This kind of behaviour is learned behaviour, and it is right that it start at school level.
Youngsters are watching our international cricketers, the Black Caps, who have always been held up as decent enough role models, and they are perceiving that the drive to succeed in sports, the drive to win the game, includes abusive attacks on other players.
Having done competitive sport at a national level, I understand that those who succeed so tremendously in their chosen sports are not going to be saints 100 per cent of the time.
You need a level of aggression, you need to be intensely focused and committed.
Yet rugby players will still call referees "sir".
A judo fighter does not backchat - ever. That is learned behaviour, learnt from a young age, and inspired by the behaviour of role models at the top of their game.
I have watched the Black Caps and Australian behaviour on the cricket pitch and I think it's disgraceful.
But it's behaviour that we have seen on our own pitches in Wairarapa, from people who believe it's part of the action.
Sports decline when the abuse supersedes the joy of sportsmanship and the intensity of competition.
In the end, those on the sidelines want to see a real game - not egos.