Some setting bad examples for children

We are told that good sportsmanship is one of the many lessons children learn from playing youth sports.

Obviously, there are dozens of other lessons we hear about - working as a team, never quitting, giving your best effort, picking up your teammate when he or she fails and so forth. But the sportsmanship value has gotten my attention lately.

It seems that we're doing everything but teaching our children good sportsmanship habits these days. Sure, most people do it the right way and should be praised, but we see much more about the ones who fall short.

College football has this thing going this year where the players and coaches from both teams meet at midfield before the game to shake hands as a gesture of good sportsmanship. It took one game for that seemingly harmless idea to blow up.

For those who haven't seen or read about it, Oregon and Boise State had one of those incidents that you don't want your child to see.

One particular Oregon player did a little trash talking before the game and a Boise State player showed his lack of class by returning the trash after Boise won.

Forgive the term, but the Oregon player went postal for a few minutes. He got in a cheap shot on the Boise player and started fighting his own players who were trying to get him off the field before he killed someone. The player was later restrained when he started after some fans.

Then there's tennis star Serena Williams, who took a temporary leave of sanity in the U.S. Open tennis tournament. A line judge called her on a foot fault and what followed from Williams' mouth would not make anyone's mother happy. One report called it a profanity-laced tirade. I'll leave it at that.

I witnessed another example of poor sportsmanship last weekend during a local football game involving two teams whose oldest player was 6 years old.

The coach of the team leading 22-0 decided it was a good idea to call timeout with three seconds remaining in the game. His team was inside the opponent's 10-yard line, so I guess he wanted one more score to make sure his team won.

As you might expect, the guy's team scored again to make the final score 28-0. I guess the message he was sending is that if you've already killed someone, keeping shooting and kill him again. There's no sense considering the feelings of 5- and 6-year-old boys.

There's a common tread in all three of the cases - a lack of class.

With examples like these to follow, it's a wonder our kids overcome these real-life lessons. It certainly creates a need for parents to set the record straight and emphasize the importance of class.

Mike Goens can be reached at mike.goens@TimesDaily.com.