We are terribly disappointed in this, and are working to change this. But, part of our struggle with spirit is in the following... https://twitter.com/mottsauce523/status/1301210004540841985

Over the course of the weekend, we perceived ourselves as being average spirit. We felt like we had positive discussions when we had to, and nothing ever felt out of hand. All of myself, my coaching staff, and our players were shocked to find out that we had low spirit scores.

Personally, I was told after multiple of our games by the opposing coaches, “great game you guys are a fun team, that was fun.” Our players report being told by other teams “that was super spirited and exciting.”

So, we perceived ourselves as spirited, we didn’t receive any discussions from coaches, opposing spirit captains, or opposing players that indicated we needed to change anything. All indicating factors said we were fine.

And that’s all topped with we had never played together before, so we had no prior history to go off of to indicate that may be a problem. Either way, we found out on Monday morning before the semifinal that we had received a 0.5 as our spirit score for a game...

Which was pretty shocking to us (and you can’t give 0.5 as a score which is besides the point).. After we heard that, we addressed it. We said “this is how teams perceived us,” and we made an effort to focus on improving those things

Monday’s game against Harpoon seemed fine. We addressed the issues we were made aware of with our opposing and asked them to let us know if anything felt off or out of hand, and they didn’t notify us of anything

So for us... all indications were that we were spirited. We received multiple verbal affirmations that things were fine. Maybe some notes in game of a little too much contact. Nothing atrocious/noteworthy. We expected to be an average spirit score.

If, as coaches, you don’t check in with your team and say “Hey, are there any spirit issues to be addressed with the coaches,” or teach your players to do so, then you’re doing a disservice to your opponents.

The most important part of spirit for me, is taking the responsibility, and having the respect for your opponent to say “hey, you did this, and I felt it was wrong.” If you don’t take the time to have that tough conversation, they can’t improve.

And that’s where we were caught. Not only were we not told that we had done something wrong - we were explicitly told the opposite. Once we found out (from USAU not from an opponent) it was addressed. It was too late to salvage by then.