The Selma Time-Journal

Following Tuesday night’s debacle in Montgomery between the Carver Wolverines and the Jeff Davis Volunteers in which two individuals were taken to the Montgomery jail because of fighting and the game was made official in the fourth period, the announcement of a new sportsmanship initiative by the Alabama High School Athletic Association couldn’t have come at a better time.

The program that the state athletics governing body has adopted is referred to as STAR Sportsmanship and is sponsored by the Mountain West Conference.

STAR Sportsmanship is an interactive learning program designed to teach sportsmanship to six through 14-year-old boys and girls.

The program is designed to teach children to stop before making a decision.

Think about how your actions affect yourself, your teammates and others.

Act promptly to demonstrate good sportsmanship and lastly, the athletes are taught to replay how they handled the situation and then to learn from it.

The program, which costs south of $120,000, was gained through funding from the Alabama Department of Education and a grant from the AHSAA.

According to Brian Shulman, the program’s director, it’s a web-based program.