Players are expected to up their game this time of season, with CIF Northern California Regional high school playoff basketball games – and seasons – hanging in the balance.

So why not everyone else?

If all the fans and students, as well as the parents, scorekeepers and assistant coaches – the adults – behaved in the same manner as the teenage athletes, we'd have a flawless event.

Through three weeks of postseason games, we've seen players compete with passion, to the point of exhaustion – and sometimes tears – yet they remain remarkably composed. The boys and girls teams have collectively stuck to the CIF motto of "Pursuing Victory with Honor" – playing the right way, remembering that they represent their schools, regions and prep sports in general.

The others? Not so much. A good many of the grown-ups pursue victory with venom.

So far, we have witnessed:

• A scorekeeper for Santa Teresa of San Jose repeatedly pounding his fist with seismic force on the scorer's table during a boys game at Sheldon, bemoaning the officiating and hollering his disdain ("They're not that good!") for the host Huskies, who were rolling to victory. A Santa Teresa parent, seated nearby, offered this when a Sheldon player drove the lane: "Hammer him!"

That stereo sound of discord contrasted with a Santa Teresa mother who raved about the full-gym atmosphere, the experience for her son and her family who made the three-hour trip.

• A De La Salle assistant coach, in a Division I semifinal game against Sheldon, flew off his chair when convinced a referee missed a call. He pointed at the referee and shouted: "You (expletive) cheaters!" Maybe the referee was too stunned to offer a technical foul.

The hypocrisy, of course, is in how De La Salle plays. The Concord-based team doesn't just execute superb defense with fundamentals and effort, but hammers and hacks until something is called. A moment after Sheldon players graciously went through the postgame hand-shake line, trying to make sense of a crushing 47-45 loss, a De La Salle booster hissed to a despondent Sheldon player, "Go back to Sac, you punk!"

Fortunately, De La Salle coach Frank Allocco represented his team in a better light. He heaped praise on Sheldon before and after the game. He did not realize his assistant coach blew his cork, nor can he be expected to monitor booster reaction. But if you wonder why De La Salle is such a target, there is a reason.

But sportsmanship does arise:

• Two hours earlier, in the same Saint Mary's College gym in Moraga, the family of Briana Charles gathered in support of the St. Francis floor leader. St. Francis lost to Carondelet of Concord in a bitterly fought D-I semifinal. The Charles family stood, applauded the effort, and blamed no one. The better team prevailed.

• At about the same time of the Sheldon-De La Salle showdown, Woodcreek and Antelope engaged in a Division II boys semifinal game dripping with emotional rivalry. The student sections were raucous and rowdy, one trying to outchant the other. Both sides kept things lively, but clean. The parents, too.

See? It can be done. And with the Division I, II and III NorCal finals set for Power Balance Pavilion on Saturday, with teams from the Bay Area, Stockton and this region invading the NBA arena, you can bet the CIF front office crew of Marie Ishida, Roger Blake, Ron Nocetti and others will see that their prized event is not tarnished.

The players already see the big picture clearly. They hope the adults do, too.

"It's such an honor to get this far and to play there (at Power Balance)," Del Oro senior leader – and student body president – Madeline Campbell said.

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