Staff Members Participate in Sportsmanship Seminar

MILTON, Mass. – Wentworth athletics administrators and head coaches joined their colleagues from the Commonwealth Coast Conference on Tuesday to listen to a sportsmanship presentation, given by nationally renowned and highly regarded sportsmanship speaker Chuck Mitrano, on the campus of Curry College.

Mitrano addressed the conference’s directors of athletics, associate/assistant directors of athletics, senior women’s administrators, and sports information directors in the morning session before being joined by head coaches from each of the 10 member institutions for a session in the afternoon.

“Your reputation is like a sandcastle,” said Mitrano, who is the Commissioner of the Empire 8 Conference. “You spend a lot of time building it up and then, just like that, the sandcastle can get knocked over by a wave or grains of sand can blow away with the win. All it takes is one incident for your reputation – the sandcastle that you have built up – to get destroyed.”

Named one of the 100 Most Influential Sports Educators in America by the Institute for International Sport (joining the likes of Pat Summitt, John Wooden, Dr. Myles Brand, and Joe Paterno), Mitrano’s emphasized three phases of implementing sportsmanship – education, policy, and enforcement.

“Athletics are the ‘front porch’ of any institution,” said Mitrano. “As coaches and administrators we are responsible for helping to uphold the reputation of our respective institutions. All of our actions – be it a coach who spends an entire game berating officials or a student-athlete retaliating against an opponent – are a reflection of our campus as a whole.”

Mitrano reminded the group that they are ultimately shaping the leaders of tomorrow and need to incorporate such values as ethics and leadership in everything they do – from how coaches conduct themselves on the sidelines to how practices are run.

Quoting noted ethicist Michael Josephson and his commentary “The Disease of Low Expectations” Mitrano commented that many of the problems in business, politics, and the economy today are the result of the actions or inactions of those who have sacrificed their own integrity for a short-term win.

“Never sacrifice your own integrity for a win,” said Mitrano. “In the end, is the sacrifice really worth a couple of extra wins?”

Closing out the presentation, Mitrano, the president of the Division III Commissioners Association, asked the group to think about what their legacy would be; would it be one where you were viewed as a coach who won at all costs or would it be one where you were a coach who was a positive influence on his or her student-athletes, on and off the field/court.