UNC-TV ONLINE: Pursuing Victory With Honor:

May 1, 2001, Tuesday

SECTION: Sports; Pg. D1;

LENGTH: 1019 words

HEADLINE: Panel discusses sagging state of sportsmanship
Most agree that setting good examples for young players is important

BYLINE: NEIL AMATO nga@herald-sun.com; 419-6672

BODY:

CHAPEL HILL - A previously calm mother becomes a soccer mom with referee rage. Swimmers taunt each other on the starting blocks before races. Bands are stationed behind an opponent's bench, blaring their songs during timeouts.

Is it an accepted part of society or a sports ill that must be cured?

A dependable free-throw shooter claims she was fouled in order to take the shots that belonged to a poor-shooting teammate.

Is that gamesmanship or poor sportsmanship?

Those issues and many others related to sports ethics were addressed Monday at a conference called Pursuing Victory with Honor. A group filled Grumman Auditorium at the Friday Center to discuss those matters and hear the opinions of a big-name panel of guests.

Some of the information was new. Some of the points they had heard before. But, either way, one local high school coach said the reinforcement was needed.

"I think it's good to have something like this once in a while that says it's OK to have standards, it's OK to try to build character and if that costs you a win occasionally, that's the way it goes," Jordan swimming coach Jim Maxwell said.

Maxwell took part in one panel discussion moderated by Michael Josephson, the president of the Josephson Institute and Character Counts Sports, the organization that started the Pursuing Victory with Honor campaign. The seminar came to North Carolina through the efforts of Chancellor James Moeser, a member of the Josephson Institute of Ethics' board of governors.

Other participants included actor Tom Selleck, a former basketball and volleyball player at Southern Cal; Charlie Adams, the executive director of the NCHSAA; Kay Yow, the Hall of Fame women's basketball coach at N.C. State; and Tom Osborne, the former Nebraska football coach who was elected to Congress from that state last fall.

In addition, a group of current and former UNC coaches and administrators took part: Athletics Director Dick Baddour; current and former basketball coaches Matt Doherty, Bill Guthridge and Dean Smith; women's basketball coach Sylvia Hatchell; and women's soccer coach Anson Dorrance.

One issue that has affected sports at all levels is the treatment of officials. Most people have heard about the pro arena organist who was ejected from a game for playing the tune to "Three Blind Mice" after a questionable call by basketball refs against the home team.

While that may seem funny, it is part of a trend that referee John Clougherty says is disturbing.

"Fans think it's cool and trendy to bash refs," Clougherty, an ACC basketball ref who lives in Raleigh. "Fans set an example for children. They wouldn't act like that in their own house, but that's acceptable behavior. How do they expect their children to act if they see them acting like that?"

Clougherty said he wasn't sure what to expect from the seminar when he was added to the list of Panelistss. But he knew one thing: He wanted to be part of a solution to a growing problem.

"I wanted to participate because I think sportsmanship is at its lowest level ever," he said. "We're all guilty - parents, coaches, referees. We can all act like morons sometimes.

"I don't know when it got to where it is now, but I know it's a problem."

Referees are relied on to enforce the rules, but sometimes coaches bend those rules. Josephson, who has done similar seminars across the country, said even good kids will do something unethical or illegal on the field of play if they're taught it's OK.

He relayed the story of basketball star Jennifer Azzi, a former U.S. Olympian and current WNBA player. During a seminar, she was asked about the practice of putting a good free-throw shooter on the line when a poor one is fouled.

Azzi said the practice wasn't cheating, but the audience disagreed with her. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"That's cheating?" she asked incredulously. She told the audience every coach she'd ever had had taught her that sort of switch was acceptable.

Though many of those in attendance were high school coaches, much of the talk focused on keeping youth sports pure and fun for kids. Much of that responsibility, Osborne said, falls to parents.

"When parents sit and scream at the officials or at the kids, that's not helpful to anybody," he said. "It takes all the fun out of the game."

Other highlights:

* Coaches were reminded to praise positive acts in public and criticize in private. Dorrance, after his portion of the panel discussion, wanted to rave about the actions of former UNC star Mia Hamm, who was in town to play for the WUSA's Washington Freedom.

"Can you believe when they were setting salary caps for this league, she refused to have a greater salary than anyone else who was a founding member?" Dorrance said. "She does 6,000 interviews a week and she carries the weight of the league. She's always trying to deflect credit to her teammates."

* Lin Dawson, the athletics director at N.C. Central and a former N.C. State and NFL player, gave an impassioned speech, talking about a middle-school coach in Kinston who made a difference in his life. Dawson also talked about how he has come down hard on some athletes at NCCU, suspending 50 in the spring for various transgressions.

"Character must be universal," Dawson said. "There's no situational character."

* Smith, at least initially, tried to downplay the behavior of former UNC star Rasheed Wallace, who broke his own record for the most technicals in an NBA season. "Rasheed was a delight to coach. He was very team-oriented. His only problem is dealing with his anger toward officials."

Smith later said that TV showing Wallace's antics was a problem. "People see them as role models, and that's the danger in what Rasheed's doing."

In an interview, Smith said of Wallace: "He's a really nice young man. He has a problem, maybe. Anybody that's played for me, I'm not one to tell him what to do after they're through."

$ 130:Photo: SARA DAVIS, Referee John Clougherty and N.C. State's women's basketball coach Kay Yow chuckle during Monday's symposium at UNC.