Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4Why Sportsmanship Matters… To Students Students who learn to appreciate the true meaning of sportsmanship can transfer that knowledge and experience to other facets of their lives, whether it is in building and maintaining relationships, being productive and happy in the workplace, or respecting differences in one’s community, state and country. To Fans When unchecked, jeers or unsporting behaviors embarrass individuals or schools, or may initiate a counter response, which then may escalate to more disrespectful and offensive responses in return. These types of scenarios in an emotion-filled environment have potential to extend outside the venue and to other interactions or future events with adverse, even violent, results. To Coaches Coaches are the teachers in the athletic classroom and can experience the rewards of seeing their student athletes embrace sportsmanship. In addition, other coaches and officials will be eager to schedule games with you when your teams demonstrate sportsmanship. To Schools With budget restraints and referendums for renovations, repairs, expansions and even programming, it’s imperative that school systems maintain strong community support. Sustaining a positive and safe venue for high school sports by ensuring that athletes and fans demonstrate sportsmanship helps you build admiration and goodwill within your community. To Communities The only impressions visitors may have of a community may be those formed when they travel to venues and events where school sports and other activities take place. When athletes and fans display sportsmanship at school-based activities, it creates a positive perception of one’s community — and can impact family and employee decisions on where to live and enroll their children. Visit www.wiaawi.org to learn more about sportsmanship. Providing leadership and guidance for conveying the ideals and fundamentals of sportsmanship to our youth is an important responsibility for all those connected directly or indirectly in their school sports communities. We take that responsibility very seriously — and we know you do, too. During most school years, the WIAA and its member schools organize, stage and officiate — without major incidents — approximately 119,000 varsity level contests, 3,300 regional and state tournament contests and an unknown number of subvarsity games. As members of the WIAA, we share a collective responsibility to preserve high school sports on the moral, ethical and educational platforms on which they began. Please join us in teaching our young people the values of sportsmanship. Help us help our student athletes “play” their way to future success…on and off the field. Respectfully, The WIAA Sportsmanship Committee