re: Overly obsessive parents in sports

I have been a high school and middle school coach for the past 10 years. In all honesty I find that most of these parents mean well, they are just a bit overbearing and annoying.

The parents I dislike the most are the ones who fall in love with their kids "trainer" or "personal coach" and begin telling the kid to ignore the us in so many words. Those, and the parents who "use to" coach.

I remember losing one of our best athletes one year because he broke his foot listening to dad and "coach". Apparently they decided the kid wasn't tired enough when he left practice and took it upon themselves to run the kid ragged after. Eventually he developed a fracture in his foot and had to be shut down.

The same guy was trying to recruit another one of our athletes to train with him, I walked straight over, interrupted the conversation and told the parent that if the kid trained with him that I wouldn't coach them.

I have seen parents show up to coaches houses at 6:00 in the morning on the weekend to talk about playing time, I have seen parents try (and succeed) to bribe coaches with money and items. Several moms have tried to flirt to get their kid some extra attention. I have seen a few parents brawl in the stands and in the parking lot.

If you coach long enough you pick up some great stories. I love bullshitting with the older coaches and listening to them tell stories. That's the same reason I laugh when people talk about how the poor public schools can't compete.

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Read that title as 'overly obese parents'.

Am I alone here?

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Exactly how I read it