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The Pittsburg Tribune Review reports that Little League coaches are seeing an increase in the number of parents yelling during games. A study at the University of Maryland by Jay Goldstein claims that this may be traced back to personality traits. Type-A personalities or personalities that are prone to aggression typically have the most difficulty controlling their anger at games. However, parents that are self-motivated and less controlled by external forces are better able to keep their anger inside. Goldstein suggests that parents put some emotional distance between themselves and what happens on the field. A Little League director says, “the game is for kids, so just let them play”.
A middle school girls’ basketball game was disrupted last week after a parent yelled profanities at coaches and punched an administrator, the IndyStar reports. Authorities say the parent walked onto the floor and yelled profanities at the coach, displeased that his daughter did not play during the last quarter. An assistant coach intervened and asked the parent to sit down, but he refused and continued to yell. At that point, the assistant principal approached him and told him he had to leave. The parent reportedly turned to the official and struck him in the arm and threatened to punch him in the nose. He was not arrested, but a “no trespass order” was issued, banning him from attending games and school property unless invited. The parent is facing possible criminal charges.
A father head-butted another because the man complained about a foul the former’s son had committed against his own, the Sunday Telegraph reports. Two teams of nine-year-old boys were playing each other in a soccer game, and as one boy dribbled the ball down towards the goal, another, bigger, boy rushed over and knocked him to the ground in a heavy tackle. The referee signaled a foul. An altercation between the boys’ fathers followed. The father of the bigger boy took offence when the fouled player’s father complained about the tackle, and so he head-butted the man in the face and had to be pulled away by other parents. The referee called off the match. The number of assaults during youth soccer games is reaching record levels in many areas of the UK, and the attacks are becoming more violent. In Surrey, 12 youth matches have been called off this season because of violence or abuse from parents. The biggest problems occur at games involving children between the ages of 6 and 11. The FA is also concerned that parents’ sideline threats and violence are driving young referees to quit. Young referees, some of them just 15 or 16, and a growing number of them teenage girls, are particularly vulnerable to bullying parents and many don’t last beyond their first game. Some local leagues have introduced plastic fencing to keep parents away from players, coaches and officials.
Parents and coaches rushed onto the field to fight over their 9-year-olds’ soccer game, The New York Times reports. Tensions began after the coach of one of the teams disputed some of the referee’s calls. It is unclear who began the fight, but yelling, pushing and tussling ensued. At the fight’s climax, at least a half-dozen parents rushed onto the field and got involved. The game was eventually called off and ruled a forfeit for both sides because of the altercation.
Upset over the amount of time his son was getting in a Pop Warner football game, a man punched his son’s coach, knocking him unconscious for about 30 minutes, AP reports. The father serves as the local football league’s vice president of football operations. The father was arrested following the incident and charged with assault while attending a community-sponsored youth sporting event while juveniles under 16 were present. He denies any wrongdoing.
An 11-year-old baseball player, upset because he was benched during batting practice for cursing, called his father who drove to the baseball field with his brother, the boy's uncle, and they attacked the coach in front of the team, sending him to the hospital, Newsday reports. After receiving the call on his cell phone, the boy's father drove from work to the baseball field with his brother and a friend. the coach motioned for his players to clear out as the angry father rushed toward him and punched him in the side of the head, causing him to drop to his knees. He was struck again and fell to the ground, blacking out as he was repeatedly punched and kicked. The coach, who refused to fight back, suffered a concussion and neck and back injuries. The coach had repeatedly warned the player, a friend of his son who is also on the team, about cursing, but the player took little notice.
A Morris, IL father has been charged with a misdemeanor for allegedly grabbing a youth-league soccer referee by the throat last month, The Chicago Tribune reports. The victim was refereeing a game for 6- and 7-year-old boys when two players collided. One of the boys complained of an injury, and his coach and mother came onto the field. After her son was off of the field, the mother ran back on and yelled at the referee that the boy who collided with her son should have been penalized. The referee explained that there had been no foul and asked her to get off of the field so that the game could continue. She continued to yell at the referee, who then raised his voice and ordered her to leave the field. Her husband proceeded to grab the referee by the throat and hold on briefly before releasing his grip when other parents and league officials came running towards them. The state's attorney's office is deciding whether to file felony charges.
A father whose son plays in a football league for 12- to 14-year-olds punched his son's coach in the face, knocking him unconscious, and is now being charged with assault, The Star-Ledger reports. The father, the league's vice president of football operations, alleges that his son's coach put his hand on his throat, and he retaliated by punching him and spitting on the coach's unconscious body. This altercation allegedly followed an earlier incident when the father questioned the coach's decision not to play his son in a game. Following a recent rash of violence against team coaches, the New Jersey state Legislature upgraded an assault in the presence of a child under 16 or at a school- or community-sponsored event to a fourth degree felony punishable by up to 18 months in prison.
Several parents got into a fight after a second- through fourth-graders' football game, The News Tribune reports. Parents of the winning team formed a congratulatory pyramid for their children to run through. One of the parents of the losing team charged the pyramid of parents and punched, slapped, and poked people with her umbrella. Within seconds, about 15 fans were involved in the fight. Police arrested, cited, and released the woman and another fan on suspicion of simple assault. One man was hospitalized with a neck injury after he attempted to break up the fight. Two other women were treated at the scene for minor injuries.
After a rash of parent-on-parent confrontations and clashes with referees, the Raleigh area's largest soccer league was prompted to suspend five adults from attending a game, The News & Observer reports. The suspensions resulted from incidents in several separate games. In one of these altercations, a fight broke out among parents, and a youth referee was left to break it up. The parents were apparently insensitive to both the kids playing and the kids refereeing. In as many as six games, clashes erupted in part because parents of players on opposing teams ignored league rules, sitting on the same side of the field. According to coaches, the parents all wanted a place under the one shaded area on the edge of the field. Two years ago, Raleigh Parks and Rec erected 6-foot-tall chain-link fences around its youth football fields to prevent parents from interfering with coaches and game officials, but the fences can't keep out parents yelling at coaches and referees and directing their kids on the field.
A football team of 12- to 14-year-olds was headed for the playoffs when the association’s commissioner fired its head and assistant coaches, The Washington Post reports. The commissioner fired the coaches because they moved his son from defense to offense in the team’s final, victorious game of the season. During the pre-season he had informed the coaches that his son “does not sit out on defense – ever. He goes in and stays in. that includes all practices, scrimmages and games. The entire league exists so that he can play defense on the best team in his weight class…. He is my son, I own the league, and he plays every snap on defense.” After their coaches were fired, the boys on the team refused to play for new coaches, and they forfeited the playoffs. The commissioner lost his position, and the association was dissolved. The league removed him as commissioner, they said, because his organization had not complied with league rules, such as having an elected board and a grievance procedure. He had created the association two years earlier with, he said, $150,000 of his own money. The area has since started a community-based, community-run association.
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