Reason no. 487 that sports fans are annoying

[billsin01]

Anyone see the real sports piece referenced in this article on the referees being attacked at games? I've witnessed high school refs being escorted out of angry mob scenes before as well. I love sports, but the older I get the less I enjoyment I get out of them. People just seem to take stuff -- particularly high school and youth sports -- so seriously. It's bizarre. When I worked in newspapers I had irate parents call all the time when I left their kid off all-county teams or something. I was brutally honest with them when I said "I get paid to try and select the team the best way I can. I take input from all the coaches and then I make the selections. If I had it my way, I wouldn't do these teams b/c they take up too much of my time. But, frankly, if you think I actually 'care' whether your son or daughter makes or doesn't make a team, you're insane."

 

[OrangePA]

True that!

Wat too many heliocoptors in youth sports.

 

[Shermthegeneral]

I can't believe how bad it has gotten also! It's probably to the point where it does more harm than good when it comes to a child's overall development in sports and life. Parents set such terrible examples when they try to bully referees and coaches to either play their kid more or influence calls. Kids learn through failure and success and if parents don't allow their children to experience both, they can't grow and figure out how to deal with ups and downs of life. It sucks not being the star athlete as a kid!

 

[Chip]

Anyone see the real sports piece referenced in this article on the referees being attacked at games? I've witnessed high school refs being escorted out of angry mob scenes before as well. I love sports, but the older I get the less I enjoyment I get out of them. People just seem to take stuff -- particularly high school and youth sports -- so seriously. It's bizarre. When I worked in newspapers I had irate parents call all the time when I left their kid off all-county teams or something. I was brutally honest with them when I said "I get paid to try and select the team the best way I can. I take input from all the coaches and then I make the selections. If I had it my way, I wouldn't do these teams b/c they take up too much of my time. But, frankly, if you think I actually 'care' whether your son or daughter makes or doesn't make a team, you're insane."

I really don't know why any human, at any level of sports, would want to be an ump or referee. There isn't enough money in the world, at least not enough that anyone would ever pay an official...

 

[Forza Azzurri]

Anyone see the real sports piece referenced in this article on the referees being attacked at games? I've witnessed high school refs being escorted out of angry mob scenes before as well. I love sports, but the older I get the less I enjoyment I get out of them. People just seem to take stuff -- particularly high school and youth sports -- so seriously. It's bizarre. When I worked in newspapers I had irate parents call all the time when I left their kid off all-county teams or something. I was brutally honest with them when I said "I get paid to try and select the team the best way I can. I take input from all the coaches and then I make the selections. If I had it my way, I wouldn't do these teams b/c they take up too much of my time. But, frankly, if you think I actually 'care' whether your son or daughter makes or doesn't make a team, you're insane."

This year I helped coach my son's third grade lacrosse team. At this age, they allow one or two coaches from each team on the field with the kids. At one of our games, the other team's coaches on the field were a couple of real gavones. Screaming and yelling the entire time (only at their own team's players). One of the other assistant coaches comes over to me and says, "Does it bother you the way those coaches are acting?".

I looked at him and started laughing. This coach's oldest was in third grade while my younger one is in third grade (my older one is in 7th). He is just getting his first taste of how parents/coaches/refs and kids can act.

I told him, "This is nothing. I've seen parents fighting, coaches fighting, parents screaming at players - own team and opposing; coaches screaming at players - own team and opposing; players screaming at coaches, refs and parents. What this guy is doing barely registers."

And my rule of thumb is that the fatter they are, the less athletic they are and the less they know about the sport, the more loud and obnoxious they are likely to act.

Youth sports are just awful.

 

[Shermthegeneral]

And my rule of thumb is that the fatter they are, the less athletic they are and the less they know about the sport, the more loud and obnoxious they are likely to act.

Youth sports are just awful.

This is very true! The parent is reliving their childhood through their child. I've often wondered if these travel teams produce better competition and athletes or is it sort of a status symbol for both the parent and child. Can a 10-12 year old kid really get that good playing travel vs the local soccer or little league?

 

[gocraz4dasu]

I used to umpire little league games. Parents/fans are absolutely bats--t crazy! I had fathers tell me they would be waiting in the parking lot for me (of course they were never actually there) and have been called every darn name under the book. After umping, I'll never berate a referee of any sport. I will disagree with an official but the threats/personal attacks are preposterous. You have no affect on the outcome or the call, people need to get it through their heads. The attacks would make me, as an umpire, call against you more than push me onto their side.

 

[OttoMets]

This is very true! The parent is reliving their childhood through their child. I've often wondered if these travel teams produce better competition and athletes or is it sort of a status symbol for both the parent and child. Can a 10-12 year old kid really get that good playing travel vs the local soccer or little league?

It's both, of course (kids will get better playing more frequently at a high level), but you make a great point - travel team as status symbol.

It's sad.

 

[PhatOrange]

I had an opposing team's parent come over to me after our game last weekend and lecture me that our team was to rough and physical. That these are only 3/4 graders and it should be fun not physical. He warned me there would be hell to pay if his kid got hurt. Now mind you there were two adult 'paid' certified officials doing our game and no penalties were called.

In the very next game against a different team his kid ended up on the ground crying. The kid went off and spent the rest of the game on his dads lap. I wondered if that helicopter parent lectured those other coaches to because his kid also got hurt in their game.

The other doozy I saw this season was a group of parents screaming at an official for an entire game. This 'official' was 13 years old. 13. I was speechless.

 

[Chip]

I had an opposing team's parent come over to me after our game last weekend and lecture me that our team was to rough and physical. That these are only 3/4 graders and it should be fun not physical. He warned me there would be hell to pay if his kid got hurt. Now mind you there were two adult 'paid' certified officials doing our game and no penalties were called.

In the very next game against a different team his kid ended up on the ground crying. The kid went off and spent the rest of the game on his dads lap. I wondered if that helicopter parent lectured those other coaches to because his kid also got hurt in their game.

So I wonder if that other coach had to pay hell. I love those kind of threats.

 

[Bayside44]

I coach youth sports (hoops), and some of these coaches have taken a mid-major approach to games. Figuring the refs cannot call everything, junk it up as much as possible. Really destroys game flow and the idea that we're supposed to be teaching (and in a sense being advocates) for the sport of basketball.

And yeah, some of the parents are nuts.

 

[RF2044]

Anyone see the real sports piece referenced in this article on the referees being attacked at games? I've witnessed high school refs being escorted out of angry mob scenes before as well. I love sports, but the older I get the less I enjoyment I get out of them. People just seem to take stuff -- particularly high school and youth sports -- so seriously. It's bizarre. When I worked in newspapers I had irate parents call all the time when I left their kid off all-county teams or something. I was brutally honest with them when I said "I get paid to try and select the team the best way I can. I take input from all the coaches and then I make the selections. If I had it my way, I wouldn't do these teams b/c they take up too much of my time. But, frankly, if you think I actually 'care' whether your son or daughter makes or doesn't make a team, you're insane."

I used to work for a company in Syracuse that sponsored a summer youth football instruction camp [had nothing to do with our business]. The kids were divided up into a range of age groups that I believe were 7-8 year olds, 9-10 year olds, 11-12 year olds, and 13-14 year olds. We hosted the camp at an area high school and there were SU players also there, to help run them through drills.

I got stuck 'head coaching' a 7-8 year old team--which really meant that I was responsible for herding the kids from station to station, where they received instruction and did drills for each position from the SU players, and babysitting them at lunch to make sure they stayed together in a group. On the afternoon of the last day of the camp, they did scrimmages.

One of the parents was the 'head coach' of a 13-14 year old team, with a kid who became a decent HS quarterback later on. When his kid's team lost their scrimmage, the two head coaches got in a screaming match--and mind you, these were co-workers--about the scrimmage rules after one team won on the final play, that ended up with the two men in a fist fight in the middle of the field. And that wasn't even high school team or any meaningful game, this was at a dopey camp.

It was a stark reminder about how parents often lose perspective when it comes to youth athletics.

 

[Stern]

Saw the piece on REAL SPORTS and couldn't believe how much this goes on at youth sports. What happened to taking your kid to play a game then out to ice cream and a hot dog afterwards? Is winning really that important? Still the best two HBO REAL SPORTS pieces that just tell you all you need to know about sports in America in this day of age are and this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96pb-yG1buU


...and they wonder why fewer and fewer people go to the games these days. The tickets could be free and there are some places I wouldn't go see a game at!

 

[Townie72]

I have seen at least one place where the problem was addressed and fixed.

For several years I was one of those who ran a club in the DC area's Beltway Football League. It was a "select" league in which all the teams and the league itself were private entities.

At the beginning of every year, we sat all the parents down in the stands next to the field and told them how it was going to be. We had two rules. The first was that parents should not talk to coaches about playing time or the lack of it. The second --- and most important --- was that we would not tolerate poor parent behavior. No hectoring of referees. No yelling at opponents or opponent coaches. No verbal criticism of our coaches or teams from the sidelines.

Listening to the rules some of the parents sat shocked and slack-jawed. They had been led to believe from previous experience that they could do just as they pleased and no one was going to challenge them.

The penalty for parental bad behavior was expulsion of the kid from the program. We would take the kid off the field and write a refund check for the parents immediately.

The key was that we actually did what we said we were going to do. And we only needed to do it once a year or once every other year. The word spread like wild fire that we were serious. Besides, it really was just a few knuckleheads. The great majority of the parents appreciated our handling the out-of-control minority. And our coaches were relieved from a nasty part of their job.

Its a hard thing to do because you are punishing the kid for the act of the parent. But it had the affect of making the experience much better for 99%. It just takes some adults with guts. And it won't work where the local government is involved.

 

[TexanMark]

This is very true! The parent is reliving their childhood through their child. I've often wondered if these travel teams produce better competition and athletes or is it sort of a status symbol for both the parent and child. Can a 10-12 year old kid really get that good playing travel vs the local soccer or little league?

I took my kid out of the soccer travel team after one season. I didn't need to drive a 10 year old kid hours away every weekend for sports and ruin my weekends. I was a bad parent. He turned out alright despite me.

 

[Townie72]

I took my kid out of the soccer travel team after one season. I didn't need to drive a 10 year old kid hours away every weekend for sports and ruin my weekends. I was a bad parent. He turned out alright despite me.

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As opposed to today's child-centered world. I grew up in a parent-centered world in which parents had almost zero interest and involvement in youth sports. I played all three sports in high school and my parents nor none of the parents of my team mates ever watched a game that I can remember.

All sports outside of the high school sanctioned ones and Little League and Junior League baseball were pick-up games --- and we played continually until it got too dark to play.

 

[FAL]

Saw the piece on REAL SPORTS and couldn't believe how much this goes on at youth sports. What happened to taking your kid to play a game then out to ice cream and a hot dog afterwards? Is winning really that important? Still the best two HBO REAL SPORTS pieces that just tell you all you need to know about sports in America




Wow! That was a real eye-opener! Seems like this is more of a pro sport problem and less so than in the collegiate sector. Sure, we've seen some over-the-top losers at some college games, but not to the degree as shown here. Or am I being a bit naive?

 

[TexanMark]

As opposed to today's child-centered world. I grew up in a parent-centered world in which parents had almost zero interest and involvement in youth sports. I played all three sports in high school and my parents nor none of the parents of my team mates ever watched a game that I can remember.

All sports outside of the high school sanctioned ones and Little League and Junior League baseball were pick-up games --- and we played continually until it got too dark to play.

Shaking my head yes...my Dad might have made a couple baseball games a season. I had a bike and I had to peddle my ass to practice and the games. Different time growing up in the 60's/70's.

 

[SU2NASA]

Is winning really that important?

Sounds like something a loser would say.

 

[FAL]

Sounds like something a loser would say.

Northacuse did not post that. Just quoted one sentence from poster Stern's longer post. Go back and read his post and check out his links. Then you'll know who the losers are. As I wrote before: a real eye opener.