An unexpected and uncharacteristic rise in incidents of behavior resulting in ejection from Washington Interscholastic Activities Association-sanctioned events — especially high school basketball games during the 2018 fall season — was an unwelcome phenomena discussed by group officials in a recent board meeting.

According to the minutes of the Jan. 27 WIAA board meeting, under the item “2018 Fall Ejection Report,” when the official report was presented, “of particular concern is the increased number of ejections due to more fans becoming involved, threats to officials and opposing coaches and an increase in violent behavior.”

Additionally, the subject of an “increase in violent behavior at high school basketball games was a major topic of discussion during the recent [National Federation of State High School Associations] winter meeting” as well.

The WIAA is the governing body of athletic activities for secondary education schools in the state of Washington. The nonprofit reportedly consists of 860 members (410 high schools and 450 middle/junior high schools) both public and private, through which it organizes and oversees thousands of events (games, matches, tournaments, etc.) each year.

Typically the WIAA enacts an average of 450 to 500 ejections per school year, said executive director Mike Colbrese, with football and boys soccer in 3A and 4A being the most ejection-prone sports.

And though a brief aberrant uptick did occur during the fall season, Colbrese said it was not so pronounced as to cause great concern among officials.

“I think it’s too early to tell,” Colbrese said. “We’re seeing a leveling off in most sports.

“[This is] our seasonal report to the board,” he explained. “If we were to see a real uptick in one sport … then that’s when we would go to the board and say something needs to get done.

“We just have to make sure everyone is aware of where we are with ejections and see if we’ve got any alarming trends — and we don’t really see anything yet that would raise the fact that we need to be creative with our rules writing.”

Bainbridge High School Athletic Director Kaycee Taylor, who is also head coach of the boys swimming and diving team, said the topic of increasingly prevalent ejection-worthy behavior has made the rounds within the Metro League specifically, though not inordinately so.

“There has been discussion about this at the league level and even nationwide,” Taylor said. “[In] Metro League the competition and level of play can be intense, but I don’t think our league is prone to more ejections or has historically had more than other leagues around the state.”

BHS players and fans, he added, have historically not been perpetrators of such behavior.

“As a school we have made sportsmanship a point emphasis, and I can’t recall any ejections for the fall or winter season,” Taylor said.

Past increases in player ejections have often coincided with changes to the rules, Colbrese explained, such as the relatively recent alteration of what is acceptable in baseball regarding catchers blocking home plate.

Taylor agreed, saying that, with regards to ejecting players, it is sometimes a reluctant duty on the part of officials.

“I know officiating is a hard job and fewer people are stepping up to do it and others are retiring or quitting,” Taylor said.

“It also could be that the rules for some sports — boys soccer, for example — have more focus due to the safety concerns which means officials are just adhering to new sanctions for what may have been permitted [or] tolerated in the past.”

Players are usually very cautious about engaging in ejection-worthy behavior because of the WIAA’s strict two-strike policy.

“We have a rule that says if you get ejected you have to sit out X number of games. And if you get your second ejection you have to be gone for the rest of the season unless the executive director reinstates that athlete,” Colbrese said. “Very few, hardly any [get a second] because they know that they’re gone.”

According to the WIAA’s most recent ejection report, of the more than 60 ejection appeals that have been processed only 11 were overturned or received a reduced suspension.

Serious though the repercussions may be, characterizing such behavior as “violent” is perhaps misleading, Colbrese said.

“The word I struggle with personally is violent,” he said, “because it’s not violent like you and I would think, where somebody’s got a weapon or the 6 o’clock news kind of violence. This is just something like a blow to the helmet, that type of thing, or a deliberate undercutting of someone.”

Actions which would result in the ejection of a fan or spectator are more difficult to specify, though they typically include harassment of the officials, coming onto the playing surface, or throwing something onto the playing surface, Colbrese said.

It has not, he insisted, been a problem for the WIAA.

“The reference to fans comes basically from my interactions with my peers around the country, where they’re seeing fans be more involved,” he said. “We haven’t seen it that much out here. I will say this: They’re becoming more vocal, but it hasn’t gone much further than being more vocal.”

Language will not, Colbrese said, earn a spectator an ejection. Audience members using profanity, or chanting repurposed political language to harass players (as has been reported in at least four other states) would not qualify.

“Those types of actions would not constitute ejections as those typically are for actions/language by coaches or players,” he said.