Time to get rid of youth sports?

[towski]

I loved plaing sports growing up, and it did a lot for me.....but it needs to be fixed!

http://www.dailyinterlake.com/articles/2005/07/17/sports/sports01.txt

[towski]

Bad Link, sorry.

Lowest of the low. Police arrested a little league tee-ball coach in Pennsylvania last week after the coach offered to pay one of his players $25 to throw a baseball at a mentally disabled teammate, according an Associated Press story. The boy was hit once in the head and once in the groin.

The coach did not want the kid -- who is 8, by the way -- to play in the game because of the disability. Police charged Mark R. Downs of Dunbar, Pa., with criminal solicitation to commit aggravated assault, corruption of minors, criminal conspiracy to commit simple assault and recklessly endangering another person.

This requires no further commentary.

[Platypus]

Why would this be a reason to get rid of youth sports? It seems more like a reason to get rid of psychopathic creeps.

[towski]

It was more of an attempt to churn some debate, platypus.....

I am tired of reading more and more stories like this.

Maybe I'd be better served by saying it's time to REFORM youth sports.

[Platypus]

Maybe I'd be better served by saying it's time to REFORM youth sports.
I think agree with you, even though the problem seems to be neither the youth nor the sports. It's the parents. I was going to cite the Reading case from around here, but I figured I'd Google to get a link, and I found this (http://www.swedish.org/16639.cfm):
A Massachusetts father, angered over rough play in a youth hockey game, beat a hockey coach to death. In North Carolina, a mother attending her child's soccer game was charged with assault for slapping a 14-year-old referee. A 36-year-old coach in Florida attacked an umpire and broke his jaw during a baseball game, while a police officer who was thrown out of his son's baseball game for unruly conduct later retaliated by pulling the ump over at a traffic-stop for allegedly making an illegal left turn.
Think that's bad? Try this (http://www.davie.net/gremlins_common/main_insert/violence.htm).
Excitement suddenly turned to fear for the 49ers youth football team as players ran off the field holding their stomachs and began vomiting violently on the sideline.

Parents and coaches helped the eight boys, ages 12 to 14, into cars and
headed to the hospital, ending the practice for a championship game a few days later.

No one knew it at the time, but the sick 49ers had been poisoned, casualties in an epidemic of parental rage sweeping through youth sports.
Both stories mention how many leagues are requiring good-conduct pledges from parents, or banning them altogether. "Sideline rage" seems to be the latest manifestation of spoiled children turning into stressed-out adults and losing their tempers whenever things don't go their way.

[towski]

Yea, I've heard about all of those cases. It's disturbing.

Sideline Rage is a problem. I think it's really sad when a parent's self-worth is tied up in their 7 year olds ability to swing a bat.

[Albert]

I agree that youth sports are in trouble but I wouldn’t stop there. The problems we see in youth sports are also in education and other parts of our society. Where ever children have become extensions of parent’s egos you will find kids being pushed and prodded out of childhood and coaches and teachers being pushed to unreasonable expectations.

Don’t get me wrong this coach sounds like a slime ball but I’ve seen too many variations on this theme to believe it is an exception. Parents want their children to be on winning teams; they then want their children to be star players. The pressures this places on coaches is nothing short of unreasonable so too often the only ones willing to coach have agendas such as coaching their kids to be star players.

[Soren]

Why would this be a reason to get rid of youth sports? It seems more like a reason to get rid of psychopathic creeps.I couldn't agree more. I spend a lot of time at games what with the innumerable leagues which my sister's kids are involved in and there can occasionaly be some strange characters at the game. One parent lacked the good sense to leave their pit-bulls-- which they didn't control very well-- at home and ended up provoking a shouting match with parents of the other team when one dog very nearly hurt a child. An assertive umpire helped to defuse the situation, but it easily could have boiled out of control.

[Albert]

Yea, I've heard about all of those cases. It's disturbing.

Sideline Rage is a problem. I think it's really sad when a parent's self-worth is tied up in their 7 year olds ability to swing a bat.
I am a youth soccer coach and I have decided if I ever do it again I’m going to make the parents try-out before I agree to coach their children. Let me give you an example from last (perhaps my last) season:

My assistant coach quit and many parents were up in arms because I allegedly threw the second game of the season. My team was in the B-Division of a developmental league the players are all 10 or younger. I threw the game because I refused to violate the provision that guarantees all players in developmental leagues equal playing time. Now if anyone took 5 steps back and considered that the purpose of playing in B-Division Developmental league was playing time they might have realized how silly they were acting. Now I’m old enough and have been through way too many seasons to let a few upset parents cause me to hurt a child’s feelings or to go back on my principles but I would be lying if I said this foolishness doesn’t make it harder to volunteer.

[Djj1973]

I am not a parent but I can see where sometimes they can get a little upset. I had an experience the other day where I wanted to throttle this guy.

I took my nephew to the paintball field and during a game this guy was able to get behind my nephew and had an open shot. Instead of aiming and shooting him once, he just started to shoot rapidly at him. Now my nephew is 11 and the guy was in his mid 20s. Not exactly a fair fight. I was on the sideline because I had been shot out earlier in the game. With my gun in my hand it was all I could do not to unload on him. Instead my cooler temper prevailed and I berated him verbally. I said somethings that I am sure my nephew has never heard. The guy ended up leaving the park for the day. Which was good because I was still pretty pissed. Perhaps if I had just unloaded a ton of paintballs at him I would have felt better but I am sure that would be considered assult.

[Albert]

I am not a parent but I can see where sometimes they can get a little upset. I had an experience the other day where I wanted to throttle this guy.

I took my nephew to the paintball field and during a game this guy was able to get behind my nephew and had an open shot. Instead of aiming and shooting him once, he just started to shoot rapidly at him. Now my nephew is 11 and the guy was in his mid 20s. Not exactly a fair fight. I was on the sideline because I had been shot out earlier in the game. With my gun in my hand it was all I could do not to unload on him. Instead my cooler temper prevailed and I berated him verbally. I said somethings that I am sure my nephew has never heard. The guy ended up leaving the park for the day. Which was good because I was still pretty pissed. Perhaps if I had just unloaded a ton of paintballs at him I would have felt better but I am sure that would be considered assult.
Nothing like picking on someone younger.

What bothers me is hard it is for many parents to connect with how youngsters think and feel. Some of the most hurtful thing they will say are often unintentional. One kid gets the ball and its pass pass pass, another its dribble dribble dribble still another its shoot shoot shoot. It is almost impossible to coach over the din or to help a kid develop confidence in his or her skills if every time they get the ball the sidelines are yelling pass.

[Djj1973]

Nothing like picking on someone younger.

What bothers me is hard it is for many parents to connect with how youngsters think and feel. Some of the most hurtful thing they will say are often unintentional. One kid gets the ball and its pass pass pass, another its dribble dribble dribble still another its shoot shoot shoot. It is almost impossible to coach over the din or to help a kid develop confidence in his or her skills if every time they get the ball the sidelines are yelling pass.

Exactly when did Go GO Go become more specific ? I bet the kid could probably figure out what to do with the ball once it got into his or her hands. Thats why they spend so much time at practice.

[No+redamer]

It's amazing how seriously some coaches take their position. The head coach of the Ohio all-star team was acting like the Ohio - Pennsylvania high school game was the super bowl. While the Pennsylvanians were enjoying themselves---as the game intended---this moron was in the faces of his players screaming his *** off.

[Ed Sane]

I am not surprised by this...I played soccer once fun times, parents screaming yelling, chanting...Then the players one on my team had his arm broken in a match, we went out for blood....Its all part of the game...