The WIAA Banning Chants

In December. the WIAA sent out an email that listed certain words that cannot be chanted at high basketball games because they could be viewed as inappropriate or hurtful towards opposing teams.  The words included in the email include: airball, fundamentals, scoreboard, and phrases like: "We can't hear you," and "Season's Over." All of which are harmless words when it comes to cheers at basketball games. Here is my reaction to this: are you kidding me? These are things that are said at college and NBA games. Do you see the NCAA and the NBA doing anything to prevent fans from cheering air ball or warm up the bus? Absolutely not because it is part of the game. None of the chants are things that can come off as discriminating or inappropriate. All of this recently came to light as a high school athlete by the name April Gehl, a girls basketball player at Hilbert High School criticized the ban by tweeting out a comment with profane language. I do not blame her for lashing out at the WIAA and criticizing the ban. Obviously, she could have said it in a way that does not include profane language. What I am saying is these things are a part of the game. This sort of thing is just ridiculous because these are not things that athletes are going to be offended by. If often makes the experience of being an athlete no matter what the level more enjoyable. In fact, former Wisconsin Badger and now Houston Rocket, Sam Dekker tweeted out that it was his favorite part hearing what opposing students had to say. The WIAA needs to focus on more important things than banning harmless chants like airball. There are more offensive things that could be said than that. Let me give an example, last year in my hometown of Kenosha there was an incident at a middle school basketball game at Lincoln Middle School, which I went to by the way, where there was a cheerleader at the school named Desiree Andrews, who also has Down Syndrome. Anyways at this game, a group of people in the stands made fun of her, and a group of players on the boys basketball team stopped the game and told the group to stop. This story gained all sorts of media attention not only across Wisconsin, but across the nation. This is what the WIAA needs to pay more attention to in my eyes. Prevent people from saying things that could really offend any group of people not just the athletes, coaches, or officials. That is what needs to be more focused on. Yes, you can have the public address announcers at the games say that anyone saying something offensive (keyword there is offensive, not harmless words like air ball) that is intended towards players, fans, coaches, and officials isn't tolerated. But that doesn't prevent people from saying things in some cases. Bottom line WIAA, what I am saying is there are way more harmful things that could be said at games and you should be focusing on that not stuff that is part of the game.