During my senior year of High School, I was at my high schools last soccer game of the season. With a tied score of one to one and only minutes left in the game, an obviously poor call on one of my schools players was called. Of course many of the fans were upset, but one of the seniors parents took the situation a bit too far. The parent stormed the field and grabbed a hold of the referee who made the call. After screaming at him for a few minutes and walked over to the side line where the opposite team was sitting and started yelling at the coach and players. Because of this mans uncontrollable actions, the game was called, which made it impossible for the team to continue onto the finals.
Fortunately, no one was injured during this incident, but the son of the inappropriate father was humiliated, and the team got a lot of negative feedback from the press and opposing teams.
Now a days, children are encouraged to not only play sports, but to dominate in sports. I have read many articles about parents storming the playing field and yelling at the refs and coaches, while their children watch. What is this teaching our children? That if they do not like a call, they can scream and yell at refs to get their way?!
In the following video, 8 year old Hockey Players in Ontario Canada start fighting, as both parents and coaches join in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhZ_PC0CLec
Personally, I believe that this situation is out of control. I think parents have the right to get "involved" in the game, but they need to remember that they are influencing their kids actions by their own.
It is important that the youth is passionate about their sport, but when it comes to fighting and embarrassing themselves over a game, people need to remember that these are only children playing.. and it's only a game!
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The video that you posted is incredible. And unfortunately, in today's society, more and more we are seeing coaches and parents becoming more involved physically in their children's games. It wasn't too long ago when parents and coaches preached having fun...it seems like those days are loooong gone. Now, it is all about winning, and doing whatever it takes to win. It really is too bad that this has to happen for the kids, because it really takes a lot of the fun away. In regards to your personal experience, it just doesn't seem right that because of one ignorant parent, that the rest of the team has to be punished.
ReplyDeleteYeah Mike, I agree. I remember when I played soccer in Elementary School. My dad was actually my coach, along with my next door neighbor. If anyone ever got upset with how the game was going, or with another player, the coaches would take us out of the game and remind us to have a good time, and that it was only a game. I think if my parent was screaming, or if another parent was getting upset during on of my games, I would have felt awkward, and wanted to stop playing!
ReplyDeleteYes. It was completely unfair for the entire team to get penalized, because of the fathers actions, but I don't think that the district knew what to do with the team after the uproar- and since the games were not in the regular season, they felt it was okay to ban them.
I have seen the same thing from when I was in high school, but not to that extent. Playing club soccer there was one team that we played alot. The parents of that team would trash talk to kids, coaches and the referee. It sets a bad example to the kids doesn't matter what age and it is something that should be stopped and eliminated all together.
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