Youth sports policy aims at bad conduct

RED BAY — Over the course of his 14 years coaching youth league sports, Torrey Lewey has noticed a plethora of changes, one of which includes a tendency for tensions to escalate during games involving children.

So, when city officials began drafting an ordinance aimed at preventing violent or unruly conduct during youth sporting events, Lewey jumped on board immediately.

Passed by the city council on Nov. 5, the policy aims to provide a “positive atmosphere where kids can learn and grow,” while also holding those engaging in detrimental conduct responsible.

“It is the responsibility of the coaches, parents, players, volunteers and spectators to maintain a positive environment,” the policy reads. “The Red Bay Park and Recreation Department will not tolerate any threats or accusations to anyone including staff, officials, players and volunteers.”

The policy prohibits vulgar language, verbal and nonverbal threats, physical violence and disrespect toward officials. Any of the types of individuals listed in the policy found in violation are subject to season bans and other punishments.

Lewey, who is coaching a 12-and-under basketball team this season, has been at the helm of various sports, including softball and baseball in years past.

While things have not gotten “too out of hand” so far, he said, there have been instances where conduct of fans, players and other coaches have been questionable.

“It’s not just on the court, it’s off the court as well,” Lewey said. “At the end of the day, it’s great to already have something like this in place so there’s no grey area when it comes to conduct.”

Lewey said there are enough instances of poor conduct that it’s becoming harder to find individuals to officiate youth sports.

“People wanting to officiate has completely bottomed out, and it’s partially because of some of the conduct that goes on during these games, I think,” he said.

“It comes more so from the fans, but some of the coaches, too. Sometimes people lose perspective and don’t realize it’s youth sports. We should be teaching them fundamentals rather than getting caught up in the games and letting it get personal.”

Lewey said while the policy being put in place by the city is a great thing, he hopes to see individual leagues, such as Dixie Youth or the Franklin County Youth Basketball Association, implement a similar prohibition when it comes to conduct.

“This happens in several different areas in this region, and I think Red Bay is just being really proactive about it,” Lewey said. “Our culture has changed with the way people act and they’re a little bit too harsh over youth sports and this is what you get as a result.”

‘Covering our bases’

Red Bay Parks and Recreation Director Dean Hubbard has been in his current role for the better part of a decade and has admittedly been around the block a time or two when it comes to youth athletics.

“I’ve seen a lot of things evolve,” Hubbard said. “It just seems like people don’t have a lot of restraint today.”

Given the fact that most coaches and referees in youth league sports are volunteers, Hubbard said the time had come for the municipality to put something in writing to handle excessive situations.

All sports have some type of “rowdiness” or “unruly crowds,” Hubbard said, but he said basketball tends to be the worst, which makes the timing of the policy adoption perfect.

Prior to the policy being passed, Hubbard said if a situation escalated, there were no procedures in place on how to handle it, or what punishments to dole out.

“If something happened, nobody really had control because we didn’t have anything in place,” Hubbard said. “So, it just came back on the Parks and Rec Department or the city and it was just a lot.”

In the past several years, Hubbard said he has toyed with the idea of pitching a conduct policy to city officials. However, it wasn’t until last year that things really began moving.

Hubbard said the city has always run background checks on coaches. Last year, several coaching candidates applied who had offenses on their record ranging from theft all the way down to child molestation charges.

As a result, Hubbard said something more needed to be done to help the city handle conduct situations without singling anyone out.

“We had to step up and get ahead of this because I don’t want people accusing us of not having any guidelines or anything like that,” Hubbard said. “We put it together and presented it to the council and they ultimately approved it.”

While most municipalities tend to have their own recreation fields or facilities for youth sports, Red Bay is unique in the sense that most of the youth athletic events are held at Red Bay High School. This, in turn, has led to a more “hand-in-hand” relationship between the city and the school system when it comes to policing what happens on school grounds, Hubbard said.

This has led to an understanding between school officials and the city that those deemed in violation of the policy will be swiftly dealt with whether on school grounds or at a city facility.

“We did it this way so that if something happens on the school campus, and the person claims they can’t be removed by the city because it’s on school campus, this gives us grounds to do what we have to do within the confines of the policy,” Hubbard said. “We really just wanted to make sure we were covering all of our bases with this and that there wasn’t anything left out.”

First and only

As it currently stands, Red Bay is the only municipality in Franklin County with a youth sports conduct policy in place.

Russellville and Phil Campbell officials were not aware of any policy or ordinance in effect. Officials with Vina and Hodges did not respond to media inquiries, and no such policy exists via their respective websites.

Red Bay Mayor Mike Shewbart said other city officials like Hubbard began noticing other municipalities had a conduct policy, which prompted them to start researching what they could do.

Years prior to moving to Red Bay, Shewbart served as the parks and recreation director for the city of Birmingham. During his tenure in the Steel City, Shewbart said there were several parents and fans banned permanently from youth sporting events due to their conduct.

The goal with Red Bay’s policy, he said, is to prevent those types of things from happening before any permanent bans are needed.

“We’re just trying to take care of our youth and our coaches and make sure everybody at these events are on their best behavior,” Shewbart said. “We do background checks, but this goes beyond that and says if you don’t behave, there’s going to be consequences rather than having to go back and say, ‘Since you did this, here’s what’s going to happen. Now they know ahead of time.”

From time to time, Red Bay youth teams will have to travel outside the friendly confines of the city limits to play their games. Shewbart said he’s hopeful Red Bay’s action will lead the charge on other municipalities adopting similar policies.

“When I go to the ballgame, wherever it is, I let the referees know I’m there, but I never go out on the court or make it personal,” Shewbart said. “We’ve heard the horror stories of when people get too involved and it’s terrible. So, we’re hopeful that wherever our teams go, those places will do something like what we’ve done here to ensure our kids, coaches and volunteers are protected wherever they go.”