Foul Play

You are playing on the field, and the fans in the stands begin yelling at you. You feel the anger start boiling inside of you, and then, you burst. At that point you have lost control.

Such anger erupts sometimes at soccer games and other sporting events. It's the kind of outburst that got Kyle Porterfield, a Green Valley High School senior, removed from the soccer team two years ago.

"In my sophomore year, I got kicked off the soccer team because of my anger," Porterfield said. "At the Coronado game, I got into an argument with the parents and fans, and I ended up getting a red card for flipping them off and using bad language. I pretty much got dragged off the field."

Porterfield said that during his soccer games he is known to retaliate when parents and fans yell at him or when a player on the opposing team tries to injure him. Porterfield acknowledged he does not always deal with his anger the way he should.

"I think I am right to be angry, but the thing is you need to be able to deal with it in a positive way," Porterfield said. "My problem is that I tend to deal with it in a negative way."

Controlling anger, especially in sports, is a skill some people lack.

"I think the inabilities to control your anger come from the environment that you are raised in," said Holly Basinger, a psychology teacher and tennis coach at Green Valley. "It may be because you were allowed to be that way or that is the behavior you saw your parents or former coaches model."

Tyrel Garner, a senior at Foothill High School, participates in football, basketball and track and field and has seen anger dealt with badly many times, including when two of his football teammates got into a fight.

"I don't think team members should fight because they are supposed to be like a family," Garner said.

Garner said that his teammates should have taken a second to calm down instead of yelling at each other and trying to start a fight because when his teammates fight, it affects the whole team.

"It makes tension grow, and then we don't play as well," Garner said.

Anger also exists in the classroom, though it's less common there than in sports, in Basinger's experience.

"I haven't had a student have an outburst in class without cause," Basinger said. "Typically, if a student has an outburst, it's because another student has made them angry or they don't agree with the subject we're talking about. Whatever it is, normally they don't know how to deal with their frustration about the situation. As we know with the frustration aggression principle, if a goal you have is being blocked, you become frustrated. If you can't change or take away that blockade, you will become aggressive to try and change the situation."

Basinger said anger problems can come from brain or structure malfunctions in the limbic system or from behavioral conditioning from the environment.

"In my opinion, in situations like sports, typically most anger comes from what they see and what has been rewarded," Basinger said. "If they have seen that becoming angry or aggressive with those around them gives them their way, then they learn that that is the appropriate behavior for that action. That is the social script they are now going to follow."

According to Charlene Sloan, a therapist at the Florence McClure Women's Correctional Center, there are several causes of anger problems.

"A lot of anger is caused by fear, but it can also be caused by low self-esteem or abuse," Sloan said.

Sloan noted that if a child is abused, it can result in unresolved anger that, when not dealt with, can later be triggered by memories.

"For example, say a kid has a really strict father with black hair who abuses him, doesn't listen to him and does other things like that," Sloan said. "As an adult, they may have a boss with black hair who they instantly become angry at whenever he says something that reminds the child of the father."

Men and women tend to deal with unresolved anger in different ways.

"Women normally internalize it (unresolved anger), and it manifests in hurting themselves," Sloan said. "Young girls may be promiscuous or depressed. In men, it normally manifests in rage towards others. Young boys may be fighting all the time."

The ways that people deal or neglect to deal with their anger can affect their lives and even become detrimental, Sloan said.

"If anger problems are not dealt with they can result in, depending on the severity, substance abuse, incarceration, domestic violence, not being able to function in life, failed relationships and many other things," Sloan said.