The Importance and Values of Good Sportsmanship

The coach- language analysis. Model Student Language Analysis The Coach in his newsletter for the netball elub firmly contends that the club needs to enforce its values and rules about appropriate behaviour at matches because failure to do so would put the club at risk. He pleads with his target audience, who are the parents of the players, to help reinforce the clubs message about the importance of good sportsmanship. He is also asking them for their support in banishing unruly parents from their sports club.

The writer's tone is accusatory when he is addresSing the damage done by these abusive parents. However, when addressing the supportive parents and the way they help their children, it shifts to an affirming tone. The purpose of this newsletter is gain the support from parents for the club's refusal to accept any 'repetition' of this 'negative' behaviour and support it's right to ban these 'negative' parents from the club. The overall strategy used to underpin this purpose is to urge parents to accept their responsibility to help teach their children the value of good sportsmanship by contrasting that with the destructive consequences of bad sportsmanship.

The coach immediately positions the children at the club as the unfortunate victims of these types of parents. He begins his newsletter with an anecdote about a young girľ's traumatic experience with her father who was one of these unruly parents. He portrays her as being'distraught"He sadly asserts that they carrying a burden of their abusive, angry parents behaviour. He positions the young players at the club as being ashamed of their "toxie" parents, and imploreshis target audience to feel deep sympathy for them.By continuously describing them as "ehildren, "kids" and "young" he emphasises that they are innocent, vulnerable and inexperienced. This writer employs the language of sportsmanship to highlight the unfairness of the situation whereby the children are being placed under extreme pressure by these abusive parents. He establishes this view early on in the piece, through the devastating short sentence ending the anecdote about 'Emily', who 'is just 8 years old.'

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The use of the word "just" reinforces her fragility, which further elicits the target audiences sympathy for her. By describing Emily as "distraught" over her father's brutal behaviour, the Coach is trying to provoke the readers disgust atall sports aggressive parents by invoking the possibility and potential for this kind of impact could have on any of the young players at the club. The accompanying cartoonalso reinforces this view of the damage to children who are being bullied by their parents during matches. This is done through the use of scale and by contrasting the child's and the abusive parent's emotions. The parent is clearly screaming at the girl, who is very small and skinny in contrast to the parent, who apart from being caricatured as a donkey, is also large, muscular and very angry with her. The girl's body language suggests her timidity as she is clutching the ball in her hands and her arms are closely tucked into her side. This implies that she wants to disappear and not be seen by her father. The look on her face evokes her fear of her father, and the exaggeration of her eyes evoke her sadness tinged with embarrassment. Her appearance gives her a cute, little girl look which solicits sympathy for the girl whilst provoking anger and contempt for the parent.

The coach then accusingly asserts that these "negative" parents are abusive and positions them as tarnishing the reputation of the club. Sam exploits the connotations of the word "toxic" to suggest both the poisonous and destructive impact these parents have on the culture of the club. He reinforees this sense of threat almost immediately by referring to them as "Louts". This is a word which is usually associated with thuggishness and criminality - the clear message here is that these parents are a liability to the club and have no place there, and therefore it is a right to ban them. The impact these parents have on the club is further condemned and now explicitly characterised as "poisonous. By using the phrase "sports rage" to portray these parent's behaviour, the Coachfurther evokes the erratic and violent nature of what he dismissively refers to as their "stuff". This links with the writer's purpose because it reinforces why this behaviour is abusive and seen as unacceptable. The cartoon accompanying the article also displays these kinds of parents as wild extremists who exhibit brutish actions.

The writing on the donkey- parent's shirt portrays him as an extremist and unsportsmanlike because even at a children's basketball match he sees "defeat is death", so that winning is the only valuewhich is even more important than living. The scale of the donkey's head in comparison to his body is exaggerated which in conjunction with his hooves raised over his head suggests an out or Control rage. Ine size or nim demands tne viewers attentiOn and Ocupies a large part of the image, suggesting that these parents take the focus off the game and onto their own unruly, disrespectful and unsportsmanlike behaviou The Coach alsoinvites the parents at the club to share his concerns about the impact on the volunteers at the club. He positions these volunteers in a respectful, admiring wayby describing them as 'hard- working: They are also portrayed as being so morally disgusted' by this behaviour in the past that some have even 'left' the club.

The coach is using the language of values and ethics as part of his strategy to contrast those 'good' people who are the 'best coaches -and parents' because of their understanding of 'good sportsmanship' with those like the donkey-parent in the cartoon who 'only care about winning' and get children 'so scared' that they legitimise and teach being 'ruthless: This corruption of values is then linked to possible demise of the club because everyone involved in 'our club' is having their time 'waste[d]' This is reinforced when Sam sadly invokes the image of 'coaches' who 'will hang up their whistles' in order to provokeanger at these violent parents treatment of these club officials. He exploits the selfless, giving connotations of the word "volunteers", which emphasises that these are the people who underpin the values such as encouraging'fair play: This use of the language of values about serving others seeks to invite the clubs' parents' approval of and respect for thOse volunteers.

Given that the main purposeof the Coach's newsletter was to gain the support from parents for the club's refusal to accept behaviour which undermines the values of the club, it is not surprising that the sam put somuch emphasis on using languagewhich positions these 'negative' parents as abusive and poisonous. He also deployed language and disturbing imagery which portrays the young players at the club as the vulnerable and impressionable victims of this behaviour. Finally he exploits the language of values and ethics to remind all the parents at the club of their responsibility to nurture their children and respect the efforts of volunteers to keep the club viable.

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