Stars on Sports Intro: It's time for Stars on Sports! A podcast-radio show dedicated to sharing stories about our athletic program at Lansing Community College. LCC athletics has a strong tradition. 23 national championship wins! Over 170 All-Americans! 19 MCCAA All Sports trophies! Stars on Sports will introduce you to individuals that have contributed to our program success and give you the backstory on what it takes to develop it. We'll also dive into and break down the topics and issues facing athletic departments across the nation and right here at LCC. This is Stars on Sports!

Hello and welcome to another episode of Stars on Sports. I'm joined by our assistant athletic director, Steven Cutter. And today, Steven, we're going to start with sportsmanship. But as we know from previous podcasts, this could go in many directions. And I already lost my train of thought because I forget we're videotaping. And I dance to our. Our opening song.

I don't think there's anything wrong with that. That adds to the entertainment.

Yeah, that'll be on Bloopers or something. As we get going at the very

Yea, and we're going to get you up doing the Cha Cha Slide.

The slide. All right. I am not a dancer. I wish I could be, but probably goes with my parking. But anyway, Steven, when you talk about rivalries, you talk about intensity and increased emotions. And we both know that doesn't just go with rivalries. As we're learning. There's a lot of factors that play into this. But I was at a conference this weekend in sportsmanship with a hot topic in a number of sports, and you see it on tv and we talked about it before. I've been watching some football games this fall, and the popular gesture after a great play seems to be this soar motion. And it gets flagged more than some of the other motion that kids do out there. So I don't know if officials have an implicit if they see the sword motion that should be 15 yards compared to, you know, the incomplete pass. So. But anyway, I was at a game Friday night and, you know, just officials have different perspectives. You know, unsportsmanlike conduct. Some are a little more tight with it, some are looser with it. So it can be hard for students to know what to get away with. We were in a different part of the state in the game, so maybe they call a little tighter over there. But as you and I have talked and we were talking on before we get on the air is to me, in every coach's meeting, I start with sportsmanship, starts with the coach. It's how the coach sets the tone. Because if the coach is yelling and screaming, then it carries over to the student athlete, then it carries over to the fans and spectators because they see them frustrated and upset. So I really make an emphasis with our coaches to try and be professional and classy and talk to the officials on the side. And we both know when he didn't moan it, you know, the coach's job to defend their kids with the officials. And this podcast is not about officiating, that's a whole nother podcast. But you have observed a little bit of that in your fall season. And what is there anything that goes to the top of your head when you think of sportsmanship or behavior, actions and where it begins or ends?

Yeah, I think it's a unique challenge. I know speaking from the stuff that we've taught in our program, we try to teach things like mudita, which is a Sanskrit word. And mudita means vicarious joy for others successes. So truly vicarious joy for other successes, which helps teach selflessness. And in the English language there is not another word that matches that, but there are two words that are the exact opposite of it and that is jealousy and envy. So when you are teaching that in the student athletes start to buy into that. So when Billy makes a great play, they get excited. And somebody playing behind Billy and you know he gets just as excited for Billy when he makes that play, that becomes a very unique environment. And so our dugout is usually very engaged. They will not be talking to the other team, they will not be talking to the other coaches, but they'll be very engaged. That is somewhat uncommon and some people think that is lack of class or other things. But if you actually listen to what they're saying, they're within the rules of what they're doing and they are engagers and they are cheering for each other. And we were in a ballgame that was extremely one sided. It was the last inning, we were pitching to close it out and our pitcher went in there, had an immaculate inning. He went 1, 2, 3, 1 out, 1, 2, 3, 2 outs, 1, 2, 3, 3 outs, you know, 9 pitches, immaculate inning. And the dugout was bonkers for him. And that is by far the best thing that you will see in sports. And we definitely promote it. But there's a backside to it too, where people just don't understand it.

Yeah. And there's many factors that you hit on that I'd like to follow up on. One is an engaging bench, which is important. You know, as a coach you have to Keep your bench involved in the game so they're ready to go, they understand what's going on. And you talked about the positive side, because in some teams, you see that jealousy and envy from that role player that's hoping that person doesn't be successful so that they can get out there and capitalize on that opportunity. But the thing I think we forget about sometimes, because scenarios, you talk about a scenario when you're way ahead and your team's celebrating. So people might think from the other side, that shouldn't be right. Yeah, but. But having fun. And we forget about that sometimes. And that's the main thing that these student athletes should be doing, is having fun out there. It should be fun. And we forget that sometimes. And we also forget how to handle it properly, which sounds like you go over specifically. And I think good coaches do do that, but it can be taken the wrong way. And in our business, perception is reality, and you're dealing with emotions, you're dealing with wins and losses, and the other side can perceive things differently. Or the thing I've learned is if even in student sections, if one team chants something, the other section think they need to come back with a different chant. And usually that can lead to inappropriateness. And some of it's very clever and creative, but it can be inappropriate. And I'm not saying the team do that, but when one team sees another team having fun, they want to see them having fun. It's kind of a law of attraction, as you mentioned, or contagious. But it's something as an event manager, you have to monitor and manage and worry about, because dealing with a crowd is a whole nother issue. And where that goes or that leads to. And again, they feed off, I think, the teams and even the fun part of it, but it can be very difficult. And, you know, as we talk about rivalries and, you know, I think strong teams, you know, people come in as underdogs and really want to beat that team. And if they do beat them, it's like winning a national championship and the way they celebrate and, you know, it's kind of that talent differential. But we, as we know, in any game, anyone can beat the other team. You know, if one team had their best day, the stronger team had their worst day or something, then that's why we play the game. So it can happen. It's the underdog thing. But how do people handle that? And in that case, they're not used to it, because that's why they're the underdog. So how did the Other team respond. Again, the E +RO equation, event plus response equals outcome. And how do people handle that outcome? And you know, in sports they're fans or fanatics for a reason and they're all in on that team. And that's probably one of the negatives that have come with the emphasis on sports in our society is the fanatic behavior of fans at the pro levels. You're seeing people die in the stands because of fighting or words. And you know, some would argue, you know, there could be alcohol or other things involved. But it's still. I've been doing some rivalry games where I did not have fun or would not want to go back just because of the banter between the fans. And some of it's fun and it should be fun even for the fans. But it gets carried away and it becomes a negative experience for all those involved. And it tarnishes. It could even tarnish that big win by the underdog. But it starts with sportsmanship. And I think, you know, that has to be emphasized in our program, in our department, in our sport, in sports in general, in society in general. And I always tried to start. It starts with the golden rule, respect. Treat others the way you want to be treated. But it's hard sometimes because of the emotion of the game. And I don't like to lose. I get it even in a scrimmage or even when you're not keeping score, even against my brother or sister in Monopoly. But I don't play Monopoly, by the way. But we play Scattergories. My wife and I have had some of our biggest argument during Scattergories at home about if a word should count or not, not on a letter or something. So we don't even play that anymore in our family. And I know you like board games, so I didn't even mean to go that way. But you know, it's competition. And as I've said before, competition brings out the best in product and the worst in people. But you know, it's still something we have, you know, at our job. I mean, that's what we are around every day and what we work to get better at. It's been a very interesting topic. I just again, don't know if there is an answer. You gotta set the tone. It's a tough battle as an event manage. It's what you tolerate, you know, and hopefully you set the tone early. Like, I had an assistant principal at the high school level. His goal every year was to throw someone out of the student section. The first game just to Set the tone for the year. Like, hey, you're, you know, we're, we're serious here. You know, you can't, can't misbehave.

That's a great tone to set there. I am a little bit curious. So you said that, you know, your team tends to have a lot of fun. I'm trying to understand exactly why that would. I mean, I get it. You're losing. That would bug you. You know, that's poor sportsmanship right there. That's all that is.

But they have fun when they're losing as well.

That's what I was trying to get to.

Yeah, it's very unique. Last fall, we were playing one of the Division 1 teams, and we were getting absolutely smoked. We played really bad that day, and we scored a couple runs and they were going bonkers for the, you know, the joy of the success. Winning is really tough in sports. It's tough. And so the teams that do it, it's. You're fortunate, you know, LSU baseball, the national championship, after every game they won, they took a picture by the dugout with the team just showing like, hey, here's the moment. Enjoy the moment. Stop acting so much like you've been there before, because you might not be there again. Enjoy this moment of winning. And so that's what it is. And that fights against the norms a little bit. You know, it's. It's safe. As we talked at one point, saving that suit for the perfect occasion coming up, you know, act like you've been there before. Well, we teach a little bit of the opposite, where you're enjoying the moments, and when those moments happen, you're going to enjoy them. And when they win against a top team in the country or they win against the last ranked team in the country, it's going to look the same. They're going to be excited, having fun.

I mean, it's. In my esteemed sports career that I've had over my lifetime, anytime I've ever played a sport or anything like that, though, I've always found that my performance level goes up if I just genuinely have fun. And that not only translates to that, but. But even doing something like this, a podcast, or if I'm announcing on a stage, anytime I'm doing something and I'm having fun, my performance always goes up.

Yeah, I believe you're looser if you're having fun. There's not as much pressure there or you're focused on the right things. To your point, focusing on the process instead of the scoreboard. I think all too often, I think you bring up a good point. If the game's out of hand, that no one should be having fun anymore, we should just get the game over. But why wouldn't you celebrate?

What if there's a success there or something? And. And so it's a unique environment. Anytime that you can have a team or the culture start to pull on the rope in the same way and cheer for others and have that vicarious joy, it's a special thing to watch. But because it's special to watch and doesn't happen everywhere, it becomes abnormal. And when it's abnormal, different or different, it's viewed as not okay.

I think that's it 100%. It doesn't happen everywhere. And each program has their own expectation of that. Because some coaches wouldn't want you being happy or cheering or. And you know that. And having fun, especially if you're winning big or, like, if you're losing big, it's just been a failure. You know, forget celebrating any successes at that point. Overall, it's been a failure where there could be a student that stepped out of the spotlight, that hits a home run, that hasn't hit one, that they got an opportunity to play. So I think that's the big thing that. In the same way that I talked about earlier with officials, that people have a different, like, idea or standard of what fun is or what sportsmanship is and what's accepted or tolerated, that some programs aren't allowed to have any fun. Some programs are too loose and have too much fun and finding that balance or finding that culture in your program that works, and each team is different. As I told you, I've seen your team develop regarding having more fun in the dugout, but that's probably getting more confident, getting stronger from practices. And that's tough because, like, I was at a volleyball game the other night and I had a parent express concern about the sportsmanship of our crowd. And so we had a little conversation and I tried to appease her, but I disagreed with her. I thought our crowd was actually having fun and being loud and, you know, they were cheering, but I didn't think they were inappropriate. But obviously she and I had a different definition of that. And, you know, we agreed to disagree to a certain extent, but that happened pretty regularly. I struggle, you know, like, what to accept and not accept. And at the college level, it's been much different than was her team losing. They were.

There you go.

That's what it is.

That is a large part of it. Because when. Because when You're a fan and your team is losing, you're already mad. It's hard to accept. So when the other team's having fun or rubbing it in, it feels, you know, like an attack on them. And some people have a complex about that. I get mad. Or it could be other factors we talked about, like maybe she was tired, maybe she was having a bad day. This lady actually had a baby in her arm. So I think she was more frustrated just because it was loud in there, you know. But it are those factors that, that can lead to it.

Her backpack, if you will.

That's right. I didn't want to say it, but exactly. Common theme, but a lot of it has to do with winning there. When you come into the game, there's, you know, the odds have someone winning or losing, you know, sometimes it's higher or lower. And I think when it's higher, there's actually, some would argue, more pressure on the higher ranked team because they're expected to win. So the longer the lower ranked team stays in it, that pressure builds and adds and teaching that team. We talked about middle performance, we talk about focus, we talk about in the moment. We haven't talked about it on this podcast, but there was a golfer a couple years ago that was winning the Masters, one of the big events, and he ended up winning it pretty handedly. And they asked him why. He goes, because my life not defined by winning the Masters. My wife would love me even if I went home. And that's usually the opposite. Other people, their life is defined, their pro career is defined on winning that major, that opening, and it's having that mindset of that person or your team of. We're not defined by this. Obviously we want to, and we hate losing, but it doesn't define us.

I think we try to clarify what winning actually is. And winning is what I was talking about with the dugout, being engaged and cheering for others, that's winning to me. And that's what we define it as. And it's not so much that right side of the scoreboard. So when they do have those special moments and you're seeing them celebrate and you're seeing them truly happy for each other, that's winning to me and that's winning in our program. And does that lead to success at the end of the day? Most of the time that does. If you can win your mornings, if you can win in that kind of stuff, you're more apt to win at the end of the day as well

and enjoy yourself when you're Losing.

Right. Same thing where it's that perspective. It's not the end of the world. This is a game. And it's, you know, the sun's going to come up tomorrow, and doesn't matter how big of a game it is, it's going to be a new day tomorrow. So to have some perspective. And if there's something good that does happen in that game, even if the scoreboard's saying that your team's not doing so well, you enjoy that piece of it.

And enjoying is because we'd say the

same thing for our days. If we had a lot of bad moments in our day and one good thing happened in that day, you'd be like, nice. I can appreciate this right now. This is good.

Yep. We let one moment define that day when one bad moment out of 24 hours, it still could be a good day. And back to sportsmanship real quick. It's even gone down to the lowest levels seen in youth sports. You know, parents attacking officials and how, you know, getting medals and trophies or making sure their son or daughter is the leading scorer because, you know, they want a college scholarship as they get older. So back to that pressure. Back to fun. Has almost been secondary to the goal of the individual parent thinking their son or daughter's performance is a reflection of their parenting, which is the exact opposite in the real world. It's how your son or daughter behaved with more reflection of your parenting. But we lose sight of that, especially once the game starts and even long after it's over. I've seen parents, parents on their ride home, them and their kid not get along. We've seen.

I was that parent when I started out youth coaching, I was not a good parent for the ride home. Fortunately, I was able to understand that and realize that at some point and make it truly a paradigm shift on those rides. So I was that I've recently, because of the way the dugouts are, we've been accused of the only practice we do is cheerleading practice. We teach our pulleys how to be cheerleaders. And that's not what vicarious joy looks like. It's completely different. But you're going to have a lot of opinions out there, and the ones that truly matter are the people that are closest to you and in your circles.

And you can. It's hard. It seems to be. Engaging benches is something. Again, some programs enjoy and some don't. In certain sports, it's more accepted. In other sports, my kids have played golf and tennis, where you shouldn't cheer or talk at either of those events. But you want to as long as you, you know, in tennis, as long as you celebrate both. I am the first one, too. I was a bad parent too, by the way, on the way home. But I did a paradigm shift too. So I'm glad we both have learned and grown in our adulthood. But my son might not change, but I feel I have. But being now I lost my train of thought. But.

Well, you're kind of talking about tennis and how it's.

Yeah, but cheering for both. I can cheer for the other team if they make a great play. Like, wow, that's impressive.

Why shouldn't you?

Exactly. I mean, just because they have a different uniform on. But I think that's frowned upon. And again, if it's a rivalry and some of your favorite teams, it's a little harder maybe, but because you want to win. But in the end, it defining that standard, following that standard and making sure that standard is consistent. And it's hard because there's two teams out there, if not more. And those teams could have different standards and, and different ideas. And as a leader, that's what you try to have to manage and get through. Should we start saying warm up the bus or it's all your fault. But anyway, that's what we have for today on sportsmanship, as always. Go Stars.

Stars on Sports Outro: Stars on Sports is recorded live at the WLNZ studios. Engineering and production assistance are provided by Daedalian Lowry. You can listen to this episode and other episodes of Stars on Sports on demand at LCCconnect.org to find more information about our athletic program, visit LCCstars.com thanks for listening. Go Stars!