Sports parents

[Ping898]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061023/ts_nm/crime_football_dc_1

Upset U.S. dad pulls gun on son's football coach

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - The father of a young football player pulled a gun on his son's coach because he didn't think the boy was getting enough playing time, Philadelphia police said on Monday.
Wayne Derkotch, 40, was charged with aggravated assault after getting in a fight with the coach over the amount of time the boy was getting on the field at a game for 6- and 7-year-olds on Sunday morning, said police spokesman Officer Raul Malveiro.
"There was a physical altercation about what child should play or not play and then he pulled the gun," Malveiro said.

Ok, now admittedly I am not a parent, but I don't understand how you go from being a parent watching your kid to pulling a gun on the coach. Especially for a team of 6 and 7 year olds. I remember reffing 6 and 7 years olds playing soccer and most of the time they didn't get the rules, it was mostly about them having fun and running around, not about the amount of playing time anyone got. Now I am not saying go to the extreme of not keeping score, which I think it just stupid and does more harm than good, but neither should the game or score be taken too seriously.
It seems to be that events like this are becoming more and more prevalent and escalating to higher degrees as well. It has gotten to it is almost dangerous to be a coach or official at a kid's game.
Everytime I turn around I hear/see comments bashing today's kids as being disrespectful or the people in their 20's as being unprofessional when joining the work force, but I got to wonder, what is up with these parents who are in the area of middle-age and I know were not raised to think this stuff was acceptable?
Somehow hearing that 20 year old don't know enough to call into their boss whne they are going to be out side doesn't seem like such a bad thing comparitively.....

 

[Bigshadow]

As a parent, I would imagine that every parent who has a child in a sport wants to see their child play or doesn't want to see their child disappointed because they are sitting on the sidelines. My son is in soccer and I don't want to see him sitting through a game or whatever.

However... That parent has anger management issues! He needs help. Evidently (based on his actions), he is unstable and it took only a little bit of nothing to trigger his reaction. I am sorry, there is no excuse for that sort of behavior no matter how much one loves a sport. That guy is a danger and needs help. If he will act like that in front of strangers, I can only imagine how he acts toward family when triggered.

 

[Monadnock]

There seems to be conflicting statements within the report:

The police say "The father of a young football player pulled a gun on his son's coach because he didn't think the boy was getting enough playing time"

The officer says "There was a physical altercation about what child should play or not play and then he pulled the gun," Malveiro said.


So did he pull the gun after he started to lose the physical altercation, or after it became too intense? Either way, the guy is an idiot for starting the fight in the first place. Coaches that bench kids at that age are idiots too.

Everyone likes to win games, but no kid likes to sit on the bench. Parents should find out ahead of time how play time is alotted. Usually for the little kid sports, they divide up the players among teams without a try-out, which would imply everyone gets a fair amount of play-time. Football and Baseball may be different.

 

[Ping898]

Coaches that bench kids at that age are idiots too.

Well you always have extra players on the team to sub people out, so there are always people on the bench. It could very well have been the kid was getting just as much playing time as everyone else, and the dad felt the kid deserved to be playing more than the "worse" players. The article didn't really seem to specify, but it has always been my experience that kids that young tend to all get about equal playing time no matter what their skill level. Although admittedly there have been instances where that is changing....I still think it is the norm.

 

[Monadnock]

Understood. I presume he didn't like the fact his kid was probably only playing in the 4th quarter for about 5 minutes. That's more along the line I was thinking as far as "benching" kids. At that age, I think it is a waste of time and not very exciting for the kids. Again, we don't know the specifics.

As an aside,
When I was in High School, I played Basketball. And I wasn't very good, buuuuuut, I think my skill level should have been more reflected in the playing time. The coach was bent on using the same 4-5 guys the whole game, and letting me and the other 2 on the traveling team play about 30 seconds at the end of the game. Out team LOST EVERY GAME. But this guy was hell bent on trying to win. Talk about desperation. I stayed with it because I loved Basketball. But to a kid's parents, it may look/feel a little diffferent. Probably why I was eventually more drawn to the martial arts.

My son does a lot of sports, and as long as he is having fun, it's all good. But I see the favoritism in the Baseball leagues and Soccer leagues. It's a small town, so oh well. But if it got out of hand, I'd be sure to speak up. Unfortunately, the guy in this article obviously could only go from cool to boiling hot.

 

[Nomad]

What a wonderful example this man was to his little boy and the neighborhood kids! If you don't get your way, bully someone (who was very likely volunteering their time in the first place), and if that doesn't work, you can always escalate things by pulling a weapon. Fantastic job, Dad... there's a life lesson your son won't soon forget! :ak47:

 

[terryl965]

What can you say about his it happens to many time, here one for you I put my 8 and 9 year old in football and pulled them because the coach told the team they where all worthless and not worth a penny, I went to the league about it and they said to bad so I pulled my boys out of football, they both have been doing MA since they could walk but have never played football.

 

[exile]

However... That parent has anger management issues! He needs help. Evidently (based on his actions), he is unstable and it took only a little bit of nothing to trigger his reaction.

I think that's the point. The guy in the story has something really wrong with him---pathological anger is just that, a mental pathology. It might have been road rage if it hadn't been this, or something else. Guy was some sort of time bomb, I guess---and he's not alone out there. Scary thought...

Sick as it is, though, I can think of one incident in the same general family that might even sicker (if there's any meaningful difference, at this level of sickness)---the case of that woman in Texas a few years ago who tried to hire someone to murder the mother of a girl who was the main rival of the first woman's daughter for a place on the school's cheerleading squad. The woman apparently thought that if the other mother were violently killed, it would throw the other girl off her performance at the trials for the squad, and would make her own girl a shoo-in for the team. No anger here---that's what is really scary.

Incidents like these seem too crazy to be real, you know?

 

[Monadnock]

What can you say about his it happens to many time, here one for you I put my 8 and 9 year old in football and pulled them because the coach told the team they where all worthless and not worth a penny, I went to the league about it and they said to bad so I pulled my boys out of football, they both have been doing MA since they could walk but have never played football.

Yup - often the coaches do not set any better example than the extremist parents. It's not about the kids - it's about them.