Poor sportsmanship escalating in Ohio prep sports

The OHSAA has come a long way under the tenure of commissioner Dan Ross, who will be retiring at the end of the school year.

More sports are offered than ever before by the governing board of Ohio high school sports. The implementation of a groundbreaking Competitive Balance measure has helped balance the playing field between public and private schools. And the nightly flood of athletes and fans to their local venues for the purity of high school competition is stronger than ever.

But a look of disappointment comes across the face of Ross when he acknowledges one aspect of high school sports in Ohio that is trending the wrong way. Sportsmanship. OHSAA data reveal that the total number of ejections — players and coaches alike — are at an all-time high this season. And that’s with data from spring sports yet to be determined.

The total ejections number of 1,046 is up from 1,011 ejections over the same time period of last year — a 3.5 percent increase.

It’s a major cause of concern for Ross as he prepares to leave his position.

“Is it disconcerting? Yes. Is it disappointing? Yes,” Ross said. “Because I believe we are better than that. We need to really work on the sportsmanship issues.”

It’s not that the OHSAA isn’t trying — and to be honest, the escalation in ejections isn’t its fault or Ross’ fault.

Virtually every piece of OHSAA paraphernalia includes the words “Respect the game.” Most of the state tournament games are precluded with a video montage that includes one player from each team talking about the importance of sportsmanship both on and off the playing surface. So there is an emphasis. But it’s not exactly being heeded.

The escalation has been rapid. For instance, the 1,011 ejections from the 2016-17 season were the most since 2003-04.

And this year is worse — with more sports yet to be played.

Granted, spring sports don’t move the needle much. Between baseball, softball, boys track, girls track, boys lacrosse and girls lacrosse (six sports), there were only 170 ejections last spring; 107 of them were in baseball.

Whether it’s because this season’s athletics bring out the best in people, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel because school is almost over, or because so few games are played because Mother Nature wipes them out with elongated winters like this year, spring sports feature the least ejections.

But there are some alarming trends:

• Football had 350 ejections this year (334 players, 16 coaches), up from 328 last year and up significantly from 282 in 2015-16.

• Girls basketball’s 67 ejections (42 players, 25 coaches) are the highest on record.

• Boys basketball had 153 ejections (117 players, 36 coaches) and the highest ejection rate of coaches on record.

To be fair, the 153 ejections in boys basketball is down 22 from last year. It’s just the number of coaching heave-hos that is on the ascent.

“I think it also has an effect on our officiating,” Ross said. “Why would you want to go out there as an official and go through what many of these people have to go through?

“We hear, ‘We’re struggling holding officials.’ Well, you’re gonna if sportsmanship doesn’t get better.”

Some sports are barely on the radar — if at all — when it comes to ejections. For instance, girls track, girls swimming and bowling had no ejections.

Boys swimming had one, which begs the questions how does one get ejected from swimming this side of nonchalantly flipping a candy bar into the pool and yelling, “Doodie?”

All joking aside, there is a sportsmanship issue, despite the OHSAA’s best attempts at promoting good sportsmanship.

So where does the problem generate?

“I think it’s everywhere,” Ross said. “We met with the coaches association last week, and they think it starts way back. It’s an issue of respect.”

Players see their parents brought to their tip-toes and screaming at the top of their lungs toward officials at games.

They see their coaches ranting and raving up and down the sideline.

They see professional players like LeBron James raise their arms in disbelief on why there was no whistle on every drive to the basket. Or NFL players facemask to facemask barking at each other on TV.

And they think it’s OK to do the same.

“Many are also in leagues where you can do anything you want to do,” Ross said of youth leagues that are loosely run, “and now all of a sudden you can’t do that stuff anymore. That causes issues.”

There likely isn’t one singular thing that will reverse the current trend, termed “alarming” by Ross. You just can’t wave a magic wand that makes everyone be more sportsmanlike on the playing surfaces.

After all, we are talking about heated competition where emotions come into play. It’s just a matter of controlling those emotions somewhat.

Because for all that is right with high school sports in Ohio these days — from the multitude of opportunities afforded our student athletes to Competitive Balance to the general pureness of amateur athletics — the one black mark is bad sportsmanship.

If it’s not given the proper attention on levels lower than the OHSAA, it’s going to get worse.