Ricardo Hernandez has seen things get pretty heated at travel soccer games.
“Everything that happens when a child is involved, [parents] take things very personally,” says the North Laurel resident and high school administrator, who has served as an assistant coach on his sons’ travel and rec soccer teams. “You speak up for them and want to make sure they’re not wronged in any way.”
Fortunately, sideline monitors like his wife, Kate Hernandez, are there to defuse any conflict before it gets out of hand.
“I’ve seen the parent liaison talk parents through the situation,” he says. “They remind us to watch ourselves and watch our language.”
This spring, the Soccer Association of Columbia is bringing a similar model to its rec league games through Choose Sportsmanship, an extension of the Choose Civility initiative.
The first organization to officially adopt Choose Sportsmanship, SAC will ask recreational coaches to designate one parent per team as a sportsmanship representative. Each representative will wear a green Choose Civility bracelet and be tasked with setting an example for players and spectators to behave in a sportsmanlike manner — and confronting spectators when they get rowdy.
That parent’s presence will be reinforced by Choose Sportsmanship banners on SAC’s fields, the official statement on its website and a sportsmanship weekend planned for the fall.
Choose Sportsmanship was first introduced at the 2014 Choose Civility Symposium, titled “The Ball’s in Your Court: Can Civility and Sports Coexist?” As they planned the symposium, committee members recalled incidents of unsportsmanlike behavior during planning of the symposium.
The Choose Sportsmanship civility statement says: “We support respect for others, their roles and their knowledge and expertise. All coaches, athletes, parents and spectators are responsible for and expected to exemplify civility.”
SAC Executive Director Craig Blackburn says the program meshes with the club’s mission to provide opportunities to “build character, enhance community and promote an appreciation for the game of soccer.”
Paul Capodanno, vice president of sportsmanship at the SAC, says the program is meant to be preventive.
“Youth sports can be very competitive, which is not a bad thing in itself,” he says. “On occasion, that competitiveness can manifest itself in poor behavior from players and parents.”
The hope, Capodanno explains, is that the sportsmanship representative could help curb parents from berating a referee, for instance.
“At any sports event, everyone benefits when players, fans and especially parents conscientiously remember to choose civility,” says Valerie Gross, president of the Howard County Library System, which provides leadership and direction for the Choose Civility initiative.
To Hernandez, Choose Sportsmanship is a reminder to focus on what brought sports parents together in the first place: young people.
“At the end of the day, sports teaches young people so many valuable lessons — to deal with adversity, to be strategic, to come together for the common goal, to be good sports,” he says. “You may lose, but you have to be graceful in that endeavor.”