If you get a chance, check out the web page of Janis Meredith at www.jbmthinks.com; she writes a sports blog for parents, and the content is quite applicable to the message we try to portray in our mission.

Meredith wrote an article last year about how to tell if you're taking youth sports too seriously.  Her checklist included 13 great points:

1. You're deeply concerned about your child’s playing time.
2. You insist that he or she absolutely must play a certain position.
3. You feel the need to constantly push your child to practice and try harder.
4. You feel terribly guilty if you have to miss one game.
5. You feel it’s your job to confront the coach on behalf of your child about playing time or position issues.
6. You'll pay whatever it takes for your child to be on the best teams, have the best private coaches, and go to the best camps, even if you really can’t afford it.
7. You coach your child in the car on the way to the game.
8. You coach your child during the game from the sidelines.
9. You critique your child in the car after the game on the way home.
10. You worry a lot about your child’s performance and get so nervous that you can’t enjoy the experience.
11. You yell at the coach or officials during the game because you don’t agree with their calls.
12. You're constantly bragging to family and friends about what a stud/studette your child is.
13. You get angry at your child for making a mistake in the game.
    

Consider these points seriously, and if any apply to you, don't be ashamed that you fell into the trap!  Use positive energy to determine to escape these traits, rather than look back and examine your mistake.

The worst thing you can do is be in denial that any of these apply to you, and unfortunately, that's what happens more often than not.  The people who need these words of wisdom (whether they be from Janis or from OSIP) are the ones who will never listen.  It's an unfortunate paradox, but rather than focus on the bad, let's empower the good.

Thanks, Janis!

Perhaps it's not a story directly about sportsmanship, but this is a story about humanity, empathy, and heroic deeds, all of which are not mutually exclusive from sportsmanship.  All of these are related to the same basic idea that we're all in this human race together, and it doesn't matter whether you are a competitor, an official, or a fan:  life is a precious thing that requires us all to take a step back and appreciate one another.  And what better time to reflect on this than during the holiday season?

Back in June, MLB umpire John Tumpane was working a series in Pittsburgh.  "Tump," as he is known, had the plate for the game that night as the Pirates hosted the Tampa Bay Rays in an interleague matchup.  During the day, he went for a run and for lunch when he noticed a woman on the wrong side of the Roberto Clemente bridge.  This woman was considering suicide.

Through an act of courage with a touch of divine intervention, Tump was able to grasp onto this woman and prevent her from jumping to her death.  He held her until the authorities arrived to take over and save this woman's life.  The full account of this story is available on many news outlets (probably archived by now, but still readily available).

One of the most amazing moments of the account, however, was when this woman cried about how nobody would remember her or nobody would care about her.  Tump replied by saying he would never forget her, even offering to take her to lunch to talk about life to prevent her from jumping.  Talk about an understatement:  how could anybody forget someone who was in such a perilous situation and was saved by the serendipity of someone being in the right place at the right time?

There are a ton of noted items from this story that go beyond just the account of what happened and the praise that Tump received for his heroism.  First of all, this is a reminder that even MLB umpires are human and are on the same plane as everyone else.  We have this concept that people of celebrity status somehow are demigods to us laymen, when, in reality, just because the stage is greater doesn't mean that these people aren't just the same as us.  And that's not even to mention that MLB umpires usually don't want the notoriety that come with celebrity status; although the public may rally against them, umpires are happiest when nobody notices them.

Second, perhaps this story can remind us that life goes beyond our employment and entertainment.  How many people in the stands that night would remember that the home plate umpire saved someone's life earlier that day?  And if Tump missed a call that night, do you think that anyone on either team or in the stands would think twice before giving him hell for what they perceived to be a bad job?  Or would common sense prevail and allow them to think, "Man, I think he missed that...but the guy saved someone's life today...we should cut him some slack..."

As an aside, and to put a little levity onto a serious situation, this is the best time a home plate umpire saved someone's life since Frank Drebin saved the Queen's life out in California...

All in all, kudos to Tump.  I'm sure he deserves a cold beer and a hug.

An article published in Referee magazine at the end of 2016 made some rounds in early 2017 again, discussing the topic of why coaches yell, specifically at officials.

Ironically, one of the reasons the article gave regarding why coaches yell at officials is simply because the coach is often significantly far away from the official, ergo requiring raising his/her voice just to get the attention of the official.  To that, I must say, "Thank you, Captain Obvious."

But the article went on to discuss other more logical reasons why coaches yell.  The problem is that the reasons and examples provided as to why the coaches yell were not fully acceptable or morally sound, even if they happen to be the truth.

First, the article mentions one of the reasons being that coaches have multiple responsibilities on a team, thereby not being able to follow the game as closely as an official may.  That may be true, such as tending to injured players, determining when substitutes need to be deployed, or discussing strategy.  But to play devil's advocate, is that really an acceptable excuse?  Doesn't a good coach have the ability to follow the game and do all these other things?

A second reason, and one more damning and popularly used (especially at professional levels, which means lower levels mimic it), is to inspire a team.  Many stories have been passed down that a large majority of arguments between managers and umpires in baseball are not actually about a disagreement over a call, but as a tactic to inspire a team to perform better.  A coach who comes storming out of a dugout and starts going ballistic may actually be asking the umpire about where his dinner reservations are for that evening.

There are two problems with this method.  First, it rarely works, especially at youth levels.  Younger athletes tend to crawl back into a shell when this type of behavior is exhibited; they begin to play in fear of getting yelled at in a similar measure.  Second, why does the official have to be subject to a misnomer from onlookers?  The manager or coach may not actually be mad at the official, but the fans certainly can be deceived by this action.  "If the manager of my team is mad, that gives me, the fan, the right to be mad!"  Or, "Perhaps I should be mad too!"

One thing that is never acceptable is when a coach uses this method in a derogatory way against an official.  It's bad enough when a coach puts on a mad display when he's not actually yelling at the official; but if the coach is actually criticizing the official to motivate his team, then that's grounds for ejection.

It comes down to this:  officials shouldn't have to take abuse from coaches or anyone else.  If a coach has to yell just to get the attention of the official due to physical distance, that's fine.  But it makes zero sense to yell at an official for any other reason.  And if you are someone who still wants to yell at an official, be prepared to face the consequences.

Back in March, Dr. Stewart Cotterill wrote an entry in his blog about the detriments of abuse of sports officials.  The best part, however, was that he used scientific evidence to back his claim about how ridiculous it is to abuse officials.

Dr. Cotterill first praised an 18-year-old soccer official for leading a "strike" of officials who were tired of being abused.  Over 2,000 local officials in the United Kingdom refused to work as part of this movement to protest the abuse they take on a regular basis.

Cotterill threw his support behind these officials by using sound reasoning and a scientific experiment he conducted while studying sports psychology to further prove why disagreement with officials does nothing but "shoot yourself in the foot."

Cotterill's first example of his support was summarized by the fact that officials rarely, if ever, reverse a call which may bring disagreement from players or coaches.  The study he ran on the subject involved working with the university rugby team at his home turf of the University of Gloucestershire.  Throughout the course of a match, he encouraged the entire team to be respectful of the officials and to not argue with officials.  As such, the opposing team began to dispute calls, and eventually the close calls began to go in favor of his rugby team.  Now, officials are taught to be fair and just and never favor one team or participant over another, so the argument seems to go against the training of good officials.  But officials are human; and no matter how much an official tries to do his best, it is certainly possible that the psychological subconscious begins to activate in a way that causes calls to go in favor of a well-behaved team.

Cotterill goes on to list other reasons to support his cause, such as discussing how harboring the negative emotions towards officials causes those negative emotions to manifest in a way that detracts from the skills and performance of the athlete.  In short, getting upset at an official will make you play worse.  He also references the fact that athletes have no control over how officials do their job, so spending any time worrying about the behavior or officials is a waste of energy and will also subsequently detract from the performance of the athlete.

It's nice to know that people like Dr. Cotterill are on the side of the officials.  Now if only more people understood the importance of his argument...