Athletics – an extension of the classroom

I am certain at one time or another throughout your son/daughters athletic experience you have heard that high school athletics are an extension of the classroom. Studies show that athletic participation improves student performance in the classroom. Most of our program coaches at LHS are teachers who add an educational component to the X’s and O’s of a sports season. They spend time teaching our athletes about character and providing them with the skills to become quality citizens. It appears that our athletes can’t escape the classroom and in turn they are faced with additional educational opportunities by participating in sport. With that said, athletics are an extremely large classroom which includes the student body, community, and parents.
Expectations for all those who attend athletic events are to be good sports…model sound behavior, support the team, coaches and officials. Recently, some of our student body has engaged in unsporting chants directed at the opponent. You, you, you, you, aaahhh, YOOOUUU “______.” Hey number 15, you are a “______.” Go ahead and fill in the blanks and try to justify that this behavior is ok. Furthermore, obscene hand gestures directed at the visiting crowd or opponent is a sure sign of disrespect. The age appropriateness of sportsmanship is often overlooked. Just because behaviors like these are widely accepted at the professional or collegiate level, it doesn’t make it right to expose our high school athletes to poor sportsmanship. The old cliché “kids will be kids” is a convenient excuse not to correct the behaviors of our students who attend Lakeland athletic events.
Students who participate in unsporting behavior will face consequences for their actions. As mentioned earlier, athletics are treated as an extension of the classroom. Our students would not be allowed to take part in inappropriate chants or display obscene hand gestures in the classroom and will not be allowed to do so in the athletic arena. The rules for our Lakeland athletic classrooms are simple: Cheer for Lakeland in a positive manner - let the players play, the coaches coach, and the referees ref!

Greg Michaels – Lakeland, Oak Valley, White Lake Athletic Director
2/17/12