One of the biggest reasons why there seem to be more incidents of poor behavior in youth sports today is the prevalence of social media and cell phone videos. More people are catching the misbehavior of coaches and adults in youth sports and posting the videos to be seen across the country. This deplorable behavior is caused by a combination of reasons. The majority of youth coaches are parents of a player who try to do the noble thing and coach young kids. The problem arises when these dads interpret the privilege to coach as an opportunity to make a team that reflects their own warped sense of the need to win. They become part of a whole movement out of control. Youth coaches will wear fancy coaching shirts, many duplicating their local high school, not only at practices but out in public, while parents wear shirts declaring they are the proud parent of whatever number jersey their child wears. Fred Engh of The National Alliance of Youth Sports believes these people act out of a fear that their child will suffer their same fate of not making a team, so they ensure their child will play and will be in the limelight so that he or she will have the chance to earn a scholarship and make the big time (Violence and Parenting 4:30). Preaching winning they focus on chasing a championship, often setting these children up for disappointment because after all there can only be one champion. While not being able to check their abuse of the power they feel as a coach, winning becomes so important they convince themselves that they are protecting their kids’ dream to win. They lose sight of the fact that this desire to win was self-induced, coming from an idea they planted through drills, practices and speeches to their players. This distorted importance on winning has many of these people abusing players, referees and other coaches while chasing a self-imposed need for a trophy, while across the country countless coaches who take part in games that have enormous financial rewards may yell at referees but they never physically attack the officials or other coaches. There is a reason coaching is a profession. These youth coaches lack the training that helps them to understand how to engage players in learning the basics of a particular sport, teaching their kids that they will grow by trying to do the best they can whether they win or lose. These abusive adults are caught in the limelight, they believe being ‘the coach’ gives them a right to do anything to win. They become detached with the reality that these are young kids, most less than ten years of age.
The National Alliance of Youth Sports has begun a movement to introduce a class on sports civility that parents and coaches must attend or their children are not allowed to participate (Violence and Bad Parenting 8:10). They sign a contract that promises they will behave with sportsmanship, helping to stress having fun over winning as the reason their kids should play. Making the parents accountable will go a long way to bring some reality to youth sports. Coaches should be made to take classes on how to train and interact with young kids in sports. It would help if parents today would recognize the need to step away from the entitlement movement. It is okay for their kids to lose because there is much to learn from the reality of not always having things go your way. At every practice, at every game, there are multiple sets of little eyes watching how these adults, coaches, and parents act. These people owe it to their children to let them be kids, to have fun while they are learning the right way to compete.
Works Cited
“Violence and Bad Parenting in Youth Sports.” Youtube, uploaded by oneworldoneteam,
