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God help those who coach youth sports

GwinnettNole

Seminole Insider
Sep 4, 2001
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Just saw the somewhat ugly side today of PIA parents. I've been a 'helper' on my son's U14 soccer team for two seasons now--- with no incident. Well today, I saw what I've always dreaded in coaching.

So 1st half of the game we are playing defense in front of our fans- I stay behind our goal keeper grabbing the soccer balls as they pass the goal and directing our defense. Second half we swap sides thus putting us parallel to the other teams supporters. So I'm doing my thing-- next thing this lady starts yelling "hey you coach in the green-- those kids (not playing) can't stand there". Ok fine-- I move the kids to the side. I could tell her tone was already one to be a bitch but whatever. Next thing I know our team scores a goal and I start clapping what I didn't really see was there was a collision and their goal keeper may have been hurt. All I saw was the ball go in the net.

Next thing I know the lady starts yelling at me "Hey asshole we have a player hurt". I say to her I didn't see that and that this is a church league. She then says another vulgarity. I ignore it but should have said something like "stay classy" or something like that. (I've never been good with retorts during the heat of battle in anything...lol.)

The rest of the half the bitch is clapping and screaming louder and louder.. Frigin' ridiculous. I spoke to their coach after the game and another friend on that team. Apologizing for what happened and I didn't mean to clap with a player down.

I know this is small potatoes but I can only imagine what some of you deal with as coaches. I can see why some folks don't want anything to do with this. Some parents suck.... Anyone here a coach and have something like this happen?
 
You want to see crazy.... See Peter boulware coach 5-7 year old pop warner. I've seen plenty of crazy parents but IMO nothing beats the level of crazy he has coaching his son in that league.
 
I'm at my 9yr old daughter's softball tournament right now. Last coach had his entire line up take every pitch in the inning. Little girl pitching was struggling so he got his 5 run max. Thing is... they already had the game out of reach. Then they put their ace pitcher (his daughter) back in for the last half inning just to... I don't know what. They won. Not sure what the girls learned, but they got the win.
 
I'm at my 9yr old daughter's softball tournament right now. Last coach had his entire line up take every pitch in the inning. Little girl pitching was struggling so he got his 5 run max. Thing is... they already had the game out of reach. Then they put their ace pitcher (his daughter) back in for the last half inning just to... I don't know what. They won. Not sure what the girls learned, but they got the win.
They learned their coach is a dick. But they probably already knew that.
 
Talked with last year's coach after E were done. They played a team that couldn't hit their ace pitcher so the coach instructed all the batters to crouch down at the plate to make a tiny strike zone and take every pitch. 9 and 10 year old girls rec league. You'd think they were getting paid by the win.
 
Talked with last year's coach after E were done. They played a team that couldn't hit their ace pitcher so the coach instructed all the batters to crouch down at the plate to make a tiny strike zone and take every pitch. 9 and 10 year old girls rec league. You'd think they were getting paid by the win.
The umpire should've called a normal strike zone. Bad coaching and umpiring.
 
One good thing about travel baseball is that the folks who are really serious about the sport do that and those of us who just want our kids to have fun and learn the game stick with little league.

Not sure how things are in the rest of the country but in south florida travel baseball is serious stuff which is fine......it leaves little league baseball to be much more relaxed
 
Every competitive soccer league needs at least one good dad on dad brawl per season set the tone....
 
The jack-hole coach had a rule made just for his team the second day of the tournament but still managed to win the thing. Final game went extra innings with the bad-guys winning 1-0. The semi's and final game the rules change and teams were allowed to pitch their star pitchers for as many innings as they wanted. I know one girl (10 yrs old) went 13 innings on the day plus another 6 on Saturday.. Nuts. My daughter did 6 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday I felt like we were pushing it.
 
Every competitive soccer league needs at least one good dad on dad brawl per season set the tone....

The mom yelling the other day sounded like she could be Joey Buttafuco's sister. I bet she was from either Jersey or south Florida (no offense to anyone but I can say that because that is where I'm from).

Sports bring out the best in all of us..
 
The league I coach in, has a conduct contract, that coaches, players and parents must sign, in order to coach, or participate, or play.
 
I write software for an outfit just south of Cooperstown, NY called "Cooperstown Dreams Park". They hold 13 weeks of little league play on 22 fields throughout the summer. The owner, Lou Presutti, is a NY guy who could pass as a hit-man for the mob, but he has a soft-spot for the kids who come to play and wants to make sure they enjoy the game as it was meant to be played by little leagues.

He gives the umps absolute authority and if a parent gets tossed from a game (coach or spectator) they are escorted out of the park never to return. Ever. Even if they paid $800 bucks for their kid to play and rented a house for the week. But the kid gets to continue playing!

On all the fields but one there are no stands behind behind the plate: they are all behind the outfield. As a spectator if you heckle or coach from the stands you better not let an ump or staff hear you.

The kids and coaches all stay in concrete bunkhouses on iron bunk beds with common showers in the "Baseball Village" which is strictly off limits to parents. The players are free to roam, practice, play pick-up games, play video in a game room, hang out and talk about games, exchange team pins, etc. Basically be a kid and HAVE FUN.

They have round-robin play then a single-elimination tournament that culminates in a championship game late Thursday night in the "big stadium" complete with team intros, broadcasting, huge trophy, and insane fireworks afterwards.

Kind of sounds like and advert but really I'm just glad there is someplace where you can play ball like I used to as a kid. My hat is off to anyone willing to coach in today's "amateur" atmosphere.
 
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I write software for an outfit just south of Cooperstown, NY called "Cooperstown Dreams Park". They hold 13 weeks of little league play on 22 fields throughout the summer. The owner, Lou Presutti, is a NY guy who could pass as a hit-man for the mob, but he has a soft-spot for the kids who come to play and wants to make sure they enjoy the game as it was meant to be played by little leagues.

He gives the umps absolute authority and if a parent gets tossed from a game (coach or spectator) they are escorted out of the park never to return. Ever. Even if they paid $800 bucks for their kid to play and rented a house for the week. But the kid gets to continue playing!

On all the fields but one there are no stands behind behind the plate: they are all behind the outfield. As a spectator if you heckle or coach from the stands you better not let an ump or staff hear you.

The kids and coaches all stay in concrete bunkhouses on iron bunk beds with common showers in the "Baseball Village" which is strictly off limits to parents. The players are free to roam, practice, play pick-up games, play video in a game room, hang out and talk about games, exchange team pins, etc. Basically be a kid and HAVE FUN.

They have round-robin play then a single-elimination tournament that culminates in a championship game late Thursday night in the "big stadium" complete with team intros, broadcasting, huge trophy, and insane fireworks afterwards.

Kind of sounds like and advert but really I'm just glad there is someplace where you can play ball like I used to as a kid. My hat is off to anyone willing to coach in today's "amateur" atmosphere.

Cooperstown is hands down the best travel baseball tournament of the year. The skill level is far greater than LL. the best travel teams in the country play in it.

The best part is asking kids their favorite part of the experience. Most will tell you pin trading and hanging with their team and meeting other teams
 
Dreams Park does a lot of things well but they are not immune to the culture. My son played there as a 10 year old and the winning team flee their starting pitcher in from San Diego just for the finals. That was 11 years ago and I'm sure thing are even more crazy now.

I recently read that travel baseball is hurting rec ball because there aren't enough good players at the rec level to play the game at a level that makes it fun.

I know in some areas travel baseball is out of hand, but we were fortunate to be in an area that offered multiple levels of travel baseball. For us, it has been great with few exceptions. Our team focused on getting kids ready to play high school baseball. A few ended up playing D-3 college ball.



I write software for an outfit just south of Cooperstown, NY called "Cooperstown Dreams Park". They hold 13 weeks of little league play on 22 fields throughout the summer. The owner, Lou Presutti, is a NY guy who could pass as a hit-man for the mob, but he has a soft-spot for the kids who come to play and wants to make sure they enjoy the game as it was meant to be played by little leagues.

He gives the umps absolute authority and if a parent gets tossed from a game (coach or spectator) they are escorted out of the park never to return. Ever. Even if they paid $800 bucks for their kid to play and rented a house for the week. But the kid gets to continue playing!

On all the fields but one there are no stands behind behind the plate: they are all behind the outfield. As a spectator if you heckle or coach from the stands you better not let an ump or staff hear you.

The kids and coaches all stay in concrete bunkhouses on iron bunk beds with common showers in the "Baseball Village" which is strictly off limits to parents. The players are free to roam, practice, play pick-up games, play video in a game room, hang out and talk about games, exchange team pins, etc. Basically be a kid and HAVE FUN.

They have round-robin play then a single-elimination tournament that culminates in a championship game late Thursday night in the "big stadium" complete with team intros, broadcasting, huge trophy, and insane fireworks afterwards.

Kind of sounds like and advert but really I'm just glad there is someplace where you can play ball like I used to as a kid. My hat is off to anyone willing to coach in today's "amateur" atmosphere.
 
Hilarious. Why are you standing behind the goal and not on he sidelines? Have you ever watched a soccer game?

You coach from the sidelines. As for the rest, you lost me with standing behind the goal.
 
One good thing about travel baseball is that the folks who are really serious about the sport do that and those of us who just want our kids to have fun and learn the game stick with little league.

Not sure how things are in the rest of the country but in south florida travel baseball is serious stuff which is fine......it leaves little league baseball to be much more relaxed
I would like to buy travel ball players and parents for what they are worth and sell them for what they think they are.
 
Like every dad, I would have liked to see my son be a star athlete in some ways, but the youth sports industrial complex has made me very thankful he isn't. He's good enough to be able to play the game at a competent level and have fun, but he's never been invited to a serious team. He would like to be, he wants to play at a high level, but I'm glad to not be part of that commitment.

I guess we're pretty lucky, where we live. We've got travel of course. And we've got a lot of mega-church leagues. And the county league is in between. If your kid is 10 years old and decides he wants to play baseball for the first time, and has never picked up a bat...there's church league. Filled with kids that are terrible, or have no interest but their dad is making them, or have never played or seen the game before. And it's perfect for that. And if your kid is not terrible, knows how to play and is competitive and pays attention, but just doesn't have much talent, then he can play in the rec league. By 10 or 11 years old, they expect the kids to listen to the coach, and to know what they are supposed to do, but its ok if they're not great. On every team of 10 kids, there are probably 3-4 travel caliber kids that are playing in the spring league rec instead, so the level of play is pretty decent.

My father was in from Knoxville to watch his game, and he was actually impressed by the level of play for a public league. He says in their town travel has totally decimated rec ball, where there isn't a single player in the rec leagues that knows which hand his glove goes on.
 
Like every dad, I would have liked to see my son be a star athlete in some ways, but the youth sports industrial complex has made me very thankful he isn't. He's good enough to be able to play the game at a competent level and have fun, but he's never been invited to a serious team. He would like to be, he wants to play at a high level, but I'm glad to not be part of that commitment.

I guess we're pretty lucky, where we live. We've got travel of course. And we've got a lot of mega-church leagues. And the county league is in between. If your kid is 10 years old and decides he wants to play baseball for the first time, and has never picked up a bat...there's church league. Filled with kids that are terrible, or have no interest but their dad is making them, or have never played or seen the game before. And it's perfect for that. And if your kid is not terrible, knows how to play and is competitive and pays attention, but just doesn't have much talent, then he can play in the rec league. By 10 or 11 years old, they expect the kids to listen to the coach, and to know what they are supposed to do, but its ok if they're not great. On every team of 10 kids, there are probably 3-4 travel caliber kids that are playing in the spring league rec instead, so the level of play is pretty decent.

My father was in from Knoxville to watch his game, and he was actually impressed by the level of play for a public league. He says in their town travel has totally decimated rec ball, where there isn't a single player in the rec leagues that knows which hand his glove goes on.

Girls gymnastics is the worst I've heard about in terms of practices, level of commitment/competitiveness and the pressure from the club.
My daughter tried it for awhile and I was glad she moved on to other sports.
 
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