A set of recommended requirements will be released this fall to help communities combat the escalating problem of violent adult behavior plaguing youth sports. These community requirements are the result of the National Summit on Raising Community Standards in Children's Sports, which was held June 8 and 9 in Itasca, Illinois. The summit involved more than 50 park and recreation professionals from across the country who were hand-picked for their proactive involvement in their communities, as well as their knowledge of the issues affecting organized youth sports programs.

The delegates spent two days evaluating the problems present in youth sports. They develop a consensus on useful solutions to help put an end to the violent and abusive behaviors wreaking havoc with many programs.

The Illinois delegates who participated in the summit were Bill Wald, the executive director of the Illinois Park and Recreation Association, and Lee Volpe, superintendent of recreation for the Winnetka Park District.

The summit was conducted by the National Alliance For Youth Sports in response to the alarming number of brawls, heatings, arrests and ugly confrontations that are taking place among parents, volunteer coaches and even children in organized youth sports programs across America.

"It's a shame that it has taken 50 years to finally address the emotional, psychological and physical abuses that occur in children's sports," said Fred Engh, founder and president of the Alliance.

"Through the efforts of the youth sports professionals from around the country who attended the summit we are developing policies and procedures for local communities that perhaps once and for all will set the standard for children's sports in America."

The requirements will outline how communities can change the culture of youth sports by using reform, education and accountability. This comprehensive document will be distributed this fall nationally to every community that offers sports opportunities for children.

The summit delegates identified six areas that must be addressed in all youth sports programs (regardless of who offers the program, the public entity or the volunteer user group).

1. All communities should adhere to a national philosophy whereby children's sports are safe, positive and devoid of parental misbehavior.

2. Eliminating political influences surrounding youth sports.

3. All communities should have a trained and knowledgeable supervisor to oversee children's sports.

4. Volunteer parents who use public and private facilities should be educated prior to being granted facilities for organizing children's sports and, in addition, they should be held accountable for their programs.

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5. Parents who act as coaches should receive education and be held to a strict code of behavior.

6. All parents, prior to their child, enrolling in programs should undergo orientation and live up to a code of ethics.

ESPN, CNN, the Associated Press and the Chicago Tribune were some of the many media representatives on hand to cover the historical summit.

Carlos Ramirez, the former mayor of El Paso, Texas, was the summit's keynote speaker.

Ramirez was the driving force behind the implementation of a sportsmanship training program for parents in El Paso to help curb the growing sideline rage at youth sporting events there. A 1999 brawl at a youth football game in El Paso that involved about 30 parents and included 10 arrests was a clear signal to Ramirez that changes needed to be made.

"In the beginning there was resistance from the parents," Ramirez said. "But for the first time in many years there has not been one fight in our youth football program."

Since the program was implemented in El Paso approximately 15,000 parents have gone through it, and not one parent has caused a sportsmanship problem, Ramirez said.

Dr. Daniel Wann, an expert on parent and spectator behavior at sports events, who spoke at the summit, said the problem with parental rage at games is the result of spectators' natural tendency to identify with players on the field.

"They don't go to games to cause trouble," Wann said, "but they so identify with their children on the playing field that they can't get a grip. Because this becomes so important to them they often lose all sense of control."

Also speaking at the summit were Dr. Joel Kirsch, co-founder and president of the American Sports Institute; and Dorothy Gjerdrum, a risk management specialist for Arthur J. Gallagher & Company.

GREG BACH
Is the communications director tor the Notional Alliance for Youth Sports.

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