I second that!. We need to start a topic listing all of the good sportsmanship that we have noticed. Good publicity. Pass it on!

I have one - last weekend at districts two young men from the same team were wrestling each other. When the match was over, the non-winner (I hate the term "loser") mocked throwing a fit, then broke out into a big grin and hugged his teammate. Made us laugh aloud. The two of them proceeded to walk off the mat together, laughing and talking. I was VERY impressed.

Please, please, please make these kids responsible for their behavior. Cussing, yelling, throwing things.... this is inappropriate behavior. Why don't coaches (and refs) put a stop to it when they are little. They won't behave this way when they are older. Our coach has made it very clear from day 1 that this type of behavior will not be tolerated. But then again I saw some coaches behave the same way Saturday.

I am in complete agreement. The role models should be the ones win or lose the hold their heads high and shake hands, or even hug their opponents/coaches/refs. Learn from their mistake and go on. But the ones that always get noticed are the ones that throw the fits. I have seen alot of nasty behavior in the last 15 years, but when I see something good it makes me forget the bad! All of us parents really need to get on the bandwagon and pull together on this issue.

This is the bottom line. It all starts at HOME!!! Kids generally display the values in public that they learn at home.

AMEN to that Jim Gaither!!!

All,

I have been reading through the message string and I think everyone brings up valid points. Having read through all the messages there is one thing that jumps out at me....

We have discussions from a coach's point of view, discussions from a referee's point of view, and discussions from a parent's point of view about sportsmanship of the children wrestlers.

To me there is one common denominator....coaches, parents, and refs are ADULTS. It is up to us to work together to set the example and demand the appropriate behavior (sportsmanship) from our wrestlers (CHILDREN).

The challenge is that wrestling is a very emotional sport and it is easy to get caught in the emotion (regardless if you are a child or adult). With that said it is up to the ADULTS to work together to set the example for the children.

We have been at this season now for almost 4-5 months and I can honestly say that I have seen a lot more examples of positive, good sportsmanship from parents, coaches, officials, and wrestlers than I have poor sportsmanship. Because of that I want to thank the majority of parents, coaches, officials, and wrestlers for working together and showing good sportsmanship. I am convinced that the majority of this population demonstrate good sportsmanship 90% of the time and it is a very small population that show poor sportsmanship.

Bottomline: For those few exceptional times that poor sportsmanship is displayed then it is up to the parents, coaches, and refs (ADULTS) to work with the kids to show them the right way to behave.

I don't know how much this diatribe helps but I at least feel better. Thanks.

I will say this about poor sports. It is easy for those parents and coaches who don't deal with it regularly to criticize poor spotsmanship. It is easy to win gracefully. It is another thing to lose gracefully. I've seen those very same people who rag on others for their conduct following a loss completely lose it when their stud gets beat. Losing isn't fun. No one wants to lose and no one likes to lose. It sucks.

Losing may stink but it is one of the best ways to learn. When a wrestler loses he learns respect for the person who beats him, he becomes humble & learns how to be less prideful. As we tell our son everyone can be beat even him & only a true champion can accept the outcome win or lose. I think if we as adults can teach our kids good morales and values about losing in a wrestling match they will be much more equipped to deal with failure in the real world. Without the loses & failures we would not be able to truly appreciate the wins & successes.

Very well put shawnbudke as well as me&my4sons!

True M&M4sons. However I am not saying I agree with being a bad sport (I don't) I just don't want my kids to become content with losing. I want them to hate it, and know that it is bad when they lose. (Win lose or draw I always try and find things our wrestlers do well in a match as well as things they need to improve on.) I agree we can all learn from a good whooping on the mat, but I think we can learn just as much from winning.