Parent’s Code of Conduct

Soccer is a tough, combative sport that generates enormous tension, passion, and enjoyment in its spectators. High enthusiasm, intense emotion, and strong disagreement will occur at most every match. Recognizing this, it is vital that every parent whose child plays in the Washington Area Girls Soccer League be constantly aware of his or her state of mind, and act in a manner that promotes the league’s goals of sporting behavior, healthy competition, and the development of young women of confidence and character.

Angry, abusive, or harassing speech defeats this purpose and poisons the league’s playing environment for all its participants. Such outbursts reflect badly on the speaker; provoke undesirable responses from the hearers; and can lead to acting out, on the field and on the sidelines, that can cause injury and bring the game into disrepute. There is no place in the league’s matches for such outbursts--they must be controlled, and controlled primarily by the league’s parents

To avoid these undesirable outcomes and to enhance the league’s playing environment for players and all other participants, all the league’s parents present at the league’s matches should:

• Remember at all times that they are adults, and therefore examples, and always consider the likely effect of their actions on the league’s players.
• Promote the learning effort and development of all participants by encouragement and patience.
• Refrain to the greatest extent possible from disagreeing publicly with the referee’s decisions, remembering that loud or persistent disagreement can undermine the referee’s ability to monitor and control the game--to the detriment of the players--and can undercut the referee’s authority, and over time, the status of all authority figures.
• Never insult, demean, or criticize any participant, whether player, game official, or team official. Offensive, insulting, or abusive language is absolutely contrary to the spirit of the game.
• Do whatever can be done, by word and example, to encourage adherence to these principles by those parents and spectators who have greater difficulty adhering to them.

The league reminds parents and other spectators that in the WAGS league, as in soccer leagues of every level and in every country of the world, it is an accepted practice to require any spectators who show themselves unable to comply with the game’s behavioral norms to leave the field, and to impose longer bans for repeat or particularly serious violators. It is the league’s earnest hope that it would never have to resort to such punitive measures, but that outcome rests in the end with the individual spectator.

Signature _______________________________________________________________

Date ___________________________________________________________________

Printed Name ___________________________________________________________
(Circle one: Mother, Father, Guardian)

Team Name _____________________________________________________________