Winning the bigger game
Coeur d'Alene Press | UPDATED 14 years, 8 months AGO
The greater you are as a fan, the less objective you are about your game.
Fandom is visceral, not intellectual. Reason falls proportionate to the degree that emotions rise. For true fans, few are life's joys that transcend your team winning the big game. And when your team loses? Well, fans have committed murder, suicide and countless other acts of violence because their team had fewer points, runs or goals than the opponent.
Recognizing that emotion trumps reason in the heat of the sporting moment is important in preparing for games like Friday's Coeur d'Alene - Post Falls basketball contest, in which the Vikings, playing at home, defeated the top-ranked Trojans. But recognition alone isn't enough. Certainly, school officials were prepared for the likelihood of emotion overcoming reason en masse, yet a great high school basketball game became something of a melee afterward, with reports of children being knocked around and punches being thrown as fans stormed the court.
This was an intense game with an electric atmosphere that seemed to burst at the final buzzer. Emotions on both sides were high before the game started, but perceived taunts and other acts of fan belligerence pushed those emotions beyond the healthy stage. Intended or not, some of the antics came across to the visitors as belittling social commentaries.
Our intent today is not to play armchair referee or psychologist, but to remind all fans that particularly at the high school level, sportsmanship is the name of the game. Sportsmanship from fans involves finding the best, most creative ways to support your team, not denigrating the opponent.
Sadly, nobody should be surprised by poor sportsmanship shown by students at athletic events. Just look at parents in the political arena. If you wonder where our kids learn that respect is irrelevant, that hateful speech and acts are justified because one side is supposedly better than the other, then the mystery is solved.
To improve sportsmanship in our children's world, we adults must improve civility in ours.