Youth Sports

I haven't posted at all this week as it's been a crazy week. We had a very strange experience at Andy's game the other night. They played a team that we have seen before, each time there has been drama with the other team. The first time our boys played the game was called about 5 minutes early because one of the dads from the other team walked onto the field when his son collided with one of his own team mates. For the protection of the players and refs only coaches are allowed on the field, with the refs permission. This dad was covered in tattoos and only wearing shorts(no shirt). When the ref told him to leave the field this dad proceeded to yell profanity at the ref. He was red carded and told to leave the game. He would not, so the ref called the game and gave the win to us. Which only caused their parents and coaches to freak out!!! Remember these were 9 and 10 year old boys playing. The next time we came up against this team the tattooed dad was an assistant coach. He was yellow carded within the first few minutes of the game. He yelled and screamed at his players for the whole game but did not cause any more drama than that. We knew the game this week would be interesting but never expected the out of control behavior we saw. The dad is now or appears to be the head coach. Within 5 minutes of the start of the game he was screaming at the refs and rolling around on the ground. Yes rolling around on the ground. This got him a yellow card. For anyone that doesn't know what a yellow card means it a warning to control your behavior. If you get 2 yellow cards it equals a red card and you are ejected from the game and may not play in your next game. Within minutes of the coach being yellow carded a dad from their side yelled something at the ref which caused the ref to through him out. By this time our boys were so distracted(for lack of a better word), they had a hard time keeping their heads in the game. They are only 10 or 11. At half time the ref discovered that the coach did not posses a coaches card to coach the game. To coach at state level you have to have coaches card showing you are certified. The ref told the coach he could stay but only as a parent, if he coached at all he would be ejected from the game. Within minutes of the second half he called out a play and the ref ejected him. I forgot to mention that while he was coaching every time the center ref would turn his back to him, he would get right up next to the side line ref ( a 14 year old girl) and say things to her. At this point we don't know what he was saying but do know that at some point he called the girl on our side a very bad name. She is 11. Her mom said she had never even heard the things he called her. By the end of the game they had 3 parents ejected from the game and 6 yellow cards on their team. Needless to say our boys lost the game as they didn't know how to play against this kind of abuse. Vaughn doesn't like me to use that word, but I feel like it was total abuse. I think this whole situation has bothered Vaughn and I more than the boys. I think for the most part because as the Coach and team Manager we are responsible for all the boys on the team. We have filed a formal complaint against this team with the state and are waiting for the results. How anyone could put their child on a sports team with a coach like this is beyond me. As one of our coaches said "monkey see..monkey do." Now don't get me wrong I am passionate about my boys soccer and sometimes may get a little too passionate, but never anywhere close to what we saw this week. I know that we are living vicariously through our children at some level but this took it to a whole new level. I believe that had the ref called the game we would have seem violence from this team. I had to stop the guy that was kick out at the first of the game from "laying into the ref" at the end of the game. I told him to leave and let it go as they had won and the game was over. I hope I never see this kind of sportsmanship again, it really has messed with my head this week. Tonight's a new game and hopefully nothing close to the other night.