Immediately after tip-off, his voice erupted throughout the venue.
He originally rooted for his favorite team, but quickly degenerated to mocking
the opponent. He even gave a false countdown at the end of a quarter, trying to
trick the opponent into shooting too soon. The players were too smart to fall
for it.
All of this might’ve been harmless enough fun if it were at the Yum
Center or Rupp Arena. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Instead, the venue
was a local church on a Saturday morning and the players were 10-year-old boys
and girls. That’s right, this guy wasn’t hollering at Duke or North Carolina.
He was hollering at a team called “The Blue’s Clues.” Granted, I’ve done my
fair share of taunting over the years at sporting events, but I like to at least
wait until the players reach puberty to do so.
Having been involved in youth sports for a long
time, I’ve known parents to lose perspective at their kids’ games before, but
never like this. Before it was over, parents were yelling at parents, coaches
were yelling at coaches and at least one person was asked to leave, although
the instigator somehow managed to stay. The teenage referees did their best to
straighten things out, but were ill equipped to handle the mess.
It ended poetically enough with someone turning
off the lights as they left the gym despite the fact that there was another
game remaining to be played.
In this league, there are no standings,
trophies or all-star teams. The purpose is to have fun and learn good
sportsmanship.
So much for that.
How about you? Any good stories of youth sports
“parents gone wild?”
