Unsportsmanlike conduct: UHSAA puts boys soccer on 3-year probation. Here's why

MIDVALE — Boys soccer in Utah is receiving a yellow card.

During the last meeting of the association's executive committee, the Utah High School Activities Association voted to hand out a three-year probation and loss of two games to every team in the state — meaning teams will only be allowed to play 14 matches beginning with the 2023 season — due to a rising number of red cards, ejections and otherwise unsporting conduct across schools, classifications and regions.

The hope is that playing two fewer games per season will allow coaches and administrators to better enforce behavior among players, coaches, parents, volunteers and spectators, especially with regards to interactions with the referees and match officials.

The two-game reduction will be reevaluated after each season, beginning with the spring 2023 contests, and determine if the probation can be ended, extended or otherwise modified — including reduced or expanded — based on current circumstances.

"We are asking all of you administrators, coaches, players, and parents to step up and take ownership of this great sport," said UHSAA assistant director Brenan Jackson, the sport's lead director, in a letter to member schools obtained by KSL.com. "Coaches, you have the greatest impact on the behavior and style of play you allow on the field. The players, and sometimes parent behaviors, are a direct reflection of how you conduct yourself on the field. We are asking you to be part of the solution, and not part of the problem. Model and teach the behaviors and style of play that will help return the matches that have been taken away.

"Please take this time to evaluate your programs and make the necessary changes to enhance everyone's experience especially the student athlete."

Jackson acknowledged not every school has the same issue with the rise in unsportsmanlike conduct, but he added the circumstances make it a "state-wide issue" in announcing the probation.

"I want to thank those few soccer schools who did not have any ejections this season and encourage you to continue creating a competitive environment that is rich in sportsmanship and ejection-free," he said.

UYSA Decision

If you yell at a ref in Utah youth soccer, your team's fans may get kicked out for the season

The Utah Youth Soccer Association is enforcing a zero-tolerance policy for any inappropriate behavior toward referees during its games. The association says abuse from the sideline has contributed to a severe shortage of refs and hundreds of canceled games.

The decision came from the 27-member executive committee that includes administrators — mostly principals and athletic directors — from every region and classification in the state. The decision was made for "making a stand against sportsmanship issues in the sport of boys' soccer," the UHSAA added in a brief statement, declining to comment further.

The probationary policy comes just weeks after the Utah Youth Soccer Association announced a no-tolerance policy for inappropriate behavior directed at referees from fans, players and coaches during its own matches. At the time the association said that referee abuse has led to a severe shortage of officials to staff games — a shortage that UHSAA officials have also spoken about openly, both in public and private.

In UYSA terms, any coach, player or spectator who berates, harasses or threatens a referee risks forfeiting the game and losing the team's spectators for the rest of the season.

"Referee abuse has always been an issue," UYSA CEO Bryan Attridge told KSL-TV. "But we have to do better."

While perhaps among the more prevalent — and certainly visible — ranting and complaining, the issues surrounding unsportsmanlike conduct at high school games go beyond referee harassment.

The UHSAA says 164 ejections were issued last spring, including 146 to players and 18 to coaches. Of those ejections, all but 50 were straight-red card offenses, and included 43 for violent conduct and 71 for inappropriate language, gestures, fighting, taunting and other foul play.

In one example — a 6A state semifinal between eventual champion Herriman and Farmington — the match saw seven yellow cards and two red-card ejections to the Phoenix, and the referees required a police escort to leave the field after the final whistle.

Among the association's 21 sanctioned sports, 50% of all ejections and major disciplinary issues came from boys soccer, Jackson said.

"This is unacceptable," he added. "Changes must be made to improve sportsmanship and the number of ejections that are occurring in your respective schools."

For many, the need to control behavior starts at the top, with coaches and administrators.

"Coaches need to control themselves and their players and their reaction to calls and things like that," Davis coach Souli Phongsavath told the Standard-Examiner, which first reported the news. "That's what we're responsible for."

It's not the first time boys soccer, which was sanctioned in 1983 by the state, has been put on probation. In 2007, the UHSAA targeted a handful of schools — namely Park City, Bonneville, Jordan and Dixie, according to the Park Record — with a wide-brimmed probation. That season saw a then-record 111 total ejections, a 30% rise from the previous year, to prompt action.

The entire state was also put on probation in the 1990s, when teams similarly lost two games per season.

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