CIF revises ejection policy

The California Interscholastic Federation San Diego Section has revised its policy on ejections from sports contests.

The policy approved by the CIF Board of Managers June 7 will take effect for the fall 2005 seasons and will suspend ejected participants indefinitely until reinstatement after a meeting with CIF staff members.

“We’re trying to stem the tide of ejections,” said CIF commissioner Dennis Ackerman.

Any player, coach, team attendant or spectator ejected from any contest for any reason (a player who receives five fouls in a basketball game is not considered ejected, nor is a water polo player who receives three ejections in the sport where “ejection” refers to a trip to the penalty area and the third ejection disqualifies a player for the rest of the game) will be suspended indefinitely from participation, practice or any sports contest until a meeting is scheduled between CIF staff members and the school administration, the coach, the ejected participant and the guardians in the case of students. There will be no appeal of the CIF commissioner’s decision whether or not to reinstate a player, and schools maintain the right to prohibit participation regardless of whether the commissioner reinstates the participant. Any ejected participant is also required to attend a CIF Ethics in Sports sportsmanship meeting which will be held at a time to be announced; the reinstatement may occur before those meetings but failure to attend the meeting will result in immediate suspension of athletic eligibility or attendance at contests and practices until the participant attends the sportsmanship meeting.

“It’s not all about winning. It really is about following the rules,” said Peter Schiff, the president of the CIF Board of Managers. “We need to get back to what sports is about.”

Schiff added that part of the sportsmanship process is learning how to deal with emotions and handling adversity.