Sportsmanship

Or maybe it should be Sportsgirlship…Sportswomanship…Sportspeopleship…

Whatever it is, it was absent at my neice’s soccer game this afternoon.

Before I get into the tale, I have to mention that I have a 14 yr old son.
With a temper.
And a definite sense of what is right in the world and on the field.
And he has gotten his fair share of yellow cards in his years of soccer and once or twice if I had been the referee, I would have ejected him.

Heck, he would tell you that if HE had been the referee, he would have ejected himself.

I have been the mom who would like to crawl under her chair or hide out in the car because you hear one of THOSE words come out of the mouth of your precious baby.  Luckily in the past year he has gotten some control over his emotions and I haven’t had to have a talk about “how he represents his team, family and community”  blah, blah blah.

Now that we know where I am coming from on this…to say, I am not the parent of a saint.

So, at the field today, the weather was lovely.  The girls were running around kicking the ball and having a blast.  It is the county recreational league…all in good fun-where everyone is supposed to get equal playing time and the parents chit-chat with the opposing team.

Yeah, in a perfect world.

Sometimes the rec league frightens me more than competitive play.  Sometimes the parents need to realize that their little precious isn’t the next Davida (Beckham) or Landonina (Donovan) that she is just a kid with a pair of cleats and a potty mouth that would make Jimmy Connors blush.

Anger Management Courses might be in order for your precious 9 year old if while on the field you hear her scream “Crap” because she whiffed a ball and then in the next breath G-D because her team isn’t winning.

Yup, third graders.

Even more shocking.  No one.  Not the coach, not the referee and not even her parents said ONE word to her.  She was not pulled from the game, her actions were not acknowledged from her own team in any way.  But woo-doggie did the parents on our side of the field flip out.

“did she just say what I think she said?”
Oh, I think she did.

And it continued through out the rest of the game.  The unfortunate part is that this kid IS all of 9 years old and her parents have put so much pressure on her to WIN and MOVE and STOP THAT BALL, she cracked.  And when she cracked no one was there to put her back together.

Her parents were screaming at her and she was screaming right back.
“Stop that ball…DO NOT let her pass…MOVE UP!”
“Shut UP…Leave me alone…I KNOW!” (and a few more Craps peppered in between)

I have never seen that behavior allowed by parents or players in a game before.  I have had referees speak to coaches and told them that if the parents didn’t lighten up, they would be asked to leave the game.  Situations like this are why soccer games have cards.

They might not have any real ramifications in a U9 game but it would certainly send a message to the parents and the kids, you can NOT behave that way on the field.

It ruins the game for you and everyone around you.