I've been to lots of school age sporting events in recent years, and have been disturbed at the level of aggressiveness, not on the field, but among the parents in the stands. At one such event there were parents from a town where medium income was less than the town the other team was from. Before the game comments were made about “Land Rover's in the parking lot”, and during the game some parents got so unhinged that the police were called.
My point is that I doubt this 17 year old was displaying this type of behavior in a sporting event for the first time. I realize this is just supposition, but IMHO this kid never learned sportsmanship or the relative importance of a game vs. being a good person. Bad sportsmanship should never be tolerated, and good sportsmanship should be the number one lesson learned from early participation in sports, along with learning good fundamentals of whatever game is being played. When even the parents are inflating the importance of a game, the message becomes a bad one. I'm not saying that was at play in this particular instance, but it is definitely a problem.
“... this kid never learned sportsmanship..”
Agreed. I’m putting the entire blame on the 17 year old BUT I do wonder about his coach(es). My son and daughter’s coaches emphasize OVER and OVER to never hit a ref and to simply walk away. No matter what the call, no matter what the deed... if they so much as say something nasty to the ref.. they are off the team. It’s a matter of teaching and enforcing self control (at times... in very difficult situations).