NECIS statement on sportmanship

The purpose of the Northwest European Council of International Schools is to provide a venue for athletes from the member schools to compete in an environment that is safe, challenging, professional and educational. Each athlete is given the opportunity to demonstrate her/his best athletic ability while maintaining a spirit of respect and co-operation with fellow athletes from various international backgrounds.

Each event involves students and adults in their different roles: these include the athletes, coaches, sports officials and spectators. All those involved in the event are expected to uphold the same spirit of respect and co-operation. This spirit is demonstrated by fair play among athletes, positive encouragement from coaches, impartial judgments from officials and respectful enthusiasm from spectators. The positive behavior of the adults is crucial to the successful educational aspect of the tournament.

The adults act as models for our athletes. Therefore profanity, deliberately making noises that distract and interfere with the performance of a competing athlete, the condemnation of coaches or officials, or any behavior that is disrespectful or degrading to the NECIS standard of sportsmanship, jeopardizes the purposes of the NECIS organization and, most of all, jeopardizes the quality of the experience for the athletes.

As the event ensues, we ask that all of our parents, coaches, officials and athletes keep this vision of our purpose in mind.