One of the smallest high schools in the state has sent a big message about sportsmanship.
Thomson, enrollment 98, ended its boys basketball season Feb. 2 because of unacceptable behavior among many of its players. The Trojans had amassed 10 technical fouls in 21 games and generally played with chips on their shoulders.
They also all but ignored a warning from school administrators that such conduct had to stop.
“It got to the point we couldn’t let it go on,” Athletic Director Michael Rowson said.
The season started badly, with a technical foul in the opener and two the next game. Because of previous sportsmanship problems, school officials instituted a rule that a player who received a technical would sit out the rest of that game and the following one as well, but that penalty wasn’t much of a deterrent.
Maybe that’s because the team was losing so badly. Its 2-19 record included 109-35 and 86-35 losses to Savanna.
“We haven’t been within 20 very often,” Rowson said. “It doesn’t help when you have a tough season like that.”
Coaches always hope adversity will bring out the best in a team. Unfortunately, the opposite was true at Thomson, which is near the Mississippi River in northwest Illinois.
“Things wouldn’t go well in a game, and players would come over and throw little tantrums, throw their warmups down and kick the bleachers,” Thomson Unit District 301 Superintendent James Gray said. “And we had some reports of cussing on the bench.
“The boys were having problems with respect for authority, respect for adults and respect for officials.”
About half the varsity team was composed of freshmen and sophomores, but some of the worst offenders were veteran players.
“Some of the [younger] ones had been in a little trouble, too, but who were they looking to?” Gray said. “If you can’t count on juniors and seniors to be your leaders, that’s part of the problem.
“The frosh-soph team and the 7th and 8th graders are looking up to them and learning lessons from them, too, and what are they learning?”
Thomson officials had had enough after a Jan. 13 home game against Polo, which featured more technical fouls and other incidents of bad sportsmanship. They warned the team that further behavior problems would result in sanctions, which might include the end of Thomson’s season.
Conduct improved briefly, Rowson said, but in a Feb. 1 game at Savanna, the team received three technical fouls and a player who was in street clothes for that contest was ejected from the gym for making inappropriate comments.
Officials ended the Trojans’ season the following day. Thomson had four games left, including Friday night’s regular-season finale at home against Freeport Aquin. It forfeited all those games and did not enter the Class A regionals.
Most players and some of their parents were upset with the decision, but the board of education backed it unanimously. Gray said comments around town and ones he received by mail and phone throughout the state have been overwhelmingly positive.
“They basically said it’s about time somebody stood up and basically said what we’re saying here,” he said.
It’s no doubt easier to kill a season when you’re 2-19 than when you’re, say, 13-8. But Gray, a former coach, said the team’s futility didn’t affect his decision.
“If it had been my son or daughter out there, I would have gone and said, `You’re done,'” Gray said. “`You’re not going to complain to the officials, smart off to the coach, kick the bleachers or any of that stuff. You don’t need to be playing.'”
Rowson said Thomson varsity basketball will resume next season with a clean slate. He and Gray hope the administration’s drastic action finally has driven home the message that players must treat basketball and those associated with it with respect.
It’s a message countless others in this sports-crazed country need to understand.
“We wanted to let all the kids know this stuff is not a right but rather a privilege,” Gray said. “You’re out there representing your school, your community, your team and yourself. We want kids who are leaders, who show good sportsmanship and play hard. These are supposedly some of the best we have to put out there, so they should act that way.”
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Send e-mail to Barry Temkin at BarTem@aol.com
