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.