The referee calls a foul and one of the athletes disagrees. This athlete stomps their feet and shouts at the referee in anger. Suddenly, this turns into chaos with yelling from coaches, parents and other players. 

Seniors Kirsten and Anneliese Krull have seen incidents like this too many times, so they’ve decided to do something about it. 

“We’ve been around sports for a while,” Kirsten said. “We’ve seen lots of players with bad attitudes and parents that are just cruel, mean and not uplifting.”

The Krulls decided to start the Blue Valley Sportsmanship Club, Above the Fray, to try to stand up for sportsmanship in our school. 

“We really just want to help people be positive,” Kirsten said. “We want BVHS to have a reputation of showing good sportsmanship.”

Communication Arts teacher Kelsey Bakalar is the club’s sponsor. 

“They [Kirsten and Anneliese] are really passionate about sportsmanship, so that made me excited to be a part of it,” Bakalar said. “And I think that people respect them so this message of sportsmanship will spread.”   

Sophomore Jenae Hicklin is also a part of this club. 

“It’s cool to be a part of something that will make our students and coaches want to be more sportsmanlike,” Hicklin said.   

The club is still forming and coming up with ideas on how to improve the school’s sportsmanship. 

“So far we’ve really been focusing on brainstorming and financing,” Anneliese said. “We’ve also done the S.W.I.N.E. T-shirts and sportsmanship awards [at the winter sports assembly].”

The club has come up with a few ideas, so far, to help improve the school’s sportsmanship. 

“We’ve written some announcements about sportsmanship that we’d like all the varsity teams to read before their games,” Kirsten said. 

S.W.I.N.E. is the club’s theme of the year, which is an acronym for Sportsmanship With Intensity Not Expletives. 

“Sports should be enjoyable for all students,” Anneliese said. “We want to make the experience better for all the players.” 

The Krulls strongly encourage more students to join the club.

“The club’s Facebook group has 61 people, but there are about 10-15 active members,” Kirsten said. “We would love for more people to participate. We’re always looking for new ideas.”  

Times and dates of meetings and events are still being determined.  

“We’re still figuring out a time for the meetings,” Anneliese said. “We’re working around the schedules of Mrs. Bakalar and all the athletes.”

Hicklin explains what is accomplished at the club meetings. 

“At the meetings we really just come up with ideas of how we can make our school’s sportsmanship better,” Hicklin said. 

This club is beginning to develop ideas about future activities.

“We’re looking to make plans for fans and athletes,” Anneliese said. 

“The plans are pretty obvious,” Bakalar said. “We want to see good sportsmanship spread throughout the school. It’s contagious.”

Students who are interested in joining the Above the Fray Sportsmanship Club, talk to Kirsten or Anneliese Krull or Bakalar.

by Jordan McEntee