Earlier this month, the Utah High School Activities Association gave a figurative yellow card to high school boys soccer when the UHSAA Executive Committee put the entire sport on probation for at least three years.

That means every team in the state will play two fewer games per season and the sport’s probation status will be evaluated yearly by the committee, a result of a rising number of ejections in the sport due to unsportsmanlike conduct and behavior.

There were 164 red cards issued to players and coaches this past season, according to the UHSAA. There were approximately 984 boys soccer games played this season, according to MaxPreps.

The 164 ejections were higher than last year’s tally of 143, according to the UHSAA’s sport-by-sport ejection report provided to the Standard-Examiner via a source with access to the report.

The ensuing probation discourse has revolved around a couple of things, some of them rational and some of them laughable.

One topic of discussion is that the UHSAA is “unfairly” comparing ejection problems in boys soccer to problems in other sports.

Indeed, soccer has lower and more subjective benchmarks for ejections, so let’s compare it to ejections in girls soccer last season: 31.

Another — laughable — topic alleges referees are manipulating games and deliberately making them spiral out of control. As if referees want more ill will towards them in what’s becoming a more hostile environment to work in each year.

This whole discussion misses the point of why the UHSAA had to do something in the first place.

The reason we’re here is because boys soccer in particular has a widespread and toxic behavioral problem that goes way deeper than the fact that at least 164 red cards were issued to players and coaches this season.

Let’s look at the numbers and the fine print.

There were 164 total ejections in boys soccer this past season out of approximately 984 games. Boys soccer ejections comprised 48.2% of the total ejections in all sports this past school year, according to figures provided to the Standard-Examiner.

That’s compared to 143 red cards in the 2021 season, which was 40.3% of the state’s total.

Of the 164 red cards, 50 were issued to players picking up a second yellow card, so there’s probably a mix of circumstances that led to those double yellows and therefore unwise to assume all 50 were for sportsmanship issues.

Then, 43 red cards of the 164 were straight reds issued for violent conduct, meaning a severe and reckless enough play on or off the ball that is fairly normal in soccer yet still deserves a red card.

The remaining 71 red cards were issued for “language or gesture/fighting/infringing/denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity/taunting/unsportsmanlike conduct.”

It’s fair to say most of the 164 red cards issued were for pretty bad reasons. Keep in mind, these numbers are for red cards. The numbers don’t include the number of yellow cards issued, or verbal warnings given, for “unsportsmanlike behavior.”

When probation was announced, the UHSAA issued a five-sentence press release stating that the organization wouldn’t be commenting.

The final line of the email was revealing.

“Please note — the UHSAA believes there are more ejections that have been unreported by schools/officials.”

Sure, the overwhelming number of issues are on the field, but let’s not pretend fans aren’t involved with incessant and sometimes bonkers abuse of referees.

This isn’t a new problem, either. Boys soccer has been on probation before in 2007. It’s bad that I reflected on this past season and realized it wasn’t that much different from other seasons.

In 2017 while I was working in St. George, a Snow Canyon High fan ran out of the stands after a game Snow Canyon won and punched SCHS’ then-assistant coach, Zac Hales, in the face.

In 2018, an Ogden fan ran onto the field and charged the referee to yell about some foul call or no-call after a game against Juan Diego.

Earlier this season after the first game between Davis and Farmington, Davis administrators took a fan off the field who had run up to referees after the final whistle to, you guessed it, complain.

Plenty more games were nasty on the field, including but not limited to the second Ogden/Layton Christian match, the Morgan/RSL Academy 3A state semifinal and the Farmington/Herriman 6A semifinal.

There were plenty other games where a referee didn’t pull out a red card, or even a yellow, for “unsportsmanlike” behavior. Just like previous years.

(On another note, when has complaining to referees ever helped? The calls are final. Move on.)

At any rate, the behavior problem is so widespread that the UHSAA needed to do something to address it.

Is putting the whole sport on probation, a move that’s garnered headlines across the country, the right call? We won’t know until after the 2023 season.

For now, there are teams that are unfairly punished by probation, so that’s not something to celebrate. Upcoming players who had nothing to do with the sport’s probation status are also being unfairly punished and haven’t, as of yet anyway, been presented with any incentive to behave well.

All we know is boys soccer will be evaluated yearly during its three-year probation. What specifically does the UHSAA want to see from the sport next year? Probably less red cards but, other than that, it’s not 100% clear.

Instead of probation, could the UHSAA have singled out some of the more “troublemaking” schools and coaches?

Maybe suspending coaches from the troublemaking programs would’ve done something. Perhaps red-card suspensions could be bumped two games instead of one.

We can argue about whether probation is the right call. I’m certainly not a fan of it; however, this is a good chance for everyone to look inward, realize there’s issues in boys soccer and seek to improve them.

It’s hard to know the solution for a problem whose roots are as deep as they are.

Connect with reporter Patrick Carr via email at pcarr@standard.net, Twitter @patrickcarr_ and Instagram @standardexaminersports.

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