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Officials Tackle High School Sportsmanship

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By BAIRD HELGESON

bhelgeson@tampatrib.com

Published: November 21, 2008

An unbeaten football season full of promise ended for Nature Coast Technical High School after the lights flickered during a game earlier this month.

The field in Groveland went dark and a fight broke out. Both benches cleared, referees said. Before it ended, more than 90 players and coaches from both teams were involved.

On Wednesday, the Nature Coast Sharks were ordered to forfeit their Class 3A quarterfinal playoff game, scheduled tonight. The school was fined $10,400. The other team in the incident, South Lake in Groveland, got $8,500 in fines.

The brawl was an extreme example of the rising violence in Florida high school sports, where teams walk an emotional high-wire every week.

"We've got to get them right up to the edge, without going over," said Mike Heldt, football coach at Alonso High School in Tampa, as he practiced his team for a shot at playoffs starting this week across Florida.

Ejections On The Rise

Players went over the edge 1,648 times in the 2007-08 season, a 28 percent increase over the year before, according to the Florida High School Athletic Association, which tracks ejections and doles out punishment.

The figures include basketball, tennis and all sports, and unsportsmanlike conduct ranging from spitting and swearing to punching and fighting.

And bench-clearing brawls.

Nature Coast is believed to be the first playoff-bound team forced to forfeit postseason play. It also received among the highest fines ever levied.

The athletic association has stiffened penalties for teams with a history of fighting; Nature Coast got into a similar scuffle a year before with Central High School from Brooksville.

Experts are placing some of the blame on the violence players see in society and professional sports.

"It's definitely crazy," said John Wolohan, chairman of the sports management department at Ithaca College. "Until these factors are brought under control, I don't see it lessening."

"Athletics is an intense situation," said Lanness Robinson, athletic director for Hillsborough County schools. "Sometimes we haven't done a good enough job controlling the emotional side of it."

Steps are taken off the field to prevent problems before they surface at game time. Students, parents and coaches usually sign contracts that outline acceptable conduct and spell out penalties.

Coaches are to level swift punishment when players get out of line, said Alonso's athletic director, Kent Glover. "The superstar or the average Joe need to be treated in the exact same manner."

Alonso had 13 players ejected in the past three years, receiving athletic suspensions ranging from one to six weeks. The school's administration often tacks on academic discipline.

A couple of Alonso football players blame erratic officiating for part of the problem. Some referees won't discipline athletes who use foul language while another official will eject a player for mumbling a curse word after a bad play, players said.

Demonte McAllister, a 6-foot-3 defensive tackle, said the adrenaline rush from the game can be a catalyst for unsportsmanlike behavior.

"The first time you get hit, it's a huge rush," McAllister said. "Then, if you see somebody get blindsided - one of your guys - you want to defend them."

This year, state athletic officials targeted coaches ejected from games for unsportsmanlike conduct. The high school athletic association's board voted in April to make them complete a six-hour online education course.

During the brawl at Nature Coast, Sharks coach Jamie Joyner was accused of throwing punches. He was penalized by the athletic association and is appealing.

"Student-athletes model their behavior after that of their coaches," said John A. Stewart, executive director of the association.

Carrollwood Day School in Tampa has found success keeping its athletes out of trouble.

The private school was among 22 selected to receive a 2007-08 Fred E. Rozelle Sportsmanship Award.

The state high school athletic association chose winners based in part on the number of unsportsmanlike ejections and on recommendations from officials. Officials haven't ejected a Carrollwood athlete in three years or more.

The school's coaches focus on building discipline and character, said Frank Mabry, Carrollwood's high school athletic director.

Referees and opposing teams are treated as valued guests. "We teach that you compete with a fellow opponent, not against them," Mabry said. "You honor one another by training your best and competing the very best you can."

'It's Learned Behavior'

Improving sportsmanship takes time, Jefferson High girls basketball coach Tom Mosca said. Coaches constantly battle outside influences that undermine their efforts.

High school athletes see what Mosca calls a permissive attitude toward unsportsmanlike conduct and violence in college and the pros. Often, outside athletic associations don't do enough to control unruly players, he said. Sometimes those players come into the high school season primed for trouble.

Jefferson athletic director Bob Morgan said he sees more trouble with spitting and profanity than violence.

If there are fights, they last only seconds, Morgan said.

Officials ejected 15 Jefferson players in the past three years, including 10 football players during a game with Alonso.

"It's learned behavior," Morgan said. "They learn it at home or in their communities."

INFRACTIONS

In Hillsborough County, these high schools recorded the highest number of unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.

•Jefferson: 15

•Alonso: 13

•Freedom: 11

•Robinson: 11

•Berkeley Preparatory: 10

•Riverview: 9

•Tampa Bay Technical: 8

(Records are from August 2006-October 2008.)

Source: Florida High School Athletics Association

Reporter Baird Helgeson can be reached at (813) 259-7668.

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