Parents at Sporting Events... My Personal Observations.

The background; my daughter is playing on Ozark High School’s indoor soccer team this year. They play up at an indoor arena in Springfield twice a week against teams mostly from other area schools, although some are league or travel teams that are on the more competitive side. Generally at these games the parents are supportive of both teams and try to foster responsibility and teamwork, plus make it a learning environment for their kids. Of course this only holds for the indoor league. In a couple of months when these same girls are facing off on the big field for actual soccer season things tend to be a bit more heated, shall we say. The exception so far this season was the team the girls played last night. The team we played goes by Inferno, and is affiliated with a school in the Springfield area, I’m just not going to mention which one. The parents for this team were yelling, screaming and berating not only their kids, but our kids too. I will note there were a few parents sparking all of the uproar and there were some parents for their team that did look embarrassed, but overall the impression their parents give off due to these few is very negative.

While the girls were playing if one of our players fell, either by accident or by being tripped, these parents cheered and told their girls “great move” and other things like that, as well as if the referee called their kids on tripping or any other violence they commented on his need for corrective eyewear. Fun, right? And when one of their kids fell, or in one instance when their goalie fell there were screams of “she was tripped”  or “they kicked her” Oh, yes it was quite the fun night at Lake Country last night. I’m guessing those parents have never read the fan code of conduct that Lake Country sends out every year. Near the end of the game the ball bounced off of the edge of the goal and hit their goalie in the face, the most vocal mom immediately jumped up and started screaming “they kicked her again! Kick them out of the game” and on and on. One of the Inferno dads walked down there and said “I saw, and everyone else up here saw the ball bounce and hit her. Sit down and SHUT UP! Everyone is sick of your mouth.” He walked back to his seat to a round of applause. And one more fun point, during a play one of their players accidentally kneed one of our girls in the stomach hard enough to knock the wind out of her, and once our girl was off the field, this mom was heard to say “she finally got what she deserved” it makes me wonder what she thinks she’s teaching her kids and makes me worry about where they’ll wind up in life.

I personally don’t understand what motivates some of these parents. Yes, I can get loud cheering during a game, but I always realize it’s exactly that, a game. In the end the games the kids are playing are more for fun and fitness than as the be all end in of their lives and my opinion should be enjoyed rather than be such an unpleasant experience.

I really wanted to show the screaming mom the following video that shows how much you can accomplish if you just jump back up and keep going rather than laying there screaming “she tripped me” but I didn’t have the nerve. Maybe I’ll be brave enough next time.