Blog: Whither Sportsmanship?

The sentencing this week of a youth hockey coach to 15 days in jail for tripping a 13-year-old player from the opposing team in the handshake line last June reminded me of just how far we, as a sporting society, still have to go. The lawyer for Martin Tremblay, whose action in a British Columbia ice rink was caught on video, argued that the coach was off his anti-depressants at the time. But the judge didn't care and called Tremblay's behavior a "cowardly sucker punch." Hooray for Canada's judicial system!

As a former middle school basketball and softball coach, Little League assistant and swimming stroke-and-turn official, I've seen plenty of bad, even shocking, behavior by coaches, athletes and parents. But nothing quite like what happened in Bethlehem, Pa., last weekend when the city's mayor, John Callahan, was ejected from a high school district wrestling tournament for incessantly criticizing a referee's calls, using such terms as "horrible" and "terrible." Callahan then took to Twitter to continue his rant. If the mayor - a term derived from the Latin word meaning "greater" - can't even set a decent example of how to behave at local sporting events, we are doomed. As one reader commented on the AB website, "That jerk of a mayor is the reason why there is a shortage of officials in every sport."

Log in to view the full article
Page 1 of 386
Next Page
AB Show 2025 in San Diego
AB Show is a solution-focused event for athletics, fitness, recreation and military professionals.
Nov. 5-8, 2025
Learn More
AB Show 2025
Buyer's Guide
Information on more than 3,000 companies, sorted by category. Listings are updated daily.
Learn More
Buyer's Guide