<p>We have all heard about the crazed parent running on to the field, fighting with the coach, screaming at kids, etc. Here is another insane example of inappropriate parent behavior. I’m reading it and I still can’t quite believe it!</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/03/AR2006110301819.html[/url]”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/03/AR2006110301819.html</a></p>
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<p>I own the league!!! LOL!!</p>
<p>Hey…at least that’s out in the open now. That stuff happens all the time around here, but everyone tries to keep it secy-secy. That’s why my oldest son finally gave up basketball. After four years, he realized he couldn’t fight the small-town politics. He was right. NJ, tell me you can’t believe this??</p>
<p>I dunno… it shouldn’t surprise me. After all, my son at 6yrs old was a benchwarmer on a YMCA soccer team! I had to speak to the coach, and he still wouldn’t play my kid. Here is another exerpt. I can’t read this stuff without laughing out loud!</p>
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<p>That poor kid. Sounds like he earned every minute of playing time. Now he gets to find out that his father dictated his playing time and position and wonder whether he really did earn it. Lovely.</p>
<p>What would be surprising to ME would be if I EVER found one sports team that DOESN’T operate this way. During my son’s soph year of h.s., the coach “left him back” on the soph team while moving up some of his friends to JV. It was the <em>BEST</em> year of my son’s basketball career…he was captain, starter, and high scorer that year. The coach moved him up at the end of the season for one JV game. He sat the bench for most of the game, only being put in for five minutes in the fourth quarter. In that five minutes, he scored <em>15</em> points. He never saw the court again. His playing well and standing out did not fit with the basketball world-view of the parental powers-that-were. He did not go out for the team the next year.</p>
<p>I feel really sorry for this guy’s son. How very sad. The boys obviously like and respect the two coaches who were fired and they were going to the playoffs! It’s really sad when parents want to dictate every tiny thing that happens in their child’s life. This boy will probably become a “rebel with a cause”.</p>
<p>What’s dad going to do when he doesn’t own the HS and can’t dictate sonny’s playing time? Or the college? Is daddy going to be one of those parents who call their adult child’s boss to complain about his annual review?</p>
<p>Seriously, how does this idiot think he’s helping his kid? </p>
<p>I feel so bad for that kid. Not to mention the other kids on the team, and the coach who’s just trying to help ALL the kids win games.</p>
<p>My daughter dances on a competition team. Her studio has 5 teams based on a combination of age and ability. I always thought the parental griping about who got moved up and who didn’t was just a dance thing, since it’s so subjective. But now that I know parents of kids on sports teams, I find it’s the same thing with who makes the travel team, or the all-star team, or JV vs Varsity… Luckily at the dance studio, it’s the owner and her paid staff that make the decisions on who dances where, not a volunteer coach/parent. Still it doesn’t quell the complaints about favoritism.</p>
<p>What’s kind of nutty is that when the commish wrote that the league exists to ensure that his kid gets playing time, he likely meant it literally. He started the league and put about $150,000 of his own money in it. </p>
<p>My daughter played rec league volleyball for a couple years. When she joined the team, there were girls on it who had been playing for years, including the daughter of one of the coaches. D., who had never played before, and another novice got plenty of playing time, plenty of attention from the coaches in practice, and her team won the championship, even with the two weak (but “most improved”) links. D. went on to play varsity, and has led a physically active lifestyle ever since. (Studies have shown that girls who are involved in organized sports by 9 end up more active in adulthood than girls who aren’t). I wish all kids had access to opportunities like this.</p>
<p>Kudos to your D’s coach, conyat. I hope folks remind him every day how wonderful it is to have that kind of coach.</p>
<p>Haha, this is in my region so I heard about this awhile ago. Quite frankly, it doesn’t surprise me one bit. The South County area is known to have pushy helicopter parents.</p>