When should stadium/gym chants by student sections be reigned in?

[All Tell]

If this needs to be in another forum I apologize but it relates to the chanting of the Manual student section this past Friday as well as some other incidents I have witnessed in recent years.

 

Since it seems that the "in" thing to do now is in unison chant some "witty" banter throughout ball games my question is when does it cross the line and need to be quashed?

 

At Trinity Friday night the Manual students at least twice began chanting I believe you are gay

 

A few years ago the Ballard students at a football game called out Trinity's QB by name and said he sucked, just like his father.

 

Even more years ago at an LIT basketball game a Ballard player made an impressive dunk over an opponent trying to take a charge. For most of the rest of the game every time that player touched the ball the Ballard student section chanted tea bag.

 

My question is when does this type of thing cross the line?

 

And before anyone says it I know kids will push the envelope and I don't blame them. I blame the adults that should IMVHO stop it. Trinity's students do it as well BUT at all games there are assigned faculty proctors that stop it quickly. If it is tacky enough I know students that have been given a detention for it.

[gold sunrise]

Almost every gym we went into the last two years , the students would chant to Zollo...UK reject. After what our players and staff went through during the 2009/2010 regional basketball finals at Mason Co...this other seems very tame. Our player were spit on, drinks thrown on them and our coaches, remarks that the rules don't let me post were repeatly said to our players. Yes Mason Co staff was there, were made awear of the situtation, and did NOTHING. Like you I blame the staff and adm, for allowing such behavior.

 

Oh by the way I moved this to the "Hot Topic" forum.

[True blue (and gold)]

I've heard some bad chants/behavior before. My school really takes an active role in preventing it. Our principal makes a welcoming statement before most games, which has a sportsmanship section to it. He's also asked fans to stop their taunting/rude behavior or leave.

 

Bad behavior is a reflection of the character that we as parents and teachers teach our children. If we allow it, we are saying that treating others poorly is okay, even if they've done nothing wrong to you.

[Jim Schue]

I go back and forth on this. I think if it starts being racist or downright ugly mean, that's when. But I'm also wondering where that line is drawn.

 

Several years ago, I went to a basketball game where Corbin fans showed up for a game at North Laurel, and two kids out of the crowd had white wife-beater T-shirts on with sharpie marker drawings of stick men imitating the 1968 US Olympics guys with the Black Power fists up in the air. However, the shirts said "White Power." Of course, Corbin has long had a reputation of being a town unfriendly toward black folks. I even posted something about it on this board (it quickly disappeared), but before the thread went away, there was a Corbin fan who was apologetic about it, saying, "those kids weren't raised that way," to which I had to ask, "How then were they raised?"

 

Obviously, those kids were way out of bounds.

 

By the same token, I watched a basketball game last year where fans opposing Bardstown chanted "Daddy's better" toward Jordan Brewer (son of James "Boo" Brewer) repeatedly. While completely unfair, it is something that Boo had warned his kids about before (they heard similar stuff previously at LaRue Co.), so it's not like they were breaking new ground either.

 

This stuff will almost certainly come out again this year, especially with B'town being the favorite to win the region.

 

I guess I wonder where the line is.

[HammerTime]

I go back and forth on this. I think if it starts being racist or downright ugly mean, that's when. But I'm also wondering where that line is drawn.

 

I'd agree with the bolded.

[gchs_uk9]

No racism and no cursing to start with. Then there are probably some other things that I would frown on.

[Jim Schue]

Where do "code words" come into play?

[formerkywrestler]

I go back and forth on this. I think if it starts being racist or downright ugly mean, that's when. But I'm also wondering where that line is drawn.

 

Several years ago, I went to a basketball game where Corbin fans showed up for a game at North Laurel, and two kids out of the crowd had white wife-beater T-shirts on with sharpie marker drawings of stick men imitating the 1968 US Olympics guys with the Black Power fists up in the air. However, the shirts said "White Power." Of course, Corbin has long had a reputation of being a town unfriendly toward black folks. I even posted something about it on this board (it quickly disappeared), but before the thread went away, there was a Corbin fan who was apologetic about it, saying, "those kids weren't raised that way," to which I had to ask, "How then were they raised?"

 

Obviously, those kids were way out of bounds.

 

By the same token, I watched a basketball game last year where fans opposing Bardstown chanted "Daddy's better" toward Jordan Brewer (son of James "Boo" Brewer) repeatedly. While completely unfair, it is something that Boo had warned his kids about before (they heard similar stuff previously at LaRue Co.), so it's not like they were breaking new ground either.

 

This stuff will almost certainly come out again this year, especially with B'town being the favorite to win the region.

 

I guess I wonder where the line is.

There is a little more back story there with LC and the Brewers.

[ThrillVille Cardinal51]

I went to an all boys high school, we loved it when the other schools cheering section called us gay. We kind of took the cheer and ran with it. It was funny everytime.

 

But yeah, the schools administration should keep an eye on what their students are chanting.

[Dlbdonn]

When it gets personal . NCC has a volleyball player that played at Beechwood as an eighth grader but enrolled at NCC as a freshman so she could play with her cousin who was a senior at the time , their mothers are twin sisters and her father graduated from NCC . During her first game back to play at Beechwood in 2009 as a sophomore the Beechwood student body started chanting , blank blank blank blank , you suck now this went on for quite a while without a move from the Beechwood administrators present attempting to stop the chant . Finally our coach complained to the referees and they stopped the match and announced that the game would be forfeit if the chanting didn't stop . It did . Because of this incident NCC has stopped scheduling Beechwood in volleyball at least .

[BlueFan]

It's sort of like trying to define what is / is not pornographic. Hard to define, but I know it when I see it.

 

I appreciate it when school administration let students cheer, but are not afraid to bring unsportmanship talk or actions under control.

 

I remember a few years ago when the movie "All Dogs Go To Heaven" was popular. At our local rivalry game a student brought a sign that said...."Not all dogs go to heaven, some go to "other school name". Quite imaginative and all in good fun, but the school principal asked them to take it down.

[hoops5]

Sports are so competitive. All those kids that got cut from the team still want to be part of the action. They look forward to the games. They band together. It is a social thing for the entire school.

 

For sure---faculty and administration need to be there for "chant control". Hopefully they will make good judgement calls on what is appropriate and what must be stopped.

 

I think the chanting is very subjective. If one team is chanting, "Thanks for playing", "Hang it up", "Go play a different sport", etc, and another team chants "GPA GPA GPA" or "A.C.T. Scores". Does that mean they are implying that the other school is not smart? And if so, is that offensive?

[sweet16]

Our administration does a good job of stopping chants that are over the line. As a coach I have told our fans to stop chants a couple of times.

[Flotsam]

Our administration does a good job of stopping chants that are over the line. As a coach I have told our fans to stop chants a couple of times.

 

Brings to mind the Syracuse vs. Georgetown game when the Syracuse crowd was harassing Patrick Ewing. Jim Boeheim took the PA microphone and advised his home crowd that he would ask the refs to assess a technical foul the next time the crowd questioned Patrick's intelligence. The crowd straightened up. I have always respected Boeheim for having the moxie to do that.

[sweet16]

Brings to mind the Syracuse vs. Georgetown game when the Syracuse crowd was harassing Patrick Ewing. Jim Boeheim took the PA microphone and advised his home crowd that he would ask the refs to assess a technical foul the next time the crowd questioned Patrick's intelligence. The crowd straightened up. I have always respected Boeheim for having the moxie to do that.

 

I usually do not hear the crowd during the game but I guess these were bad enough for me to hear them.