It is customary at Coast Guard Academy for fourth class (freshmen) cadets to address upperclassmen and women as “sir” or “ma’am” at all academy outposts, except during sports practices and games. Locker rooms, fields and courts have long been more informal bastions of camaraderie, cooperation and esprit de corps for the corps.

But now sources at the academy say that officials would like the formalities to apply to sports, as well. As in: “Pass me the ball, Mr. Lipshitz, sir.”

I’ve probably heard something dumber in my life. But honestly, it’ll take me some time to think of an example.

Among the most enduring, if not vexing, themes I’ve encountered into my third decade here now has been the alarming number of Coast Guard officials who do not understand how sports could and should enhance everyday existence at the academy. Sports cultivate the qualities Coast Guard ought to desire in its officers: quick decision-makers in formidable situations, while surrounded by people with varying engagement levels.

Think about this: Playing on a team requires cadets to work with different people of different backgrounds, motivations and work ethics. It requires cadets to negotiate high-fives, group hugs, festering rivalries, moral judgments and severe impatience, among other dynamics. It requires discipline and sacrifice, perhaps listening to people they may not even like.

This ought to strike all of us as an everlasting definition of everyday life, not to mention qualities necessary to work together to save lives and catch the bad guys on the water.

I’m told this decision stems from a burgeoning concern that too much “friendship and fraternization” connecting the young cadets to the older inspires a breakdown in general order. And yet Coast Guard has survived all these years with smart kids and excellent coaches who understand the different rules in the barracks and the locker room.

I’ve been around hundreds of athletes from Coast Guard. Some have grown into lifelong friends. I’ve ridden team buses, stayed in team hotels and socialized with their families. The dynamic works — and has always worked — because the dramatis personae understand that equality is part of the Ten Commandments for successful teams. We’re all teammates. Nobody is Black or white, gay or straight, conservative or progressive. That’s because it’s about the team. We. Us.

Now this.

Academy spies tell me that some cadets spoke on their own behalf last week during a meeting with school officials, respectfully expressing a distaste for the idea. Some sources feel there is some room for compromise, although I’ve got to say the very idea this was even suggested is worrisome.

How can they be this obtuse?

I mean, could you imagine …

Football coach C.C. Grant: “Hey, who was that penalty on?”

Cadet: “It was on sir over there, sir.”

The last thing Coast Guard needs — any of us needs — is more division. Sports are a place for cadets of all ages and backgrounds to build relationships. All “sir” or “ma’am” does is keep a souvenir chunk of the Berlin Wall between everyone.

This is right about the time I normally get a lecture from the military crowd, reminding me to stay in my lane, because "we're here to build officers, not football players," as I’ve heard ad nauseam. Sorry. But if you can’t draw a straight line between the real-time decision making sports cultivates and real-life situations on the water, your education has been neglected.

The football season by the Thames begins Saturday. Parents’ Weekend and Homecoming, always games that fill the stadium, are de facto headquarters for all the other social events that unite generations of cadets and officers. How about we let the cadets be cadets — equal, all — while they’re playing and respect their acumen enough to know the difference between the barracks and the field?

Besides, by the time a freshman receiver tells the quarterback, “I’m open, Mr. Wojciechowicz, sir!” the quarterback will have probably been flattened by an oncoming linebacker.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro