Throughout the school year, make sportsmanship and citizenship a priority in the following ways:

• Discuss the value of sportsmanship with coaches and students prior to the start of each season
• Create a committee to develop sportsmanship efforts in your school
• Talk with your event security staff and public address announcers about their roles during contests
• Distribute posters, banners, and social media content promoting sportsmanship
• Plan a competition between student clubs that promotes sportsmanship
• Evaluate sportsmanship efforts at the conclusion of each season
• Conduct a year-end sportsmanship meeting to evaluate the efforts made in the past year and set the goals for the next year

 


COACHES

A coach's role is to educate students through participation in interscholastic competition. The participant's welfare should be treated with the highest priority at all times.

Coaches shall...

• Be aware of their tremendous influence in the education of the student-participant and never place the value of winning above the value of character.
• Consistently uphold the honor and dignity of the profession and strive to set an example of the highest ethical and moral standards.
• Be thoroughly acquainted with the rules and responsible for their interpretation to team members.
• Actively use their influence to encourage sportsmanship among their team members and supporters.
• Unwaveringly support and respect officials.
• Make an effort to meet with opposing coaches before each contest to exchange friendly greetings and set a positive tone for the event.

PARTICIPANTS

Student-Participants shall...

• Respect the rights and beliefs of others and treat others with courtesy and consideration.
• Be fully responsible for their own conduct and the consequences of their actions.
• Respect the property of others.
• Obey the rules of their school and the laws of their community, state, and country.
• Show respect to those who are responsible for enforcing the rules.

• Use the Just Play Fair! theme to create a one-week promotion focusing on sportsmanship
• Have the school board develop a policy stressing that attendance at an athletic event is a privilege and that inappropriate behavior by any party will be dealt with appropriately
• Encourage the fine arts advisors to incorporate good sportsmanship themes into their competitions
• Create banners/posters that welcome opponents to your school
• Create a sportsmanship report card for visitors to fill out and return after contests
• If members of your high school community felt like they were treated particularly well while visiting another school for an event, encourage them to write a letter to the principal or athletic director of that school
• Have your public address announcer read a pregame or time out statement encouraging sportsmanship and proper respect for the game
• If a team you played during the season advances to the state tournament, have your coaching staff send a good luck message before the event
• Report good sportsmanship when displayed by your opponents