From Deseret News archives:
High school soccer: Sportsmanship requested
Soccer teams to hold meetings with players, parents
This spring, every boys soccer coach will be required to hold a meeting with players and parents where they discuss sportsmanship and what is expected of each person during games. The hope is that the behavior of players, coaches and fans will improve over last season, when the entire sport was put on probation.
In addition to the preseason meetings, the Utah High School Activities Association's Executive Committee accepted a report outlining dozens of recommendations for the sport, including guidelines for facilities, officials and crowd control.
"We want you to know that we want to take ownership of our sport," said Wasatch head soccer coach Dewain Wheatley, who was a member of the committee who studied the issue and helped draft the recommendations. "It's a great, inexpensive sport; it keeps kids healthy, and we want to play more soccer not less."
The committee of principals, coaches, officials and parents, as well as UHSAA staff, was formed in the wake of the executive committee's decision last June to put the sport on probation after a record number of ejections and several unsportsmanlike incidents during the playoffs.
The report released by the group at the executive committee meeting Wednesday was comprehensive covering everything from the way a field should be marked to suggesting changes in game times to ensure officials were available for varsity matches.
The report says that when possible schools should hold varsity games as late as possible and use three officials for both junior varsity and varsity matches.
"One of the biggest issues with soccer is officials — and the lack thereof," said UHSAA assistant director Bart Thompson. "Several officials got assigned on the day they registered last year, just so we didn't have to cancel matches. ... We talked about playing the j.v. game first, but some coaches were concerned, especially in the spring about running out of daylight. That's a legitimate concern; we want to encourage as many schools as possible to play later."
The issues of luring officials to later games is unique to soccer.
"We have an issue in soccer that we don't have in any other sport," Thompson said. "Officials can work a whole day at work and then do a club game. We have a number of soccer officials who are well-trained, knowledgeable, experienced but choose not to do high school games because they have to leave work early."
