The newly-revised MPSSAA Respect the Game Handbook covers all the topics you would expect to find in a guide for student athletes – sportsmanship, leadership, teamwork, diversity, integrity – but it also contains pearls of wisdom for everyone at the game.

A Code of Conduct for student athletes is just the beginning in this booklet, written in large part by the six teenagers who attended this summer’s National Federation of State High School Associations National Student Leadership Conference – South River’s Lyndse Hokanson, Poly’s Martha Jacobs, Kenwood’s Paige Puller, Linganore’s Alex Eckard, Westlake’s Courtney Jarvis and North East’s Josh Yates.

The handbook is filled with tips on how to be a better student athlete, role model and leader. Still what struck me the most were two pages that weren’t about the players at all -- “What I Wish My Parents Knew About Me Participating in High School Athletics” and “What I Wish My Coaches Knew…”

They contained the following gems and many more:

“I wish my parents would leave their egos at the gate when they pay to come watch me play. I don’t play to relive their memories but to make my own and in return all I ask for is their support.”

“I wish my parents knew that when they yell at the coach or the official they are not helping me but rather hurting me. It is embarrassing, a distraction and encourages everyone else to act with the same poor sportsmanship behavior they are projecting.”

“I wish my coaches realized the messages they are sending when their actions are marred by the notion of only winning. Do they really want us to see them yelling at the referee? Do they want us to hear them degrading the other coach? Do they want us to learn that fouling is the way to get ahead? They want us to listen to them but are they even sending the right message? We look up to them and respect them, but when they look back at us and see their poorer qualities do they realize that is a reflection on them. Remember coach, we are always watching you.”

Great advice.

To give some parents a dose of reality, the booklet also includes a page on the odds of becoming a professional athlete. According the chart, taken from 2007 NCAA statistics, only .08 percent of all high school football players move on to the pros – and those are the best odds among sports including men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, men’s ice hockey and men’s soccer.

Certainly not every parent or coach is a poor role model. Given all the games that are played, they are quite rare, but we’ve all watched someone act up and ruin the game for everyone else – especially their children and their players. I’ve seen athletes ask parents to please be quiet and I’ve seen players apologize for their coach’s behavior.

These six teenagers provide great insight for their elders and this booklet – which you can find on mpssaa.org – should be required reading for all parents and coach as well as players.

After all, as the Knute Rockne quote included in the booklet says, “One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than 50 others preaching it.”