Our philosophy on positive team discipline emanated during the fall of '94 after coaches and players met to discuss ways to curtail or eliminate the many disciplinary problems we were experiencing. The coaching staff decided that the players needed a council, comprising representatives from each team unit, i.e. offensive line, defensive line, secondary, etc. Each unit voted to have one person on the players' council. The players elected a council, comprising representatives from each team position. Then, the players council and the head coach planned a breakfast in order to discuss both strengths and weaknesses in the disciplinary system in place. Coaches and players developed guidelines for a more positive emphasis on discipline.

As in most athletic programs, at ASU we had a list of violations and punishments, such as tardiness for practices, meetings, treatment sessions, classes, etc. Major violations such as missing classes, practices, study hall, treatment sessions, meetings etc. included harsher penalties. What we discovered, however, was that we were focusing so much on punishing the violators, that we were paying less attention to the model athletes. In short, we were rewarding negative behavior. Player routinely could adjust to the physical punishment. We also believed that some repeat offenders liked the personalized attention. Thus, our foundation for positive discipline through earning curfew time off became a reality.

We devised a system to accentuate the positive by focusing on the model student-athletes. Even though our athletes had varied backgrounds and experiences, we found one commonality: they all responded to positive recognition and rewards. We agreed that we needed to keep our weekly curfew, beginning on Monday evening at 11:30 p.m. and continuing through the day of the game. Players who upheld all of their responsibilities earned time off from curfew. Coaches kept a roll at all meetings and practiced, in addition to , study halls and treatment sessions. We also had our academic advisor to disseminate forms to all faculty to check the attendance of the athletes.

Provided below are two examples of our positive discipline program: Player A was on time for curfew, meetings, position meetings, treatment for his ankle, study hall, weight training and practices for the week. Friday, Player A earned one day off for the following week. He continued for the next week, and earned another day of no curfew off. He could earn up to four days. If Player A violated a rule in any way, he received a reprimand and lost the curfew days accumulated. Player B has been on time to all required activities for four consecutive weeks. He earned the maximum allotted four curfew days off for the following week. He decided to miss his English class. The academic person reported that to coaches who in turn imposed a curfew on the player as well as a reprimand. The player lost his curfew days and had to begin building his days again. If he violated two more rules over the season, he would be suspended from the team.

We found the idiom, "You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar," to be true in the sense that former violators were showing an astonishing improvement. Our golden rule became recognize and reward the "model athletes" without compromise. Regardless of an athlete's outstanding athletic skills on the playing field, he was still expected to follow the rules. Not that we ignored rule violators, but we did not use physical punishment as we had done in the past. Instead of requiring a violator to crawl 300 yards after practice, we reprimanded the violator in written communication. The player received a letter indicating his violation, and he was asked to sign the letter acknowledging his act. Then we forwarded copies of the signed letter to his parent(s), the faculty representative, athletic director, the NCAA compliance officer, and placed one copy in the athlete's file. If any athlete received three written communications, he was suspended indefinitely. After appealing to the players' council, an athlete could be reinstated for a final chance to show progress; however, he was put off the team if he broke any more team rules.

On Sunday evenings at team meetings, awards of "curfew nights off" were announced. A "model citizen" was one who received four no-curfew nights off. In addition to being recognized in front of the entire football team, the model athlete was rewarded favorably with no curfew nights the old-fashioned way: earning it.

The positive reward influenced attitudes both on and off the field. Last year we placed five players on the Sports Magazine all academic team. One of our athletes, Paul Etheridge, received a $25,000 scholarship from Burger King for being student athlete of the week. We feel that our motto of accentuating the positive possibly influenced him and others who also received awards.

This competitiveness produced a wholesome atmosphere, and coaches and players were pleased. We highly recommend the earning curfew time off for distinguished behavior. Try it; you'll like it.