- Sep 3, 2020
- 7
- 3
I often find myself lamenting about getting my DD involved in Softball (and other sports for that matter). My DD has never been interested in gaining a scholarship and plays sports merely for the love of the game and competition. My DD is 14 and it makes me sad to see the garbage that she has witnessed playing sports.
Sadly most of this comes from coaches (yes I know this will be an unpopular statement on this board). So many yelling and screaming at young girls is atrocious. She has witnessed coaches encouraging girls to cheat and/or play dirty (in the name of trying to win). My DD is fiercely competitive but refuses to do anything that could be deemed as cheating or just wrong. She has witnesses coaches horrible treatment of girls on the bench (threatening to bench them, calling them out in front of other girls, or in one coaches case give a girl the silent treatment). I think the worst are the coaches that happen to have a DD on the team. She saw the best pitcher on her team get cut because coaches DD was also a pitcher and he wanted his DD to be #1.
For me personally as a parent, I am always asking myself about the life lessons that she is learning through sport. She has certainly learned that life isn't fair and that politics play a role in almost everything. Sadly, I also look at how she is taught to sit down, shut up and not say anything or heaven forbid disagree with her coach. She has seen girls (parents even) labelled as troublemakers for simply having an opinion. She even said to me at one point that coaches think they run the world. That just made me sad. In this day and age with #metoo movement, it disturbs me to think that girls sport is not evolving and not allowing girls the safety to stand up and question things or have an opinion. Part of me hopes that she will quit all her sports fairly soon and just focus on school.
OK - I am off my soapbox.
Sadly most of this comes from coaches (yes I know this will be an unpopular statement on this board). So many yelling and screaming at young girls is atrocious. She has witnessed coaches encouraging girls to cheat and/or play dirty (in the name of trying to win). My DD is fiercely competitive but refuses to do anything that could be deemed as cheating or just wrong. She has witnesses coaches horrible treatment of girls on the bench (threatening to bench them, calling them out in front of other girls, or in one coaches case give a girl the silent treatment). I think the worst are the coaches that happen to have a DD on the team. She saw the best pitcher on her team get cut because coaches DD was also a pitcher and he wanted his DD to be #1.
For me personally as a parent, I am always asking myself about the life lessons that she is learning through sport. She has certainly learned that life isn't fair and that politics play a role in almost everything. Sadly, I also look at how she is taught to sit down, shut up and not say anything or heaven forbid disagree with her coach. She has seen girls (parents even) labelled as troublemakers for simply having an opinion. She even said to me at one point that coaches think they run the world. That just made me sad. In this day and age with #metoo movement, it disturbs me to think that girls sport is not evolving and not allowing girls the safety to stand up and question things or have an opinion. Part of me hopes that she will quit all her sports fairly soon and just focus on school.
OK - I am off my soapbox.