The Kanawha County Board of Education is working to stress good sportsmanship throughout the county.
Board members gave initial approval Thursday night to a new Athletics-Good Sportsmanship Policy they hope to eventually put in place.
Board member William Raglin said their failing at their job if there’s poor sportsmanship.
“When a kid gets thrown out for fighting or something like that and we haven’t stressed and pushed sportsmanship, then that’s a disservice to the student,” said Raglin.
The policy was created after board members noticed students conducting poor sportsmanship at several local sporting events.
Raglin said board members, along with all staff members in the school system, are responsible for showing kids how to act.
“Young people need to know when you play a game you play as hard as you can play but you play according to the rules and at the end the winner consoles the loser and the loser acts gracious in defeat,” said Raglin.
The policy submitted at the meeting outlined in detail the responsibilities of the principal, coaches, players and even the spectators when it comes to good sportsmanship.
For example, the student’s responsibilities include being courteous to visiting teams and officials, participating to the limit of their ability and being modest when successful and being gracious in defeat.
The policy also outlined disciplinary actions that should be taken if and when bad sportsmanship presented itself at a sporting event.
The policy stated that if a member of a sports team, including the coaches, trainers and managers, is ejected from a game by the officials, the ejected individual would be suspended from participating in the next event.
Raglin says the proposed policy still has some editing to be done to it.
“We still have some massaging to do in order to address some of the concerns that people have and I hope in the final analysis we’ll put together something that serves the purpose of teaching sportsmanship and leadership and doesn’t tie the hands of the principals and coaches,” said Raglin.
Since it was only the first reading, the school board plans to put the policy out for public comment and then bring it back for another vote once comments have been made.