I may be in the minority here, but I have been attending high school football games for a long time and seen many football games, I have never seen a physical incident during the handshake. I have seen some heated discussion, almost always by the coaches not the players. I have seen many more smiling faces and greeting of players from different teams that already know each other, many times friends from other schools. The handshake looked more like, "we were tying our hardest to beat you, but now that the game is over, we are still friends".

 

I hate it that the KHSAA got into this, this should be a team/school issue, not a KHSAA issue. If a team has had incidents, or feels that their players shouldn't perform a handshake after a contest, they should make the decision to not do it. If a school thinks shaking threads is a good thing and should be done, they should continue to do it.

I may be in the minority here, but I have been attending high school football games for a long time and seen many football games, I have never seen a physical incident during the handshake. I have seen some heated discussion, almost always by the coaches not the players. I have seen many more smiling faces and greeting of players from different teams that already know each other, many times friends from other schools. The handshake looked more like, "we were tying our hardest to beat you, but now that the game is over, we are still friends".

 

I hate it that the KHSAA got into this, this should be a team/school issue, not a KHSAA issue. If a team has had incidents, or feels that their players shouldn't perform a handshake after a contest, they should make the decision to not do it. If a school thinks shaking threads is a good thing and should be done, they should continue to do it.

 

Played in hundreds of contests, and been a spectator for hundreds more. Never once have I seen an incident after a game during hand shakes. Not once.

To tell you the truth, I think it's sometimes the parents in the stands that take the games more serious than the participants themselves. I have never seen an issue with shaking hands, but I have had issues with how some of the folks in the stands act after games.

We are now on MSN and Fox Sports because of this "directive" from our glorious commissioner.

 

KHSAA needs tore down and started over.

Played in hundreds of contests, and been a spectator for hundreds more. Never once have I seen an incident after a game during hand shakes. Not once.

Like you, I played in hundreds of contests and been attending High school football and basketball games for 20 years, never seen an incident.

 

For the people that say, "the handshake means nothing", do you really mean that? Or, are you simplifying things? Sure, some of the handshakes seem to mean nothing, but I have witnessed a player from one team say something like "man, you played a great game", or "you were the best team we have played this year" to a player on the other team. Does that mean something? I have to say, yes, it does.

 

One thing that I remember from my playing days: We were playing a quality team, and I had a player across from me that had committed and played for UK. He was a stud, pure and simple. I was a player that did what was expected, not on his level of play. I was yelled at and challenged all week to make plays against that player, because us winning depended on me blocking the UK commit. He averaged seven tackles for a loss per game, and God knows how many tackles. This was a dry game, no rain, no mud. After the game everyone was pretty much clean, except me and UK commit, you could not read my number on my jersey because me and the UK commit were on the ground all game. I would block him, he would fall on me, or I would knock him down and fall as I did. I was truly the hardest working player in that game, because he was the best player on the field.

 

The UK commit had ZERO tackles that game. We won. After the game, we had the customary hand shake, that UK commit shook my hand and said, "I have never been blocked like you blocked me, good game". I remember that to this day.

 

So, I ask, does the handshake matter? Hell yes it matters, this 40 year old still remembers things that were said from handshakes 22 years ago. Something that sticks with you that long means something.

Shaking hands after (or even prior to) a sporting contest, meeting, business deal, etc is always good.......whether you are a "winner" or "loser" in the contest/negotiations.

 

Without going into a lot of detail on this issue, lets just say that I am totally on the other side from PurplePride92....but I'll still shake his hand if we ever meet!

Is there a reading comprehension issue? No one is saying you can't shake hands. They are simply holding the schools and coaches more accountable for incident's that occur during handshakes, after the game, where the officials no longer have jurisdiction. The KHSAA did not say handshakes are not permitted.

 

If a coach wants to eliminate handshakes because he doesn't want the liability, that's on the coach and ultimately the Principal. People are blowing this way out of proportion, IMO.

They said that for the refs it was not allowed. They are to high tail it out of there

They said that for the refs it was not allowed. They are to high tail it out of there

 

No, they said the refs are not to police post game handshakes.

I think that if a coach lets one of his players get all big head after a win and start letting that player(s) be unsportsmanlike to the other team (losing team), I think if I'm the school administration, I have a sit down with that coach and tell him to either put a stop to it or he's out the door. How is letting a kid be unsportsmanlike to another team help them prepare for life after high school? The school would get a bad name if they let behavior like that occur and not do something about it.

 

 

Estill County usually has 3 or 4 police officers on the field after each game and on the basketball court after each game.

 

I agree that it should be on the school to have expectations and consequences for behavior. I still think that it is the parents' responsibility to teach sportsmanship and how to treat people with respect.

On Sportscenter this morning.

They said that for the refs it was not allowed. They are to high tail it out of there

 

I think the refs have always been instructed to "high tail" it out of there right after the game. The officials authority on the game ends as soon as the game ends. It's been that way for some time. There is no reason whatsover for a ref to linger around afterwards. If they do, it becomes a breeding ground for some jackwagon fan or parent upset with the referring to start some trouble with the refs.

Just few thoughts....

 

1. What has changed? The officials have never stayed around after games.

 

2. KHSAA is just saying they will not be held responsible. BUT they want to fine the schools if something does happen. My thoughts are it's no longer a KHSAA event once your officials leave so NO you can not collect a fine or punish anyone if you dont want to accept responsiblity.

 

KHSAA does a lot of things I don't agree with, But this by far is the dumbest I have eever seen. It is called sportsmanship, something that should be the responsiblity of KHSAA and its members to teach.

Apparently, we've already had a screwup by an official After the Robertson/Augusta vball game the official told them teams they were not allowed to shake hands.

 

Apparently , the official did not read the memo.

 

According to a Facebook friend the same thing happened at Campbell County vs. Ryle in a Soccer game. According to the post on FB the authority from Campbell said something like the teams no longer can shake hands after a game.

In all my years of attending games I have seen two times that I saw something that would qualify as even a disagreement. Can't even call it an incident. One was a coach that didn't want to shake another coach's hand and for a span of 5 seconds they had words and that was that. Another was a player upset about a late score. There had already been an altercation during the game itself. That's it, the sum total.

 

The KHSAA clearly wanted to cover its behind for something but all it's done is get them raked across the coals everywhere from here to Twitter to ESPN.