Reactions in Youth Sports
Today there are youth councils that get together and people dedicate their time and patience to put together all the sports that children love to play. For example, you have soccer, baseball, t-ball, softball, basketball and little league football. With this you have your certain board members that concentrate on one particular sport to make it very simple to the rest of the board members. Well then you have your games where parents are put their child in every sport they can play or try to play. It helps the kids interact with one another learn about the sport and to teach the children several things about life. Some people forget though that these leagues are developed to help the children be active physically and mentally. The town where I live we do our leagues by volunteer base only no one gets paid and what money is raised is used on supplies for the sports for the kids. Youth leagues provide a lot of business to your community with bringing in other towns to play at your fields and teach the kids how to play against other teams that they will face hopefully in junior high and high school sports. Unfortunately, all this can go wrong with parents who try to live their dream and career out in their children. Occasionally, you do have parents causing scenes in front of other children, threatening children and just causing fights. This happens at most of the games I’ve ever attended, played or officiated. This makes it where the children don’t want to play sports anymore because it takes the fun out of the game. Who wants to play when they aren’t having fun? I don’t!
I am a volunteer at the local Youth Council as Softball Commissioner. I seen while umpiring the sport that there was a lot of conflict with coaches being the commissioner and there were few kids playing the sport. The age groups were all combined together which made it harder for the ones coming up out of coach pitch to play the sport. Who really wants to play against the older team and get beat all the time? Not me! It’s not fun being the losing team so the team would just forfeit the remainder of the game. This is setting a message out to those kids that quitting is okay when the going gets tough and quitting is okay when things aren’t right. Well later in life they will want to think the same way! Quitting was never an option growing up! You worked hard no matter how tough things were or could have gotten. It makes you a stronger person inside and out.
Parents who try to force their children make things a lot worse. They force their kids who don’t want to play sports play them which isn’t a good thing in my eyes; because there is the screaming and yelling at the kids due to the game not being interesting to them. Parents tell their kids to hurt other kids to get back at them when something happens as an accident. Parents also cursing and using vulgar language in front of fans, kids and the whole town especially parent’s who is a Preacher. We had an incident here this past year in soccer that kids were playing a pretty close game; the opposing team that was behind by one point the Preacher of the First Baptist Church here was yelling at the kids to kick the winning team kids in the face! Was that ethical? It was totally uncalled for! Especially being a man of God and being a positive role model in the town screaming and yelling kick the kids in the face and vulgar language. This makes it where the games are no longer fun and then it becomes physical. Someone could have gotten hurt really bad! It makes it harder to face that team again in a later game because what if some mother bear would have remembered this incident and it would be crazy if she didn’t and her kid or another kid was to get hurt. What kind of liability would the city, youth council or parent is responsible for this matter? Would you allow your kid to play against them in a later game? Would you be making a law suit on the Preacher man for telling the kid to do so? Why are parents like this? Why can’t kids just have fun and learn from the game? There was a meeting after this matter and there was a game a month down the road where these two teams would play again with each other and the board came to conclusion not to allow this game to precede it. Due to the first game not having good issues what would make the second game any better? The youth council board came to conclusion that it would be safe for all parties involved to just have some other team to play. Once the coach meeting was called to order the coach in question was still upset about it and was not letting anything go. To me this meant he was still upset and if there was going to be a game between the two teams this matter could take place again then it would be our faults for even allowing this to happen with the threats that were made.
These types of things aren’t only in small rivalry towns they happen all over the United States and elsewhere. Coaches are giving kids steroids! One why would you start a kid on something like that? Second doctors do this not coaches! What makes any of this right? Some people think that this helps creating great athletes and I think it does nothing but destroy a kid’s chance at a career or damaging a perfect body! Little League Baseball, Incorporated, is obligated by its charter to advance the health and welfare of children. This was founded in 1939; Little League has provided wholesome and healthy athletic competition to tens of millions of children. They not only create athletes but helping create good citizens. The leagues teach teamwork, sportsmanship, and fair play is values to be carried forward to adulthood. Parents should talk to their children and the damages it can do to your body about taking steroids. Let them know that abuse of steroids and their precursors is wrongs, has serious health consequences and it’s tantamount to cheating. Little League has educational information about any use of this or other subjects relevant to the health and well-being of child athletes through ASAP (A Safety Awareness Program). Seven thousand local league programs play under the same rules and regulations. The dangers of using anabolic steroids can destroy the child in question by leading further into drug abuse, serious health problems or death. Why put any child through this? If a child needs enhancement get out of the house and play or work with them! The kids of America need not to suffer but learn! That is how America became free! We work hard for what we want and what we do.
Parents at a football game have a fight that got physical over a score in September of 2010. “This woman just started punching her and continued to punch her,” a witness stated. “According the deputy, they both had children in the game on opposite sides. Whatever the argument was about, it had nothing to do with them personally or any issues that occurred between the two of them. It was about the game.”(Campbell). After this fight, witnesses watched 31-year old Chrishona Burrows drive away, leaving the victim, 30-year old Miranda Gregory, called police. Officers tacked down Burrows with a description of her car and took her to jail while Gregory, was to Mease Dunedin Hospital.(Campbell). What was the outcome of this? What did these ladies teach their children? Nothing but how to be a bully! This is how things are messed up in little league and makes it where the kids don’t want to play the sport when they are the ones having to be responsible. Parent’s need to learn how to be more mature and learn how to handle things and quit trying to live through their kids and let the kids be kids!
In Maryland, there was another incident with the parents on opposing teams were yelling at one another. This makes it harder on the umpires to control the fans and the situation. The mothers of a seven and eight year old where making threats to a thirteen year old about “slash” who just try to intervene. (Prada). I umpire girls’ softball and making any kind of threats or getting out of control you are to call the police to come help remove the people causing problems so it’s not distracting the kids trying to play ball. If there is a threat made to an umpire it is a felony. If you touch an official you can face jail time. The laws are very strict when it comes to certain things and it’s just best to keep your attitude under control. Always remember, that there are kids around and to watch what you say because they are our future!
In Colorado, there were three parents including the town prosecutor with third degree assault and disorderly conduct after a brawl during a youth baseball tournament this past June. Putting a player in a hospital! This particular fight consisted of at least six adults during a game for twelve year-olds and the police were still trying to sort out what started this fight and who all was involved. The boys also got into a dispute, and a lady claimed her son was (attacked by one of the parents) in a chokehold and punched him. The boy was sixteen and eventually hospitalized with a concussion. They try and turn the story around saying they were defending their own child.(Huff Post). This just shows that parents are a huge problem in today’s little league problems. This is just a few of the incidents that have happened just in the last year! Shows that we need to do something about this matter!
With all of this said we need to get some kind of proposal to all the parents, players, coaches and any fans that we need to be more about the kids and less about ourselves. We need to keep this from happening! The kids are the ones who suffer! They need to be kids not adults yet. I believe if everyone who was to read some of these stories and sees how far this can go to destroying a kid’s life along with a career, maybe it just might help get the message through to some of these people. It’s crazy on how a person with such a high power job can be so immature on something like this! It’s a game! This is for the kids! I hope that with me being involved in my towns’ youth council I can help prevent incidents in the sport I’m involved in. Last year was pretty bad and I was just an umpire. I had people trying to chase me down the fence line talking trash to me and my partner umpire. It’s childish and would just hope that people would think before they act or speak!
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