectator sounded like a serious threat.
The policy also installs an appeal process where everyone involved can gather later and resolve issues when they aren’t upset and in the heat of the moment.
“We ask a lot of our volunteer coaches and officials,” Habersham County Recreation Director Brooke Whitmire said Monday. They do, indeed.
Those who help make these sports happen for the kids put a lot of their lives into it, and there is absolutely no need for abusive, violent or vulgar behavior at these games.
We owe our recreation employees and volunteers better than this. We owe them our support as they have given so much to our youth, usually without compensation and sometimes without as much as a thank you.
The consequences to those who disrupt this environment range from a verbal warning to a permanent ban and everything in between, depending on the severity of the actions. The policy lays out the rights and responsibilities of everyone involved and demands that they adhere to the standards of clean and fair play.
The values taught by youth sports are worth taking these extra measures to protect everyone involved. We can get heated even at youth sporting events, but it is not worth stunting our children’s emotional and social growth along with the gains from physical activity and competition.
If we all respect each other, these policies will not even be needed. But it is nice to have them anyway.