In all of the Sweet Home athletic events I’ve attended since I arrived here in August, sportsmanship has always been excellent.
I cannot say that is true about other teams we play. The frosh football team played Central on Tuesday, Sept. 30, and displayed the worst conduct I have seen in years. They cursed our players, called them names that I cannot quote, and received five unsportsmanlike conduct penalties in the second quarter while leading the Huskies by more than 30 points at the time.
It was totally uncalled for, especially since one was called on a coach.
I was so proud of our Husky team as they did not retaliate or add to their opponents’ ugly way of playing a game. In fact, I witnessed our players giving them a hand getting back on their feet on several occasions after they gave our players a hard time. Central also ran up the score to 60-6.
Upon arriving at the school our coach collected all the valuables, money and cell phones and placed them in his bag as, I was told, the players had their lockers broken into the last time we played there.
Some of the things I like to see happen during a football game are, when a player is hurt, both teams, including the cheerleaders, get down on one knee and face the injured player. It is something that is done at all levels of football and by all the teams I have seen play this season.
Good sportsmanship is thought of much more highly when originated by the students playing the game.
One example comes to mind during the Little League World Series when a pitcher will walk over to the batter he had hit with a pitch, after the runner gets to first base, and will shake his hand.
An example of poor sportsmanship is when coaches run up the score when there is no doubt who is going to win the game.
Sweet Home water polo coach Craig Martin’s team on Saturday was scheduled to play Woodburn boys and girls. The Woodburn coach could only muster three swimmers and a goalie.
Under normal circumstances this would have been a forfeit, so Coach Martin had several choices to make and he chose the best one.
One was to win by forfeit, one was to scrimmage, and the other was to loan Woodburn some of his players so the visitors could play the game. Craig loaned Woodburn the players and ended up a little closer than he figured, 19 – 16, with Sweet Home winning the game.
These demonstrations of good sportsmanship are something that all of us in Sweet Home need to appreciate.
It is special when our young people do it on their own without any prompting from an adult. Our frosh football team really impressed me with the way they dealt with the other team last week.