ELK GROVE – If any spectator misbehaves at future Sac-Joaquin Section sports events, he or she will be given the soccer treatment.
As in, “Here’s your yellow card,” or, worse, “Here’s you red card. You’re out!”
The section wants to clamp down on poor fan behavior, and the new direction was announced during Wednesday’s annual preseason media meeting.
“We’re working on fans to behave better,” said Will DeBoard, assistant commissioner of the section. “We’re giving administrators a tool to help them.”
The new direction comes from action proposed by the section’s recently formed Sportsmanship Committee, which took note of recent statistics. DeBoard announced that there were 724 ejections of student-athletes, coaches or fans during the section’s 2023-’24 athletic year.
After successful appeals, the number was lowered to 689. DeBoard said the ejection totals, most which were dealt to student-athletes in boys soccer, have remained steady in recent years.
A quarter of the banishments targeted unruly fans, however, a trend that has bothered section officials for several years. The result is the distribution of yellow and red cards, soccer’s timeless symbols of behavior control, to all schools.
Administrators as well as game officials can identify bad actors and hand them a yellow card, which is a warning to settle down. If misbehavior continues, spectators will be presented a red card, which means automatic ejection.
In the past, an ejection cost an additional one-game ban. The section has added a more stiff penalty: Any ejection now guarantees a three-game ban.
“You hear it in the stands pretty much every game,” DeBoard said. “You got somebody where you tell ‘em to stop and they continue doing it, you go up to them…and give them a yellow card like in a soccer match. Hopefully, that person in the stands will behave themselves a little better after that. (It) certainly will be a little bit embarrassing, to be getting a yellow card.”
If a spectator receives a second ejection, he or she will be banned from events for the rest of the year.
NOTES – Girls flag football, begun only 18 months ago, is growing rapidly. DeBoard reported that 130 section schools will field teams this fall, nearly doubling the inaugural 2023 season. Playoffs also will be expanded. On the field, attempts are being made to increase scoring. One is the expansion of halves to 24 minutes. Another is the decrease of flags worn by players from three to two. … Davis High of Davis, the host for Section Masters Track in recent years, will not have Masters in 2025 due to ongoing track construction. DeBoard said no venue for the meet has been selected. …
Most sections in California have adopted “competitive equity” guidelines, which stresses level of competition over enrollment in the postseason. The Sac-Joaquin has not gone in that direction in football, though officials were alarmed by Linden’s 82-7 quarterfinals loss to eventual D-III champion Grant. Grant’s enrollment of 2,017 towers over Linden’s 720. This fall, Grant was upgraded to D-II while Linden was slotted in D-VI.
“We’re moving closer and closer (to competitive equity),” Commissioner Mike Garrison said. “We’ve been extremely aggressive in moving schools up …It comes down to what our schools want. They still believe school size is a big deal.” ...The high school football season opens Friday night. Participation in California increased slightly last year to 89,667. ...The section moved into its permanent new office in Elk Grove last March.
