Winning without honor is not winning

Editor's note: Nancy Justis, a former competitive swimmer, is a partner with Justis Creative Communications.

By Nancy Justis, correspondent

I've written many times that winning isn't the most important thing in youth sports, even less so for the younger athlete.

As the child grows into junior high and high school ages, winning does become very important in his or her eyes. They are more mature now and are more able to put results of a contest in perspective. Hopefully, an ethical and strong development base has been achieved in the early ages.

Recently two high school girls' basketball teams in Tennessee purposefully and openly tried to lose their district consolation game to delay having to play one of the strongest teams in the competition. It was reported some girls were not happy about their coaches' decision.

Both teams deliberately missed free throws and played to various game violations. It wasn't until one player nearly scored on her own team's basket that the referees finally stopped the game and warned both coaches.

Bizarre? Unfortunately, the practice isn't all that rare. In an early round of the Winnipeg (Canada) High School Hockey League's A-Division playoffs in 2011, the Westwood High School Warriors led College Jeanne Sauve, 3-2, late in the third period. At that time, Westwood's coaches decided to lose the game by pulling their goalie to let the opponents score. By losing, they would draw an easier opponent in the semifinal round.

The Winnipeg Sun reported players left the ice 'visibly distraught.”

Another example occurred during the U.S. Youth Soccer Association Region IV playoffs in Honolulu in 2003. Ahead 1-0 and with about five minutes remaining, the coach of the U17 De Anza Sharks of Cupertino, Calif., told his players to lose by scoring twice on themselves, the reason again to avoid the next round's tough opponent.

The Tennessean columnist David Climer even stated (Feb. 24, 2015) 'you'll never convince me that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers didn't tank the final game of the 2014 NFL season to secure the No. 1 overall draft pick over the equally inept Titans.”

So where were the school administrators, parents and other coaches when these shenanigans were going on? Why didn't the athletes themselves step up and refuse to embarrass themselves?

Sports is supposed to be about teaching life lessons.

The punishment imposed in Tennessee by the state's governing body of high school sports included banning both teams from the remainder of postseason play. It also fined each school $1,500.

The Josephson Institute's Center for Sports Ethics lists five principles of winning honorably.

- Winning is important, but honor is more important. Quality sports programs should not trivialize or demonize the desire to win. It's disrespectful to athletes and coaches to say, 'It's only a game.” The greatest value of sports is its ability to enhance the character and uplift the ethics of participants and spectators.

- Ethics are essential to true winning. The best strategy is not to de-emphasize winning but to more vigorously emphasize ethical standards and sportsmanship in the honorable pursuit of victory. That's winning in its truest sense.

- There's no true victory without honor. Cheating and bad sportsmanship rob victories of their value.

- Ethics and sportsmanship are ground rules. Sports programs must never be subordinated to the desire to win. It's never proper to act unethically to succeed.

- Benefits of sports come from the competition, not the outcome. The vital lessons and great value of sports are learned from the honorable pursuit of victory, not victories, titles, or win-loss records.

In other words, it's how you play the game.

'Sport without fair play is not sport and honors won without fair play can have no real value,” stated the British Association of Coaches.

According to Kirk O. Hanson, executive director of Santa Clara University's Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, ethics in sport requires four key virtues - fairness, integrity, responsibility and respect.

Deliberately trying to lose a game is not fair for the athletes competing, the parents, the fans. As when any athlete or coach tries to gain an advantage over an opponent outside the guidelines of the sport itself, violations of personal integrity and the integrity of the game suffers. Sportsmanship requires players and coaches to take responsibility for the team's performance. What coach or student-athlete will retain respect after such an obvious manipulation of the outcome?

l Let us know what you think by contacting Justis at njustis@cfu.net