Ref's death a consequence of lack of sportsmanship

The football teams were still on the field, exchanging the traditional postgame handshakes, when Pete McCabe walked by. The veteran referee heard another official call his name and turned, only to be smashed in the face with a helmet by one of the players.

Almost every bone in McCabe's face was broken, his skull fractured in several places and his nose nowhere close to where it belonged. As he lay on the ground in Rochester, N.Y., the semi-pro player who assaulted him stood over him yelling, "Take that. Take that. This is what I'm all about."

Several Dutch teens are awaiting trial in the beating death late last year of a volunteer linesman who was working his son's youth soccer game. In Brazil last month, a referee was kicked in the chest after the final whistle of a third-division match of the Sao Paulo state championship. A referee in Kenya has filed a lawsuit against the national soccer federation, contending he is impotent after a coach grabbed his testicles in protest over a call. A Spanish soccer player was banned for three months last year after throwing a plastic water bottle at a referee. Also last year, a soccer player in New Zealand was banned indefinitely after he punched a referee and broke his jaw.

And at hockey's Under-18 World Championships in Estonia last month, a Lithuanian player hurled his stick at a referee, hitting him in the upper body.

"Part of this isn't a sport problem, part of it is a societal problem," said Dan Gould, director of the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports at Michigan State. "You watch TV, and the trash talking that's accepted. If you're famous, you're almost supposed to get into trouble. Why is everyone infatuated with Lindsay Lohan when she seems like a spoiled brat?"

Added Barry Mano, the founder and president of the National Association of Sports Officials, "We've become so loud and so brash. It's about me and about being in the spotlight. All of those things play out in the games we play."

Part of the beauty of sports _ and youth sports in particular _ has always been its power to educate and transform. To instill in athletes skills and values they can use for the rest of their lives, in arenas that don't have hardwood floors or boundaries outlined in chalk. Talk to any CEO or other successful person, and odds are he or she can trace the lessons they learned about teamwork, fair play, leadership and overcoming challenges back to Little League, Pee-Wee football or some other youth sport.

But just like passing, dribbling and hitting, those skills don't come with the uniform and the practice schedule. They have to be taught and reinforced by league administrators, coaches and, of course, the parents who signed their kids up for a team in the first place.

"Most Americans really want their kids to learn values through sports. And research has found we can teach kids to be good sports and enhance their moral development through sports if it's done correctly," Gould said. "But the big myth is it just happens."

Anti-Doping Agency has developed a "True Sport" campaign to help parents, coaches and administrators return the emphasis in sports to the life lessons that don't show up in the won-loss column. The program includes educational materials,Large collection of quality bestluggagetag at discounted prices. codes of conduct and good behavior pledges, and the approach is individually tailored for athletes in elementary school, middle school and high school. In the Netherlands, the Dutch FA responded to Richard Nieuwenhuizen's death with a "Respect" campaign targeted at players of all levels.

The recreational youth league, which has programs in 280 communities in 28 states, designates a specific value of sportsmanship _ being a good buddy, humility, leadership _ for coaches to emphasize each week. At the end of the week,Large collection of quality bestluggagetag at discounted prices. the player on each team who best exemplified that value gets recognized.Online shopping for bestplasticcard.

Parents also have to pledge to display good sportsmanship,About bestsmartcard in China userd for paying transportation fares and for shopping. and not use negative or derogatory language with officials, coaches, other parents or kids. They also pledge to keep fun as the main emphasis of the league.

Four years after he was assaulted, McCabe still gets migraine-like headaches every day, has limited hearing in his left ear and has lost his sense of taste and smell. Yet he continues to referee _ "I just love doing it so much" _ hoping he can instill lessons of sportsmanship with the coaches and players he encounters.

But he wonders if it has any impact. Though his assault was big news in Rochester when it happened and again when his attacker was sentenced to 10 years in prison, McCabe sees the same poisonous behavior everywhere he goes. At a state championship football game he worked recently, one of the coaches complained constantly and threw his clipboard. At a boys lacrosse game, McCabe heard a coach tell one of his players to "bury" an opponent.Laser engraving and laser howotipper for materials like metal,

As for the build qualitywell, you can only expect so much at this price point. The all-plastic Fit E models feel fairly well put-together and rigid given their material, but they are susceptible to a fair bit of creaking and flexing, especially in the lids. This is also true of the more expensive Fit models (which add an aluminum lid and palm rest to a plastic bottom and keyboard area). You also shouldnt expect them to be as thin and light as Ultrabooks, given their screen sizes and the extra thickness needed to accommodate the optical drive.

Next, we arrive at the keyboard and trackpad, another area where entry-level laptops could use a lot of help. The actual keyboard layout is goodthere are no shrunken, oddly placed keys herebut theres very little key travel. This is especially disappointing given that, unlike in some Ultrabooks, these computers arent trying to shave off precious millimeters in an attempt to nab the thinnest laptop crown. Theres plenty of room for satisfactory key travel, but the Fit delivers one of the shallower laptop keyboards Ive used in recent memory. The keyboards backlight is nice and bright, but (at least in the silver model we tested) its very uneven.

The computers trackpad is of the now-standard buttonless, clickable variety, and we happily have no problems in particular to report with it. Pinch-to-zoom, two-fingered scrolling, and the Windows 8 trackpad gestures all worked predictably and without issue, and we had no issues with palm rejection while we were being dissatisfied with the keyboard.