[FerdieMurphy]

I'd agree, except that my high school football team used to sprint for the buses whenever they won an away game, because they knew that if the fans and players of the losing team caught them, it would not be pretty.

Leonard would throw that in.

[ClearCase_guy]

How to win, how to lose and how to be an adult either way.

If there's going to be a training class on this, can we get the Democrats to sign up?

[2banana]

Teachers - leading by example - extorting as much money from the community for as little work as possible through the teacher's unions...

[orionblamblam]

Here's an idea: get rid of athletic teams in schools. Use the money saved for Actual Education. Leave the games for after-school playtime for the kiddies on their own parents dimes.

[Bahbah]

``There's a standard you are required to live up to and if you don't, you will be held accountable, period.''

That is exactly right. My girls played soccer and the coaches noticed the spitting thing going on. They put a stop to it instantly by explaining that if it ever happened again, the team would not play.

[Eagle Eye]

Our local high school football team goes a step beyond the handshake; it has a postgame prayer and invites the other team to join.

And they usually do.

[GOPJ]

I wondered then what I wonder now: What is wrong with saying to our young people: ``There's a standard you are required to live up to and if you don't, you will be held accountable, period.''

Easy, tell the kids if they can't shake hands like civilized people, they're off the team. Then mean it. Ban them from high school sports for the duration of their stay. An unintended consequence might be that it'll stop the criminalization of sports.

[greasepaint]

this is crap.

over-age teenagers, are expecting real teenagers to
to grovel, to be on the team.

Worse than this, however,
is the NHL, with its
fake fights and fake blood.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Well, these kids are going to have to learn it if they expect to play college ball. My kids were shocked to see the Fighting Illini and the Northwestern Wildcat football players shaking hands at the end of the game this past weekend.

Sign me,
Marching Illini Alum
Member of the Honor the Chief org.

[Biblebelter]

Forcing players to shake hands or not shake hands with the other team does not seem to have much to do with sportmanship. I played at the college and high school level many years back. There were times that you truly felt like going up to an opponent after a game and there were times that you did not. But the one thing that was overriding in those days was that you had a responsibility to the team and to the school. You may have felt like being unsportmanslike at times, but you knew that you were representing your school and your family and you could not embarrass them and if you did you would regret it. There were teams that you played that had reputations for poor sportmanship and the coaches and administrators were not shy in lecturing once in a while that you did not want to be like so and so. The teams that I played on were hesitant to run the scores up on other teams because it was known that in a year or two the roles might be reversed. Hotdogging and showing up the other team were not tolerated. We learned the team was more important than the individual. That element of sportmanship is sorely lacking on almost all levels of sport today.