B-R School Assembly- Ron Gustafson- April 17

Sportsmanship Award news article

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This gives a brief history of the Sportsmanship Award and why it is important.
Bancroft-Rosalie has won the award twice and Lyons-Decatur once. BRLD is still after out first award.

BOYS STATE BASKETBALL

Still room to improve, but sportsmanship award has

helped at state tournaments

BRENT C. WAGNER Lincoln Journal Star Mar 8, 2019

For 20 years now there has been a sportsmanship award at the state basketball

tournament, and just before they hand out the state championship trophy they also give

an award to the school in each class judged to have had the best sportsmanship.

Does that mean sportsmanship is perfect now? It does not.

Is sportsmanship better than it was? Maybe the quickest way to try and answer that

question is to think back to some of those days in the 1990s when the Class A schools

played at Devaney Sports Center, and on occasion you’d see and hear two things.

One, when the opponent was being introduced before the game a student section would

try to disrespect its opponent by turning their backs, or hold up newspapers in front of

their faces.

And two, student sections would chant a profane word at the game officials when they

didn’t like a call.

Those two things don’t happen as much now, in part thanks to the sportsmanship award,

and the positive culture the schools are trying to create.

There are also a lot of unknowns about the sportsmanship award. Why are they doing it,

how does it work, and is it making a difference?

Many people agree that sportsmanship among most students has improved over the past

20 years, while in some communities sportsmanship among the adults may have gotten

worse.

Randy Cordes was a teacher and coach in York for many years. In retirement he

volunteers as one of the sportsmanship evaluators, usually for the Class B games. The

evaluators watch and listen closely to everything that happens on the court and in the

crowd, and use a checklist for how teams can earn and lose the points that determine the

sportsmanship champion.

“It’s improved, without a doubt,” said Cordes of overall sportsmanship at state. “Has

everybody bought into it? Nope. But most schools have, and you can tell the schools that

work at it, because they correct any misbehavior that happens.”

Jack Tarr is the athletic director and a coach at Malcolm, and has been an evaluator

every year, mostly in classes C and D.

“Absolutely, it’s made a huge difference,” Tarr said. “I would say fans are even getting

better than what they used to be.”

In some of the early years the winner of the award may have been the best of the worst

sports. Now the difference between first and second place can be really close, and teams

that finish second would have won during many years.

And some schools are trying to hold themselves to a higher standard. There was one

time when a school was determined to be the winner, but one of the school leaders

hadn’t liked something the school had done and turned down the award, so another

school got it instead.

The sportsmanship award is run by the Nebraska Coaches Association, with support

from the Nebraska School Activities Association and the Nebraska State Athletic

Administrators Association.

The award started in 2000 when sportsmanship at the state tournament wasn’t very

good.

“It was getting to the point where it was out of control of what school could outdo each

other in form of being insulting, being confrontational, getting to that personal level of

attacking kids on the court or coaches or officials,” said Darin Boysen, the executive

director of the Nebraska Coaches Association.

“I think at that point these guys as leaders across the state said something has to

happen.”

Most of the student sections have gotten better, Cordes said.

“They’ve eliminated some of the stuff that was obviously just awful,” he said.

Over the years the award criteria has shifted from not just penalizing schools for bad

sportsmanship, but also rewarding them for the good things many schools are doing,

such as having pep bands, the students dressing in a theme, and players helping an

opponent up when they fall.

And now the schools know what they’re evaluated on. The short version of how you’re

going to do well is that if you focus on your school, and not the opponent, you’re going

to score well.

What are the most common things that hurt schools?

“The chants against other teams, particularly if they get personal,” Boysen said “And

that’s where we really draw the line. If you’re going to continue to harp on a player. If

the player has an air ball and every time he touches the ball they yell it. If anything gets

to the point of profanity, ethnic, gender, any of those things, those are major

deductions.”

And while a lot of the scoring is based on the students, players and coaches, a group of

repeat offenders in the parent section yelling at the officials are really hurting their

school.

Schools take pride in trying to win the award, and at many schools the sportsmanship

award is in the trophy case right by the championship trophies.

The award is just one part of trying to improve sportsmanship. There are sportsmanship

summits in the fall at four locations across the state for students and school leaders. The

sportsmanship award has been added for state volleyball and state soccer. Some

conferences also have sportsmanship awards.

About two days after the state tournament, all 48 schools gets a report that shows what

their point total was for each day, comments from the evaluators on what they did well

and what hurt them, and where they ranked in their class.

After one tournament a school board member asked an administrator why they didn’t

win. On the report there was a description of a fan who had caused the school to be

deducted points by his actions.

“They said, ‘Yep, I know who you’re talking about,’” Boysen said. “And by the end of

that conversation the school said, 'You know what, we had several opportunities to

correct this during the year and we didn’t.'”

The sportsmanship award also highlights good behavior. The Elkhorn South girls coach

had the team pick up the trash on their bench after the game, and that earned them some

points.

Before the Class B girls championship game last week, students from Northwest and

Crete got together for a photo.

“That sets a tone that, ‘OK, there is a bigger picture here,’ and people see that,” Boysen said.

Basketball Championship Celebration Friday March 29 7:00 pm in the Bancroft-Rosalie Gym

Bancroft-Rosalie places 5th at State Speech

Four events made finals.
Medallists are-

 Olivia Osborne 3rd in Poetry

 Zoe Sjuts 4th in Persuasive

 Maria Ras 5th in Informative

 Olivia Osborne 5th in Serious Prose

 The Interpretation of Drama Team placed 7th, but did not make finals. They are Maria Ras, Tyler Gatzemeyer, Lauren Kramer, Audra Nolting, and Emma Beutler.

Congratulations to Audra Nolting- A 2019 4-H Congress Delegate

National 4-H Congress is an award program which provides recognition to 4-H youth for their outstanding performances and achievements in 4-H. It is held annually in Atlanta, Georgia. Each year, Nebraska 4-H can send delegates to National 4-H Congress. Nebraska delegates are selected for a trip to National 4-H Congress by submitting their 4-H Career Portfolio or Annual Achievement Application for state competition. This year, 23 Nebraska 4-H delegates were chosen to receive a partial scholarship to attend the 2019 National 4-H Congress. Audra Nolting will represent Cuming County at the National 4-H Congress.

Web Link to B-R School Display Board

You can access the school display board to look at old annuals that have been uploaded or school records. If your annual is not uploaded, you can sponsor your yearbook for $150. https://sectornowyearbooks.com/BancroftRosalie/Web/BRPS_Home/BRPS_Homeindex.html

East Husker All-Conference Basketball Teams

Congratulations to the BRLD players who were selected for All-Conference recognition.

Bancroft-Rosalie District Speech Results

Bancroft-Rosalie State Speech Qualifiers

Informative
Maria Ras- District Champion

Serious Prose
Olivia Osborne- District Champion

Persuasive
Zoe Sjuts- District Runner-up

Oral Interpretation of Drama
Audra Nolting, Emma Beutler, Tyler Gatzemeyer, Lauren Kramer, Maria Ras- 3rd Place

Poetry
Olivia Osborne- 3rd Place

District Medalists

Duet Acting
Kariden Briggs and Zoe Sjuts- 4th place

Entetainment
Mikki Byrne- 4th place

Poetry
Tori Ostrand- 5th Place

FFA Results

Here are the District Career Development Event Results.

Board of Education Summary

The Bancroft-Rosalie Board of Education met Monday, March 11, 2019 at 7:30 pm in Bancroft.

Superintendent Cerny presented the February transportation report, the NRCSA Spring Conference, Ribbon Cutting at Nielsen Education Center, and Impact Aid. Principal Sjuts presented a winter and spring activities summary.

Kariden Briggs, representing the senior class, received approval from the board for their Senior Trip to Kansas City May 3-4.

The board named the Superintendent authorized representative for federal, state and local programs, approved a contract with Roxanne Raasch for driver education, accepted the resignation of Sierra Lundberg, and offered teaching contracts to Paige Mestl, Caleb Hansen, and Suzanne Ras.    

The board went into executive session to discuss the evaluation and hiring of teachers. The board approved the continuing employment agreements for teachers based on the recommendations of the administration.  

BR School Board Meeting Agenda

Bancroft-Rosalie Community School

Regular Board of Education Meeting Agenda

Monday, March 11, 2019 --- 7:30 p.m. in Bancroft

1.   Call to Order

2.  Open Meetings Act

3.   Roll Call

4.   Read and approve the minutes of the February 11, 2019 Regular Board Meeting.

5.   Treasurer’s Report

      A. Approve the Bills

      B. Financial Review

6.   Review Agenda

7.   Public Hearing

8.   Administrator’s Reports:

      A. Superintendent’s Report

      B. Principal’s Report

      C. Board Committee Reports

           1. Negotiations                                  2. Citizenship/Instruction/ Americanism

           3. Personnel                                      4. Buildings and Grounds.

           5. Transportation.                              6. Insurance.

           7. Reorganization/Coop                  8. P2T

9.   Old Business:

      A. Motion to approve Senior Trip Itinerary

10. New Business:

      A.  Motion to name the Superintendent authorized representative for Federal, 

           State, and Local programs, including Title programs, Special Education, Food Services,     NSAA, and East Husker Conference.

      B. Motion to offer driver education contract to Roxanne Raasch

      C. Motion to accept resignation of Sierra Lundberg

      D. Motion to offer continuing employment contracts to teachers based on the 

           recommendation of the administration.

      E. Motion to offer teaching contracts to Paige Mestl, Caleb Hansen and 

           Suzanne Ras.

11. Executive Session-

12. Future Planning- Next scheduled meeting- April 8, 2019 in Bancroft.    

13. Adjournment.