"Sieve! Sieve! Sieve!" "Sea-son's ov-er!" "Score-board!"
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| Eagan volleyball fans during the 2015 state tournament. |
As I read more about what happened, it seems the email was just a guideline or reminder. But phrases and headlines like "Wisconsin bans game chants" flooded the internet, resulting in a viral story that went national.
Another piece of the story was a 5-game suspension for a girls' basketball player who fired off a reactionary Tweet, including profanity, to show what she thought of the so-called "ban." It was the school that suspended her, not the WIAA, to be clear. My only real issue with this was the length of suspension. Five games seemed like a lot, but I'm not in a position to make those rules, obviously.
Slippery slope in our PC society
So, with all this floating around out there on social media - most of it being negative - I wanted to share my thoughts about the issue. Chants are a part of sports, and you'll head down a slippery slope if you want to start censoring what students can chant at high school games.
In a society that seems to lean more and more toward being (overly) politically correct about basically everything and worrying about not offending anyone, this story goes right along with it. It's also right up there with everybody being a winner and participation trophies.
There's nothing like a state tournament packed with student sections. They're cheering, they never sit down and are often drenched in school colors or interesting costumes. Then they fire up their chants. There are the common ones, of course, but it's also fun to see how creative they can get, too, especially when they challenge the other student sections to match them.
What's the big deal?
I just don't understand what the big deal is about these chants. I've never been on the athlete side of these, but as a fan, it's fun. It makes you feel involved in the game. It's really, just a part of the game. It's expected.
Bad sportsmanship? I don't know. If you're out there getting flack after completely missing the basketball hoop, there's also a good chance your fans will let the other team have it when they make the same error. It doesn't really justify it, if you think it's bad sportsmanship.
Do athletes feel bad when they hear something like "airball" or "you can't do that"? I don't know. I'd imagine if they make a mistake though, that they're not giving a thought to the chants. They're either moving on to the next play or mentally kicking themselves for failing to hit the rim on a three-pointer or letting in the fourth easy goal of the first period. If they took a bad foul or penalty, they'll know it (or argue with the officials).
I just think it's part of the game like anything else. Screaming out profanities for most of the game to players or officials, yeah, that's more along the lines of bad sportsmanship.
The only chant I'd be willing to reconsider might be "bullsh--," because yes, that is profanity. Not that I'm offended by that chant at all, but if you want to pick one that's a gray area, I'd say that's it.
Everybody cannot win 100 percent of the time
Really, it all comes back to how sports are about making everybody winners. Guess what? That's not real life. People lose and life is not fair. One team will always lose a game - you can talk about moral victories, sunshine and rainbows and participation ribbons all you want, but that fact is still true.
Maybe the students could respond with chants like "PC, PC (clap, clap. clap, clap, clap)" for politically correct. Or how about "No hurt fee-lings! (clap, clap. clap, clap, clap). Or "We're all win-ners!" Just a few ideas, if students would like to have a little fun about this sportsmanship thing.
Carry on, student sections.
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