Youth Sports (i.e. the thing we all loved which parents have now ruined)

From the story: "... the coach and his team, who are from Staten Island, ...

Boy, that'll help the reputation of that area, huh?

(I'm a lifelong West Coaster, but I heard some things, although most of it in recent years was from Pete Davidson)

 

As a parent of a former youth athlete and a former longtime HS official, I'll agree with those who say that parents and players follow the lead of the coach in terms of demeanor.

When offspring played her sport at big, multistate gatherings, it was always interesting to have to sit next to parents of players from the opposing teams. There seemed to be an unspoken tension between each set of parents until one of us (inevitably my wife or me) said something like, "Nice job" or "That was a good play" about one of the opposing players. It showed the other parents that we weren't going to be THOSE parents, and both sets of parents could just sit and <strikethrough>endure</strikethrough> enjoy the action.

After one match, I tracked down the opposing coach and told him how much I appreciated his approach and coaching style. These were under-14 girls, so it wasn't bloodthirsty competition yet, but he had a way of keeping things light regardless of the situation in the match. Pretty clear his players - and he - had fun.

 

Oh, 93devil was there:

 

Our game the other night followed another game between the third-place team and the last-place team. After the last-place team lost, their coach had to be restrained because he was going to fight either the ump or the other coach or both.

Guy I coach with and I were just standing there shaking our heads waiting for them to get the f out of the dugout so we could warm up.

Imagine being so mad over a Parks and Rec baseball game that you were going to fight someone, risking criminal charges and embarrassment. Meanwhile his players were all smiles leaving the dugout, trying to get to the ice cream truck before it left the parking lot.

 

I think this is where I'd get myself in trouble. Because I, the bystander, would tell that coach to stop being a problem and get the f*** out of the dugout so my kids could get their turn.

 

The instruction we've received from the league is, "in such a case just handle your team."

During basketball season apparently there was an altercation and one coach - trying to do the right thing - pulled a kid not from his team away from another player, resulting in some parent getting all indignant and law enforcement giving the good Samaritan coach a hard look.

So I was perfectly content to watch. It was ridiculous.

In our game that night, our opponent was really excited to be in the game against the undefeated team (us). At a key moment our pitcher (my kid actually) struck out their stud - with two strikes kid fouled it straight back and our catcher caught it for strike three. Their parents were just screaming, "HE FOUL TIPPED IT!!!!"

.... which takes us back to the premise of this thread: Adults are ruining youth sports.

 

Like I said, Justin ... this is where I'd get myself into trouble. LOL.

 

Oh if I had a dime for every time I told somebody, "Read the rule book, then we'll talk"

 

Ugh. I umped Little League and made that call on a foul tip. The coaches overruled me. The shit they didn't know was infuriating. It's not even an obscure rule. You see it called all the time.

 

That's a funny situation because I think until a certain age it happens so seldom that it is tough for new umpires, especially kids, to catch. I remember when my oldest was in second grade and playing catcher in the season-ending tournament and he caught one. I was so proud! There were a lot of people who were like, what just happened. But the ump was right on it. Coaches should definitely freaking know. I have seen a lot of coaches on rec levels not know rules, though. It's worse when they think they know rules.

When I helped coach rec, I always tried to help young umps the best I could by being levelheaded, especially with stuff they haven't seen before. The last year I coached there was a play at second where the runner beat the throw on a force, turned toward third (being rec, mostly just didn't stop on the base), the fielder stepped on the base, and then the runner went back without being tagged. The ump called the runner out, but I was like the force was gone as soon as he beat the original throw. After a little conversation, other coach involved too, the ruling was changed and I don't think any feelings were hurt.

 

I was lucky. The town I worked for sent us to classes with a long time ump and we had to take a test at the end. I ate it up, but got pissed off when kids I umped with didn't know positioning.

 

Agreed. And when a rule is blatantly enforced wrong, the best approach is to just talk about it with the young umpires. Don't come screaming out of the dugout looking for a confrontation, for sure.

Also: 100 percent what you said about the caught foul ball! Our league has a real lack of kids who can play catcher even when the ball isn't tipped; it was a really good snag by our catcher.

We're a pretty deep team, and on a lot of other squads he would be the primary shortstop/pitcher/etc., but for us he's filled in at catcher and been very strong.