‘Person first, player second’: Students seek to end abuse at sports matches with flag initiative

Screaming at referees and insulting players has become all too common at youth sporting matches, but a group of secondary school students is hoping to change that.

Transition year students at Largy College in Clones, Co Monaghan have set up a project called “P1 P2 – Person First, Player Second”, which encourages a zero-tolerance approach towards sideline and player-to-player abuse of underage GAA and soccer players.

Sascha Cumiskey, Youth Social Innovators (YSI) guide at the school, said the idea came from a class discussion about the abuse they witnessed at a match they had attended.

The students surveyed 300 young people involved in sports about the level of abuse they have witnessed or experienced themselves, and found that 100 per cent of respondents had either heard, seen abuse or been on the receiving end of it.

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“Some of the comments were really awful and pretty shocking,” Ms Cumiskey said.

“From insulting their playing, to calling them names, to swearing at them and, for girls in particular, there was a lot of body shaming.

“A lot of people said they gave up sports because they just couldn’t handle all of the abuse that was happening.

“Based on that, they thought about how they could tackle it. So they came up with a safer flag initiative, so clubs have to reach certain criteria and then they get a flag.

“One of the things a club would have to do is they’d have to have an information session with parents; they have a presentation done on that.”

The group is taking part in the Young Social Innovators of the Year Awards, in which they have been shortlisted for the “Making Our world a Better Place for Young People” award. The awards seek to encourage young people to come up with innovative solutions to social challenges.

A total of 34 teams of senior cycle secondary school students will be competing live in the finals in several awards categories in Croke Park on Tuesday afternoon.

Another team involved in the competition is the Scoil Mhuire Secondary School, Buncrana, Co Donegal, who have started a project called Repop, which is similar to Depop, a second-hand clothes selling website, but which is specifically for secondary school students.

The group, which has been shortlisted for the “Climate Action and Energy Award”, wants to end young people’s reliance on fast fashion as “much as possible” and to create a “cultural change”.

Jennifer Ward (16), a member of the group, said climate change is something they are “very worried about” and that is why they chose this project.

“We asked students and parents at home to donate clothes that would be appealing to my age group,” Ms Ward said.

“Then we asked students to model the clothes for us. But we set up a TikTok and an Instagram page and now we’re selling the clothes.”

The students charge €5 per item, half of which is donated to Trócaire, with the other half being donated to St Vincent de Paul.

YSI guide Claire McDermott added: “There’s a big focus on poverty this year, and they thought that they also wanted to support children internationally.

“So while it wasn’t a fundraising activity, they put a nominal fee on the clothing so they still have value.”