WIAA ripped on social media for asking fans to tone down antics
http://www.jsonline.com/sports/prep...o-tone-down-antics-b99650770z1-365231331.html
Roasted. Absolutely roasted.
That's what the WIAA is getting these days. The efforts of the state's high school governing body to curb taunts and disrespectful cheers by students has been blasted from every corner of the state and made national news.
ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas has had a field day, showing his comedic/sarcastic side with a series of tweets that display examples what he says is acceptable crowd behavior by WIAA's standards. My favorite is the one of the nuns sitting and presumably respectfully and quietly supporting their team.
Students at Luther Prep in Watertown taped shut their mouths at its game Tuesday night. So did kids at Ashwaubenon.
Let's be clear, though. The WIAA never banned any cheers. The organization didn't suspend anyone either.
This situation came to light after April Gehl, a Hilbert girls basketball player, read the email about WIAA's point of emphasis — its words not mine — and tweeted an impromptu and profane response from her personal account. She was suspended five games by the school for the tweet. I assume the suspension had to do more with the use of profanity than her questioning the WIAA logic.
That led to an Appleton Post-Crescent article about the suspension and the WIAA email that inspired it. Since then it's been rip city for the WIAA from all over the country.
But the email, which was sent to schools right before winter break, wasn't as bad as it has been made out to be. The note was essentially a reminder to emphasize good sportsmanship. It went on to say that school officials should take immediate steps to stop any taunting or disrespectful cheers and behavior when seen.
The WIAA followed that email with another this week. This one apologized for any "distress or dissatisfaction" that resulted from the first email and made clear that there are no new rules, mandates or enforcement expectations when it comes to cheering at games.
Sounds good to me. No one condones taunting and it is especially unacceptable in a school setting, of which prep sports is an extension. The letter should have stopped right there, though. It's the examples of taunts the WIAA provide that have helped make it the butt of jokes.
Here are some that were listed:
"You can't do that"
"Fundamentals"
"Airball"
"Scoreboard"
"Sieve"
I've been to hundreds of high school events and can't remember these types of chants causing an uncomfortable atmosphere. Usually students will do a chant or cheer for a few seconds and move on as soon as play resumes. If anything comes close to getting out of hand, a teacher or athletic director is there to tell them to knock it off.
Most athletic directors I've been in contact with over the past couple of days don't see this as a big problem, either. One even said his players got a kick out of the experience.
"Over my three years we had three or four incidents of crowds getting on our kids with those chants, and each time our kids said it was the most fun atmosphere they ever played in to the point where the crowd and the players congratulated each other and took pictures after the game," Messmer athletic director and boys basketball coach Ken Klatkiewicz.