Fans make game atmosphere fun

Sometimes an exasperated shake of the head is the only reasonable response.
So, Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association, I am shaking my head at you.
And I’m not the only one.
I add my name to a list that includes ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt and Jay Bilas, among many others.
I first learned of WIAA’s list of “inappropriate” chants Tuesday evening through a tweet from Indianapolis Star prep sports writer Kyle Neddenriep (@kyleneddenriep). He was sharing a piece from Sports Illustrated that criticized a list of cheers banned in Wisconsin high school athletics, including such innocuous offerings as “air ball,” “over-rated,” and “we can’t hear you.”
The WIAA has since said it has not made any new rules or enforcement expectations, but had simply sent a reminder of what had been in its sportsmanship manual since 2005.
So, maybe all of the outrage at the ridiculous rules is coming more than a decade late. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that they are utter nonsense.
Chants like “you can’t do that,” “scoreboard” and “warm up the bus” — three others on the WIAA list — are tame.
What, exactly, does the WIAA brass want the student fans to do? Just sit and clap politely?
This is not to say fan behavior can’t be annoying, inappropriate or downright boorish.
One example that comes to mind is a student section’s fans wearing white trash bags to a game. Several others involved derogatory chants targeting athletes who became parents while in high school.
And bad behavior isn’t limited to students. Adults are often worse.
Their transgressions usually come in one of two forms. They are convinced that they are far smarter than the coaches/referees and feel the need to let everyone in the gym know it. Or they are, apparently, under the delusional belief that the high school contest they are supposed to be enjoying is something akin to the Super Bowl or World Series.
I’ve been critical of such behavior in this space before. And there have been a few occasions on which I’ve pointed out offenders to the proper authorities and requested their reprimand and/or removal.
But in general, the good fan behavior far outweighs the bad.
The biggest problem with the WIAA list is that it eliminates many of the harmless chants that are used by student sections throughout the United States.
Have we really gotten so sensitive that “you can’t do that” is intolerably offensive?
I sure hope not.
Athletes are without a doubt the focus of high school sporting events. Coaches follow them on the list.
But anyone who has attended games knows that the crowd creates the atmosphere.
We’ve all been to games at which the fans are quiet, barely paying attention to the action. It’s not much fun.
When there’s a great student section leading a boisterous crowd, it takes the experience for athletes, coaches and fans alike to a different level. And when there are two great student sections going back and forth — think about the Jay County/Fort Recovery boys basketball game just a couple of weeks ago — it can be electric.
Consider Saturday night’s Allen County Athletic Conference tournament championship game, in which Jay County’s boys played the Adams Central Flying Jets.
Jay County’s students sat along the baseline at the northwest corner of the gym, close to the Adams Central bench. A post-game tweet from a student says that after his team lost in overtime, Flying Jets coach Aaron McClure turned to the JCHS student section and said, “I enjoyed you guys harassing me the entire game. It made it fun.”
Now there’s a guy who gets it.
Sports are supposed to be fun.
We care about the games. We care whether our teams win or lose.
But in the long run, they are just games. They should be enjoyed by the players, coaches and fans alike.
So when an organization like the WIAA tries to regulate the fun out of these events, my response is simple.
“You can’t do that.”