DC-area soccer league gets tough with bratty parents

A friend of mine coached his daughter's soccer team last year (five and six year olds) and said the parents were crazy. Minor hockey here in Canuckistan is full of lunatic parents.

My son is heading into his fourth season of baseball and I haven't seen or heard of any really idiotic behaviour from parents or coaches towards each other or the umpires.

I have coached my son's team for two seasons and always make sure the parents have a copy of the rules and tell them any questions should be brought to my attention.

 

Oh man, how did we get this far into "rules parents don't understand" before three seconds came up?

 

As a coach, the one thing I will really go off on my players about is complaining about referees' calls, which was a particular problem for the 7th- and 8th-grade basketball team I coached. Part of it was respect for the officials, but a big part of my sale is that while you're standing around worried about the call you think the ref missed, the opponent is running to the other end and scoring on you while your teammates were struggling to cover your absent butt. I also told them that once you hit 100 percent of your shots, only then would you earn the right to complain when the ref wasn't 100 percent right.

 

I've been watching baseball for 20 years, and I still don't totally understand what constitutes a balk. Rafael Betancourt spends about 30-40 seconds before every pitch twitching and fidgeting before he finally delivers the ball to the plate (with at least three or four twitches/fidgets after he has come set on the rubber). Never gets called for a balk.

 

If they are yelling these things at Jerry Sauder during a MAC game, they're right.

 

This is a good thread to read, especially the week before I ref 10 U-11 girls soccer games this weekend. It's my long-awaited, Ali-like return to the pitch.

I only hope that I have a parent suggest I played from one of my city's rival clubs so I hate the other one ... that's why I called that foul. That happened a few years ago. I heard it in the middle of the field, almost laughed out loud.

 

When I reffed soccer I dreaded working with certain men and women because they were awful. They would blow calls and I would keep hearing about when we switched ends.

Good refs are yelled at much, much less than bad refs.

Oh, it's not offsides; it's offsides but in a position to affect the play. At least that is the way I understand it.

 

"affects the play" is generally interpreted very, very liberally. If the defense has to account for you, you affected the play.

 

True, but some teams will run a trap and the offside player is across the field.

God, I hate the trap.

 

There are quite a few that fit that billing under the MAC banner.

 

You are correct. In an offside position and affecting the play. If that play on the far side of the field doesn't move toward the ball, no offside.

 

How about the illegal pitch in softball? I bet in most high-level high school games it can be called on almost any pitch.