Posted on 03/11/2020 12:08:25 PM PDT by nickcarraway
OK, NHL is not high school hockey. Got it!
But this thread is about bad behavior by parents. Do they get any training in good sportsmanship?
Holy smoke! I just looked up “parents fighting in youth sports”. Tons of vids that make NHL hockey fights look like a polite minuet. Not a good example for the kids, are they?
;^)
“Not a good example for the kids, are they?”
I don’t see this threat as being about parents. I see it as one about a youth league and the failure of it.
One of the hardest things to do when your local league gets started each year is find qualified coaches. The term qualified means not to win any way possible. But to succeed in teaching the correct techniques and teamwork to both win and lose. That’s life.
Youth sports is a training ground for citizenry for society, not a stepping block to turn pro and make the mega bucks as advertised. And until coaches, who really are parents, learn that, there will be altercations on the surface, not by the kids as much but by the parents. And there will be problems from the stands.
Parents are the real kids when their kids compete. They think their kid is Michael Jordan or Willie Mays or, in this case, Gordie Howe, and they cannot stand to see them lose because they’re too good to lose. Not the kids, the parents.
And a good official won’t let it get out of hand as that is another problem with youth leagues. The officials, in most cases, are volunteers with their hearts in the right place but they get in over their heads. This official in the thread messed up. He never should have let it get that far that a coach came out to challenge him on the surface on a call. or number of calls. Needed a little tough love there. It takes far more years to become a competent coach than an average official. Plus a major contributor of that training should be by the official’s and their efforts to teach the sport thus citizenry along with recreation. Hand in hand. And the combination of the league administrator, the coaches’ groups, the officials’ associations, and the communications with parents to determine the expected behavior of play, for all, should have been established. And an example made of those that don’t play the adult part right. It teaches their kids cause and effect of success, and not bullying another person to get what you want. The parents wouldn’t allow their kids to do that to them at home, if they are any good, so why do they display it to teach their kids to do it in life?
I could tell you stories that would make you laugh or get you angry about parents, players, and coaches and the stupidity they create from my 40+ years of officiating of many different sports and levels around the world. But the thread would be too small.
Let’s just say that the kids are really in the stands and on the benches, and should not be on the playing surface with the competitors, the other kids. The other ones see and learn everything. Choose your teaching wisely, you’re building people from children. You only get one chance, they get older quickly. And we hope wiser in the right direction.
rwood
“Youth sports is a training ground for citizenry for society, not a stepping block to turn pro and make the mega bucks as advertised.”
That is the money quote! It sums up what the entire issue should be about.
So...Mommy and Daddy look forward to their offspring’s one day bringing home the bling. No wonder they think it worth fighting over. More than just defense of genes.
Verrrry interesting!
;^ )
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