Most of our emails and posts tend to be “neutral” in tone as we do appreciate everyone for playing with us. But on this particular topic we need to be direct so there is no miscommunication. This topic deals with parents interjecting themselves into games to the point where it interferes and stops games from being played. One person, or a small group, decides their opinion is more important than their child just getting the chance to enjoy playing basketball. Regardless if you share this post with your parents or not, ALL teams will be held to this new policy.
From this point on, if any fan comes onto the floor during a game to confront another player, coach or official, the TEAM they represent will be removed from the session. This includes a parent or coach who physically or verbally attacks an official after a game. In summary, if a fan from the stands comes onto the floor for any reason other than checking on an injured player, or a fan “goes after” an official after a game that team will be removed from this session.
This has nothing to do with gender, grade, ethnicity, or our concern over losing officials. It’s about proper conduct and basic etiquette supporting your team. Notice this is not about a coach or player getting a technical, or even a fan removed from the stands for overtly bad behavior and leaves when told to do so by the official or supervisor. Technicals happen and sometimes they are unfairly assessed. We have someone on staff that looks into every report and contacts the person involved. After hearing both sides, we sometimes choose to not do anything as the technical wasn’t warranted. Those types of infractions can happen and we deal with them accordingly without resorting to any drastic consequence. Also, there is a procedure if an official is being unprofessional the coach can report the incident and, if warranted, the official will be removed.
If a team is removed from the session any money owed for games not played will be refunded the following week as this has nothing to do about money. If a team owes money and chooses not to play for games already played, any other team they are affiliated with will also not be able to play until the games already played are paid for.
In summary, this is something we should have done earlier but we were hoping it could be rectified in another way. Unfortunately the issue is becoming more prevalent. We know you have choices on where to play and if you feel this policy is unfair we would rather you leave now and play elsewhere. We have over 750 teams in the upcoming session so having 20 less teams is fine with us if it improves the environments around our games. No reputable person wants to be involved in a toxic environment. If you feel your parents can’t abide by this policy, just email us at scott@cnrbasketball.org and we will remove your team now.
I would recommend you share this policy with your parents before the session starts. Regardless if you share this, or not, the policy will be in affect.
This policy is not up for debate or feedback. We hope all teams play hard, play fair and let the kids have fun.
Scott and Jeremy