Yep, the middle school has canceled football due to a lack of coaching, I fear this is just the beginning in youth sports, I retired as a soccer ref this year and it's for one-word PARENTS, I am done dealing with these idiots. I see in very near future games be canceled and teams not having enough coaching or refs. Parents look at yourselves for the reason why. Rant over
As a former coach, president of a youth football organization, and ref I get it. Complaining with out action is whining and I have no time for whiners. Too many parents complain without stepping up to be part of the solution.
I run my sons AAU team for basketball for him, I want to punch a few parents right in the teeth sometimes. If they actually knew the time, effort and my own money I spend they might have a different out look.
Lombardi middle school in Green Bay? I went to Franklin Middle school (arch rivals (not really)) and we didn't have school football, but instead the high schools would have youth teams as well as other leagues around town. So I could of played for a West High school youth team, but I played for the St. Patrick Fighting Irish. We won two games. I wasn't aware the middle schools had there own teams. Then again its been almost 20 years since I went there.
Most middle schools don't have school sponsored football or softball around here. A lot of the small town schools do but when you get to the bigger cities, youth sports leagues are HUGE business! It's pretty funny because we started my daughter out with the local small town league and the parents and coaches were ridiculous. Umps didn't know the rules, coaches didn't know the rules and parents didn't know the rules but they all screamed and yelled as if they knew everything. We moved on from there to play competitive softball at the "C" level. Parents and coaches weren't much better. Typically the umps were better. Now we play at the "A" level. The difference is amazing. Parents are chilled out and you hardly hear a peep out of them. The coaches know the game and the rules and for the most part the umps do as well. The girls play at a very high level and there usually isn't that much to get upset about. Not to mention by the time you get to the "A" level, you are playing over 100 games a year, that tends to chill people out a bit.
A little less organized sports isn't a bad thing. We ask these kids to be too committed to these sports these days. We need a few more "pick-up" games at the local school ground and a little less traveling teams. JMHO
Great points, go to a soccer tourney and watch the 8u parents going nuts, then go watch a 16U game and they are all sitting nice and quiet. I have a theory on this.
Yes, the age certainly makes a difference as well. But it's funny, you can go watch a 16U C ball game and a 12U A ball game and the A ball game will be much more civil. I don't get it, but it's almost a given that the crowd will be much rougher at the C ball game.
An 8u player is still Messi or has the ability to become Messi in their parent's eyes. Once your kid gets older and to the upper levels, parents know where you kid stands. Level C softball it's not the player's ability that keeps them in C, it's the coach, ump and the other crappie teammates their kid plays with, hence the anger by parents. The way I see it is when I make a "bad call" on an 8u player their parents deem it as me hurting their potential to making it big. It's just how I see as being a ref and coach for so long.
Coaching my boys' tee ball team this past year convinced that while kids can handle keeping score, winning and losing at a young age (5/6), the parents cannot. Some of the other coaches can't either. Sad really, kids should be learning to love a variety of sports and games. Year-round travel teams are counter-productive to athletic development and pointless before high school.
When I coached my oldest soccer and football teams I was too busy coaching to worry about what anyone said. Basically I was yelling instructions or plays all the time. So the parents couldn't get a word in edgewise.
Not really. Travel ball is where kids develop their skills these days. If your kids not playing travel ball, when they get to high school they will be miles behind the kids that have been. Typically you can get better coaching at the travel ball level(assuming you get on a team with a coach and not a parent that coaches). Middle School and High School coaches are typically teachers that are being asked or required to coach as part of their job. There are some great ones but most are just there collecting their checks. At 14 and just going to be a freshman my daughter is going to be the high school starting pitcher and will most likely dominate the majority of high school players. She has already played and pitched against 16U and 18U players at the A level in travel ball and did very well. There might be 1 or 2 of those type players on each high school team that she will be playing. She goes to a very small High School that plays mostly other small High Schools. The rest will be kids that don't pick up a softball until the first day of practice then wonder why they can't do the things that players like my daughter can. She has played about 100 games a year for the last 3 years. Add on the practice time, the hitting lessons and the pitching lessons and you get a kid that understands the game at an advanced level. She knows what she is good at and what she should work on. While other kids are at home watching cartoons or playing xbox she's outside working on her skills. She's by no means the most talented or the best play on the field at these travel tournament because all those kids are doing the exact same thing. But at the High School level, there's just no comparison to the amount of work she can get in with her travel team vs. the amount you are allowed in High School. By the way, she's a multi-sport athlete that plays softball, basketball, runs track, is a cheerleader, plays in the band, participates in FFA and who knows what else she'll decide to do as a Freshman. These are her choices, we don't force her in to any of it, to be honest I would be just fine if she gave up a few things but I want her to be well rounded and understand what a good work ethic is and what it can get you.
Travel ball is ruining school sports. I love how states such as Ohio and Tennessee (I think) don't allow travel of in season sports to overlap. It sucks to me that kids are more worried about winning a tournament for their travel team, than a conference or district title for their school.
They can't play or practice with their travel teams during the high school season in Missouri. Do you blame them. Most of the time they have been playing with those teams and teammates years before high school. My daughter has made lifelong friends from all walks of life playing travel ball. All the kids on the travel team buy in and work hard or they wouldn't be there. That's not the case with high school sports. It's night and day different in the mentality of the girls on my daughters travel team than with her high school team. I coached a conference and district championship softball team that had 2 good players. A pitcher and catcher. Sisters that played travel ball. The rest of the girls were average at best, mostly way below average. We won a bunch of games by scoring a couple runs and shutting out the other team because the pitched was dominate. We see those type players every weekend now along with strong defenses. Just no comparison to the competition. Sent from my LG-H820 using Tapatalk
My oldest daughter starts high school this year. She has been on competitive travel soccer and basketball teams for many years and some of the behavior I have witnessed from the parents and coaches has been awful. I have to move away from the drama or I risk getting really upset and putting myself in a situation where I might get into an altercation. I don't want any part of that stress. I go to the games to support my kids and to cheer, not deal with some dirtbag parent or coach. I've had coaches challenge me to fights during games, parents curse at me, and on and on. The stuff we see on the sidelines and in the games is a mirror reflection of the lack of respect that is being show between people these days.
The point about if you don't play travel ball you are miles behind is spot on, in some ways it makes me sad, but it is the reality of youth sports these days. My son plays soccer, basketball and does boy scouts, my daughter plays soccer and does Robotics(First). It keeps them both busy and Dad's wallet empty
Yes, I have seen some horrible situations, one of the worst was a girl snapped her ankle in a game. Her dad was screaming at her to walk it off, I had to go over to him and calm the dude down and explain she is not walking this one off. I have had to do this twice, the other was a girl who tore her ACL. Once you are on the field with players you can(I can) distinguish between the screams of pain, what's really bad too, oh you're fine.
