The parent fight at the PEE WEE football game got me thinking...

[PlanoHeat]

They should disband both teams and I'd ban every one of those people on the field from ever seeing a game again. I figured we are about 2 years out from seeing a parent go off and pull a gun at one of these games.

 

[shockcoach]

This is football, where if one person commits an infraction, the whole team is penalized.

 

[joemcq51]

I have a girl playing TB and a boy in FB. While I will be the first to tell you there are wacko softball parents, it is nothing like FB. Sure in TB, every dad is an expert and every DD should be the #1 pitcher or the next Jennie Finch. But in FB, it is like these boys are playing for their parents livelihood. It is a whole different ballgame with the parents. 5 and 6 yrs old and getting blasted for not hustling enough. Coaches with 20 min lectures after a "bad" practice. Parents encouraging their kids to "fight back" after their kid just got his jersey pulled by another 5 yr old. As someone who is involved in both sports, FB is way crazier than you would ever imagine. If my DS decided to stop playing after this season, I would not try to change his mind at all. (BTW, I played FB through college) Makes you look at the softball dads in a whole different light.

 

[chapelhillbilly]

Now I try to be very aware on how the girls/parents act and put an end to cheers directed at the opposing pitcher/players. We encourage cheering of our players only. If we win I don't want it to be because we cheered so loudly that the pitcher got rattled. I want it to be because we played better.

AMEN!!! We have a young team this year that we decided to take to a fall league in another county so they could get some experience playing 10U and my girls started the first game doing some cheers against the other team. I put a stop to it immediately. I told them if they wanted to cheer, then cheer for your teammates not against someone else. But it amazes me that the other coaches (and the worst team have 2 women coaches) allow their girls to cheer and try to rattle the pitchers. Most of these girls are only 8 years old. They are scared to death and unsure of themselves. I just think is extreamly unsportsmanlike conduct to do it especially in fall league softball.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

I agree Chapel. I remember 2 specific pitchers in Central Il. that we could only beat if we got them rattled. One became a pro (late 1970s), but we were adults.

What someone says to a child, is a quite different story.

I saw an adult try to rattle one of my 9 YO students, who was winning. The woman kept yelling "she isn't pausing!"

 

[FPump]

Stephanie - I don't know the specifics of the incident you referenced (I think the subject line probably tells it all), but I do think the coaches can help set the tone and expectations of the parents at the beginning of the season on how they should behave during games. Last spring I posted an incident we had with an opposing 8U team's 1B coach who was ranting and raving about an umps judgment call and accused OUR team of being bush league and called us an expletive several times so the whole world could hear it. His team's parents, not knowing the rules, thought that we had done something wrong and the parents verbally turned on us.

So to answer your question, I think coaches have some responsibility for the actions of the parents and to diffuse (or not start) situtions before they get out of control. With that said, if parents are fighting they should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and banned for life from attending youth sporting events.

And the umpire did not eject him because......????

 

[PEPPERS]

The coach or coaches should set the grond rules for parents IMO. Not the coaches responsability to police the parents, but a coach parents meeting to stress rules and sporrtsmanship can go a long way.

We had a good sponsor pull out in rec-ball 5-6 YO because of unruley parents, so it can effect a team more than one way.

 

[WARRIORMIKE]

Mandatory viewing: The South Park episode called "The Losing Edge". Stan's father, Randy, makes fighting at Stan's baseball games an art form.

ahhhhh yes gotta love Trey and Matt for there wisdom and antics with that show!!