Bringing sportsmanship back to your youth sports leagues: learn how the Salt Lake County park and recreation department changed its youth sports by changing the game

Parks & Recreation, June, 2004 by Gary D. Ellis, Hester L. Henderson, Karen Paisley, Kenneth E. Silverberg, Mary S. Wells

Finally, new rituals were introduced after the games. A post-game "social" was instituted, with the home team bringing snacks for both teams, and the visiting team supplying drinks. Similar to the pre-game introductions, this was designed to help players and coaches get to know one another--to personalize the process and establish a common community. As players entered the room in which this social event was held, they indicated how much fun they had during that game using the "Fun-o-meter." The Fun-o-meter is a wooden box with five holes in it, numbered one through five. "One" was labeled "no fun" and "five" was labeled "lots of fun." Players took marbles that matched the color of their jerseys and placed the marbles into the holes that corresponded with how much fire they had. At the end of the social, these "votes" were counted and recorded for each team. Also during the social, each team voted on the player from the opposing team who demonstrated the best sportsmanship. These two players were given a certificate and a prize (T-shirt, small basketball, poster, etc.) and had their photo taken together, which was posted on the league's Web site. At the end of the season, each team voted for the overall best sport from their own team. These players received a certificate and a full-size basketball, and had their photos taken for the website.

While these additions and changes were implemented in a basketball league, they are not limited to one setting. PHPFPF principles are applicable in other areas as well. Just about any youth sports league or physical education class could apply these inexpensive and easy changes to their program.

Did It Work?

To evaluate the program, we interviewed staff of the community center, conducted written surveys of parents and players and recorded and analyzed data from our Fun-o-meter. The recreation center staff said that they received fewer complaints from parents about the league than ever before and that the PHPFPF program actually "made it less stressful." More importantly, the staff said that "kids started to make it a point of being more sportsmanlike, even if they were good to start with." Further, the staff noticed that kids in the PHPFPF program were playing differently in other programs offered by the center--suggesting that kids were transferring what was learned to other settings. Staff members were enthusiastic not only about repeating the program, but also extending it to soccer and other sports.

Parents thought their kids' sportsmanship improved as a result of playing in the PHPFPF program and most want their kids to play again next season. When asked to identify strengths of the program, teamwork, fair play, and sportsmanship (a "wholesome environment") were recurrent themes.

As for the kids, they tended to have more fun during close games (especially if their team won), which reinforces the need for balanced teams and the Mercy Rule. Kids' fun also seemed to be affected by the attitudes of the coaches--games with aggressive, load coaches tended to have lower fun scores. We've heard it before, but this reinforces the need to educate coaches and parents about sportsmanship and the impact of their behaviors on the children and their experiences playing sports.