Most people recognize good sportsmanship when they see it, but might have a hard time defining it. That’s because a commitment to fair play is more than a specific set of behaviors that can be readily enumerated; it’s an ethos — an outlook on sport, and life. Nonetheless, the Hartford School Board, in the wake of a dispute last year between a board member and a coach she accused of being verbally abusive to players, last month adopted policies and procedures aimed at defining good sportsmanship and prescribing for coaches, players, spectators and school administrators what is permissible and what is not. Perhaps not surprisingly, the two documents taken together run to seven pages in length and contain nearly 90 bullet points.

Just how rare this attempt might be can be inferred from the comments of Hartford High School Assistant Principal Jeff Moreno, who, while welcoming the framework provided by the new policy, did note in a recent interview with staff writer Josh Weinreb that, “I’ve never heard or seen a school have a sportsmanship policy.”

It’s easy to understand why. We fear the board has waded into deep water here, beginning with the assertion that the primary purpose of athletic endeavor for students is the development of good sportsmanship. While that is certainly an important value, so are others: teamwork, striving for excellence, learning from mistakes and sacrifice in the service of a common goal, all of which are fostered in a sound athletic program. This is by no means a minor distinction.

And while it certainly makes good sense to have some written rules of conduct for players and coaches (who are, among other things, correctly mandated to “provide instruction, training and motivation without put-downs and/or the use of abusive language”), trying to anticipate every possible scenario in which poor sportsmanship might be expressed is to underestimate the ingenuity of the human (and, in particular, the adolescent) mind. As with dress codes, a better course is to express a general expectation of behavior and couple it with ample latitude for administrators to use good judgment in implementing it.

Some of the specific rules strike us as problematic and difficult to enforce, especially those pertaining to adult spectators. One admonishes spectators to “avoid criticism of game officials and sideline coaching which may sidetrack the athletes from their performance.” Does that mean that when one basketball fan is overheard saying to her neighbor in the stands, “Boy, the ref is really not helping us out there tonight,” she is subject to censure or even removal from the game for such a benign expression of opinion? Or when a father admonishes from the sidelines a son whose mind is visibly wandering to “Come on, Johnny, concentrate,” has he run afoul of the policy and procedures? Similarly, among the manifestations of “unacceptable behavior” is the display of “hand-held signs containing derogatory language.” Pity the administrator asked to parse the difference between a witty expression of opinion and a sly put-down. Lawyers have a field day with policy language such as this for a reason. It is vague enough to be subject to multiple interpretations.

It’s also unclear whether the policy and procedures apply to spectators supporting visiting teams, and, if so, how they will be briefed on the school district’s expectations for their behavior and whether Hartford administrators will be responsible for policing their conduct as well. This is a situation that strikes us as fraught with potential chaos.

Moreno, who presumably will play an important role in implementing the policy given that he also serves as athletic director, additionally made an important point about sportsmanship: “It’s a culture. If the culture needs to be shifted, we’ll shift it. That takes time.” Indeed, it seems to us that while a sense of fair play can be inculcated over time, it cannot be imposed.

While that cultural shift is taking place, it is important to remember that one of the enduring lessons of athletics is how to handle criticism and benefit from it, even when that criticism comes in some public form. It should not be the school district’s goal to create a bubble around the athletic experience that insulates student-athletes from the harsh realities they will inevitably encounter when they enter college or the work force, but rather to help them prepare to cope with them.