ELK GROVE – Concerned about the increasing misconduct of adult fans in the stands at sporting events, the Sac-Joaquin Section is implementing a yellow-red card system for disorderly spectators this school year.

“We introduced this in the spring,” said Will DeBoard, deputy commissioner of the SJS, during media day at the section office on Wednesday. “You’re going to hear a lot more about it.”

In the 2022/23 school year, a total of 724 expulsions occurred at sporting events approved by the section, of which only 35 were overturned on appeal. Of the 689 confirmed expulsions, almost a quarter (around 175) affected adults. These are coaches, assistant coaches and parents.

“We felt that was too high,” DeBoard added.

Just like in football, unruly fans could receive a yellow card from school officials to warn them for their bad behavior. A second incident during the event would result in a red card and expulsion from the premises – followed by a suspension.

“An adult who is ejected from a game will most likely be suspended for more than one game,” DeBoard said. “If it’s an adult coach, we have a metric that determines how many games the coach would sit out, but it’s one to three games. If it’s an adult spectator, they’re suspended for three games, period. If an adult spectator is ejected from a second game, they’re out for the year.”

However, adult spectator bans are sport-specific. In other words, an adult spectator who is banned from watching volleyball games can still attend soccer games during that ban.

Pitman athletic director Dustin Curtiss mentioned the new system to parents at a recent athletic information session. He said he saw several parents nodding in agreement with the new procedure.

“A lot of parents said, ‘Well, we need some discipline in the stands,'” Curtiss said. “It’s a non-confrontational way of saying, ‘Hey, please remember we have a sportsmanship policy.’ And then you give them a card.

“It’s a great tool for us. And the section will support us. Hopefully we never have to issue red cards.”

The section distributed a stack of 50 yellow and 25 red cards to each of its more than 200 member schools.