Sportsmanship

What is sportsmanship? Dictionary.com defines sportsmanship as sportsmanlike conduct, fairness, courtesy, and being a cheerful loser. Sportsmanship is these things, but it is also so much more. It represents who you are and influences the actions that you take. This past Friday, I went to a Gwinnett Gladiators hockey and I was appalled by the lack of sportsmanship displayed by these minor league hockey players. When you watch hockey, it is only expected that you will see at least one or two fights break out, but Friday night’s game took it to the extreme. Somewhere around 10 to 20 fights broke out in the course of the 45 minute hockey game. If you do the math, that is a fight every 2 to 4.5 minutes. Although the majority of the fights were small squirmishes, three or four of them were gloves-and-helmets-off fights. At one point I was actually perplexed as to which sport I was watching, hockey or boxing, because two players took of their gloves and helmets and were circling each other in a manner almost identical to boxing. The thing that perplexed me further, was that the refs just stood there and watched them fight. After about five minutes the refs did intervene and the two players were kicked out of the game.

In addition to the lack of sportsmanship displayed by the players, there was a lack of sportsmanship displayed by the fans. I suppose the two are quite intertwined, but this still enrages me. The fans started cheering “ref you suck” multiple times throughout the game. The combination of these two things goes against all the basic principle of sportsmanship that my coaches have taught me. My club lacrosse team coach, Coach Llanes, mandates that nothing negative ever comes out of our mouths, be it directed at our own teammates, the refs, or the other team. She also mandates that we never lose our composure, even if the other team does. Although fights provide entertainment to some people, I think that watching people actually play the game is a hundred times more entertaining. So next time you’re out participating in a game or sport be a sportsman because there is always someone watching, the way you play in a game isn’t only a definition of your game, it defines how you act in real life situations.