By Tim Trower
Mail Tribune
The battle against boorish behavior at youth sporting events is about to get an Olympic-sized boost.
The Know Your Role campaign initiated by the Southern Oregon Sports Commission will join forces with KOBI-TV to further the message aimed at improving the region’s youth sports culture.
KOBI-TV is affiliated with NBC, which will carry the Winter Olympics next month.
Know Your Role is a simple idea: When attending youth activities, you can be a player, coach, parent or referee, but you can only be one.
When adults in the stands berate officials, question coaches or coach their kids, it ruins the experience for others, including the children playing.
The sports commission is working to turn the tide.
It has hosted a symposium featuring a renowned speaker on the subject; it created a compelling public service announcement for TV; it met with youth sports organizers and school athletic directors last summer and delivered them banners, yard signs, floor decals and other materials pushing the message; and announcements to that end have been made at games and on coverage by radio and Table Rock Sports.
KOBI will now serve as the campaign’s heavy hitter.
The consequences of unruly behavior in youth sports include a staggering decline in participation. A National Alliance for Sports shows that 70 percent of kids quit organized sports by the time they turn 13. There are a number of contributing factors, and one of them is that sports can become joyless.
“That was the keynote for me,” said Bob Wise, KOBI-TV vice president/general manager.
He coached a traveling soccer team for nine years in California and saw parents behave in a variety of ways.
“The bad behavior is what you remember,” he said.
When he was approached by the SOSC for an advertising campaign, he considered it an important project.
“The overriding message is to educate the parents and adults so they can release the kids to the games, and not become the story,” said Wise. “The kids are the story.”
Wise lined up a handful of sponsors to support the advertising, and his staff has put together a couple of riveting TV spots.
One is called “The Letter,” depicting a daughter penning a heartfelt note to her father about his embarrassing antics at her game. The other shows sportsmanship on two levels — first bad, then good — and asks, “Who do you want to be?”
They are just the start of a yearlong commitment that will see a number of spots roll out.
“There are so many people who have witnessed this behavior, it’s important that the messaging be all over the board,” said Wise.
He estimates the spots will air about 200 times a month.
Some will be during Olympic coverage. The Games are Feb. 9-25 and typically attract non-traditional sports viewers, as well as those predisposed to tuning in. Hence, big ratings.
“It’s a perfect platform to be showing this message,” said Wise.
Many event-goers in Southern Oregon have been exposed to the Know Your Role concept.
The project was adopted during an SOSC meeting, when attention turned to youth sports and the deteriorating number of officials available to work games. The biggest reason is a hostile work environment.
The National Federation of State High School Associations found that only two out of 10 officials return for their third year, leaving administrators scrambling to get games covered and to find ways to retain officials.
Of those officials who pack it in, 76 percent do so because of abusive behavior by parents, according to a National Association of Sports Officials survey.
The SOSC-sponsored luncheon in June attracted high school and middle school athletic directors from throughout the Rogue Valley, club organizers in an array of sports and officiating commissioners.
They shared personal accounts — some of them chilling — and listened to sports commission members pitch Know Your Role.
One athletic director shared a story about angry men overturning a referee’s car after a game.
Another account was of a 12-year-old girl using variations of a cuss word on an AAU coach while the girl’s mother and teammates stood by.
There were stories of fights in gyms, fights in parking lots.
One director of elementary age sports received a death threat.
The session accentuated the need for change, and those attending took steps by ordering materials for their campuses and playing venues.
“We were thrilled with the response from the schools and clubs and their willingness to hang the banners and signs,” said SOSC member Angela Wood, director of sales and sports development for Travel Medford.
“We heard so many times this message needs to be heard and embraced by our sports community, and these organizations are anxious to be a part of that.”
Amy Tiger, the Medford School District athletic director and a sports commission member, was among those on board.
Signage has been placed at North and South Medford high schools and Hedrick and McLoughlin middle schools. Included in the materials were floor decals, which won’t be installed until gym floors undergo annual refinishing in the summer.
One place the Know Your Role message gets delivered, she said, is at eligibility night to kick off each middle- and high-school season. It’s particularly beneficial at the middle-school level, said Tiger, because parents are often new to a sport, and a few do’s and don’ts can go a long way.
“It’s a good reminder for the coaches as well,” she said.
Tiger has been a player, a coach and a parent over the years. It’s important, she said, that parents separate themselves from the games and let the kids enjoy them.
“Probably the hardest one,” she said of the roles, “is being a parent, just sitting there watching the game.”
Wise and KOBI-TV have done award-winning work, including the Emmy-winning Southern Oregon Meth Project.
It “got the conversation started,” he said, in dealing with a societal ill.
Know Your Role will get enough visibility to have a similar effect, he said.
“When you’re at these games and witnessing something that isn’t right, you’ll think about this campaign immediately,” said Wise. “Hopefully, it will be in the back of people’s mind before they start yelling at an official or kid.”
— Reach sports editor Tim Trower at 541-776-4479 or email ttrower@mailtribune.com