Are you serious? Every opening season mandatory meeting the sportsmanship ratings were discussed to all referees. If you are a referee and said you did not hear any such thing then you were either sleeping, not paying attention or BSing.

The scoring is 45 points per team

1 to 10 for parents
1 to 10 for players
1 to 10 for coaches
1 to 10 overall
1 to 5 for appearance.

Each referee grades the teams differently and that is the way it is, a referee can reduce 5 points for each time they hear 'what game are you watching' to 'if they push you push them back'.

Why don't you video tape yourselves and than you can play it back to see the ugly truth.

I've coached and watched my 5 kids for the past 11 years in LIJ and putting aside any negative bias that some folks may have for the league, the simple fact that people are taking enough time to write about the sportsmanship award system means that the program is having a positive impact. Like too many topics in this site, some parents will view everything as a competition and that the system is somehow fixed against their team or kid.

The point of the sportsmanship award is not to identify a winner, it is to elevate everyone's awareness of the need for sportsmanship in the game. Sure, it's a way to "acknowledge" teams with consistently high marks for sportsmanship but does it really matter if your team finishes first, second, third or fourth? Of course, the answer is no.

I will tell you that it is not hard to wonder what the sportsmanship levels are of the teams that consistently finish near the bottom of their division. They are certainly "winners" of a different kind of award.

I for one am glad that folks are talking about sportsmanship because it may be the single most important thing that 100% of the players, coaches and parents can take away from the experience.

The reason why sportsmanship is a joke! If the goal is to reward the well behaved, then every team should get a report of how they got their points,or lost points so they know what they need to improve upon. Until I can get specific feedback, then I do not know what my team needs to work on.

Sportsmanship is a joke in LIJ. My daughters team did not get one card all year. They play the game and had fun were never disrespectful. Other teams we played agains the coach got red carded and they still finished ahead of us.

Explain that please. Can you request as a coach for the sportsamnship scores for each game? The only thing people are now going to talk about is it doesn't matter what a team or coach does it's total BS so just play.

I think a previous poster got it right. It's about elevating the good sporting behavior of all. Just because your daughters don't wear a patch, doesn't mean that they player with HONOR. I Coached intramural and then a travel team for 8 years. Too many Coaches worry about the award and the "unfairness" of it. Don't let it keep you from continuing to model sporting behavior to your daughters. Whether you win division championships or sportmanship patches or not hopefully you will have positive experiences to look back on. I think we all need to remember what's important to teach our children. I reffed a GU-11 game this past fall and there was a rabid Dad chasing his right forward daughter down the line SCREAMING at the top of his lungs at her. WHY must this happen?

If you are taking the time to post officiating questions on this site and your aim is to embarass referees all you are doing is embarassing yourself. If you are really a referee then you should know what site to go to and who your SDI is and other officials in LISRA. IF you are reffing games and filling out scores for sportsmanship without knowing what to do then that is YOUR fault. The scoring system is not rocket science. Get to a meeting. You get a yellow card from me for irresponsible behavior.

I meant play with honor, sorry for the typo

For those asking for a report card each game or whatever, I would simply say good sportsmanship is like good manners..... you know it when you see it. Coaches and parents should not need a manual or a scorecard.

Some coaches and parents deal with things differently in any sport. Some will contest any call on the field because they think they have knowledge or better yet know a buzz word.

A referee is the best person to handle the scoring because they mostly are not bias against a team unless they are yell at every step on the field. Many referees leave after being confronted by dopey coaches, parents and trainers.

The kids never have any sort of issue until their coaches give them an opening to complain or dissent on calls. Many of you who never ever referee a game do not know what happens on that field.

If you want to get a team breakdown than call the league and ask them for the number to reach the person, I have done that in the past and they have spoken to me about what they saw during the course of a season.

For the coaches that have no idea they could do this have not being paying attention to the league meetings or they do not care about sportsmanship.