re: Post your top stories of ill behaving youth sports parents

It's easy to fall into that drama trap at youth sports. Esp if you have good intentions with a correct and educated arguement.

However, after college I attended some games with a coworker who had very talented kids (although he knew and was open about them not being forced to play or try for college scholarships). When I arrived he was standing by the exit watching. I asked why wasn't he in the stands and he pointed and said, "never sit with them." And after looking around the gym i knew why.

Haven't sat with or near parents since that day.

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What these past 6 pages has taught me is that the police need to quit patrolling crack neighborhoods and start canvasing the ballparks.

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We're supposed to have a law enforcement officer at all high school soccer games. There's rarely one there, but if you call the cops and tell them you're a ref and need help, they get there in a hurry.

Years ago I was officiating a high-school age basketball game. There was a lot of yapping coming from one teams bench/fans area-some or most of it directed towards me. I determined one young man to be the leader of it and as I passed by I asked him if he was a coach. He wasn't so I let it go. After the game he confronted me in the parking lot and was pretty disturbed. He asked why I asked him that. I told him that if he had been a coach I would have assessed him a technical. He continued to bad mouth me and finally said "I'd hate to have to kill you." Frankly I was scared spitless but didn't want to show it. I replied, "I'd hate for you to try." He walked off. I was totally shaken. I mean, my gosh.

When I was playing 10 year old baseball, we had a game that started with thunder storms moving in. The first 2 innings were okay but the thunder was getting louder. The home plate ump and some kids dad on my team were arguing over the strike zone and he was close to getting kicked out of the park when the bottom fell out. Ump called the game and everybody ran to a pavilion close by including the umpires. Lightening cracking all around and it seemed like a tornado would emerge at any second.

The home plate umpire was standing with his hand leaning against a metal support at the corner of the pavilion. A lightening strike popped close by and arced over to the pole and the man fell to the ground. During the panic that ensued and the initiation of CPR, the man he was arguing with was standing next to me and my dad as we stood a few yards back from the man on the ground.

I heard him say "good!" He wasn't talking to anyone in particular. Just commenting to himself that he approved of the justice that he felt had just been rendered on this umpire. Still one of the most fricked up reactions to anything I have ever seen.

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Post your top stories of ill behaving youth sports parents
What these past 6 pages has taught me is that the police need to quit patrolling crack neighborhoods and start canvasing the ballparks

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I'm now a League President. One of the first things I did was request an officer be present at the complex. It's helped out tremendously.

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I don't understand the mindset. What makes an adult completely act like an arse at youth sporting events. It completely embarrasses the kid, it does no good for anyone. Is it that hard to control their emotions?

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It does embarrass the kids. All these years after that story, now I'm a parent and have kids playing high school sports. I've found it hard- especially in basketball to keep quiet (that was MY sport) I don't want to embarrass my kids so I typically work the books at the scorers table since that keeps me occupied and quiet.
I've read that from talking to youth that play sports, professionals have determined that the main 3 things kids need to hear from their parents are "Play hard". "Have fun" and "I love to watch you play." That's it. No coaching. No correcting. No fussing. I've tried to remember this.

I've coached youth basketball for years, and one of my favorites is the parents/grandparents that offer the kids money for every point they score. Here I'm trying to teach them the value of passing and recognizing the open player and team ball and all that, and the parents are bribing their kids to shoot more and undermining everything I've taught the players.

I don't have a particular story but I grew up in St Bernard and parents fighting and behaving badly was common. The best part was all the rec parks in the parish served beer so we got to watch drunk parents fighting and behaving badly.

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Get out of here with this nonsense.
Little Johnny gonna get a scholarship, if the damn umpires, noncommittal t-ball teammates, and lousy coaches don't ruin it for him.

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pretty much.