We have a few programs ranging from 1st to 8th grade which we use the Sportsmanship program for all of them. We have done a couple high school specific programs and used it there as well. It's never to early to start teaching sportsmanship, our younger kids (1st & 2nd graders) defiantly grasp the concept and actually put a great deal of effort into it.

We have a youth basketball program that has roughly 550 participants, then we have a youth volleyball and youth flag football programs that are about 2 years old that usually have around 100-150 participants. We also run some smaller Summer programs and lots of camps throughout the year, but we usually use the sportsmanship program in our bigger programs.

As far as people getting out of hand I think when you run youth sports programs you will always have a parent (or usually a coach) here or there that is a little "next level" as far as behavior and attitude. Another policy I have is that when people register for our programs online, one of the steps is they have to read and accept the "Parental Code of Conduct" which list appropriate and inappropriate behavior. If they register through our office then the Code of Conduct is on the reverse side of the registration form. The same is done for coaches. This way if people ever act out, we can basically use any disciplinary action we need since they signed the forms saying they would behave them selves.

Sportsmanship is one of the biggest challenges but also one of the most important concepts we can teach in our youth sports programs. I am sure there are lots of Sportsmanship programs and systems out there, so please share what has worked and not worked for you.

We put a lot of emphases on Sportsmanship and strongly stress it to our coaches and players both at all the pre-season coaches meetings and throughout the season. For the majority of our programs, we use a rating scale from 1 - 10. After each game the scores table staff or game officials will rank or grade each team's behavior on a scale of 1 - 10 for the Coaches, Players and Fans. Each team then has a chance to earn 30 total Sportsmanship points. If they receive a 10 for Coaches and Fans, but the players only earned an 8, then the total score would be 28.

As the season progresses we keep an on going count for each team. Depending on the size of the program, we sometimes have a winner each week and work out a deal with a pizza place to provide everyone a small personal pizza or a team event. Otherwise we keep count through out the season and give the team with the most points at the end of the season the pizza party/prize.

We also emphasize Sportsmanship at the end of the season, when we pass out the participation awards. Along with a participation award for each player, we give each team a small sportsmanship trophy to be given to the player that showed a great attitude and sportsmanship throughout the season giving them a little extra special recognition.

So far this Sportsmanship system has worked great for us as we continually look to make positive changes and improvements to make it better.

What has worked or NOT worked for you?