What sport has the worst parents?
- Thread starter colin2229
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I’ve coached for 10+ years and umpired for 15+ years and have witnessed my fair share of parents at youth sporting events.
Over the weekend I went to my nephews 9u hockey game and left with my jaw firmly planted on the ground in shock after witnessing the behavior of the parents/fans.
The refs couldn’t have been older than 13 and are learning the game and how to ref and the parents felt it was their job to scream(numerous profanities) at them the entire game over every little thing.
One dad came up to my brothers father in law and said “if you yell at my son again I will
Literally f’n kill you!”. FWIW, his father in law is a nice man who wasn’t yelling at anyone’s kid. But, my brothers mother in law 😳😳…she’s a piece of work that I don’t wish upon anyone. Once she hears this she got all up in dudes face and it was a shouting match that spilled into the area outside the rink. Which went on for several minutes after the game while the little 9yr olds looked on watching their mom/dad and grandma dog cuss the teams fans.
Needless to say, hockey gets vote.
Over the weekend I went to my nephews 9u hockey game and left with my jaw firmly planted on the ground in shock after witnessing the behavior of the parents/fans.
The refs couldn’t have been older than 13 and are learning the game and how to ref and the parents felt it was their job to scream(numerous profanities) at them the entire game over every little thing.
One dad came up to my brothers father in law and said “if you yell at my son again I will
Literally f’n kill you!”. FWIW, his father in law is a nice man who wasn’t yelling at anyone’s kid. But, my brothers mother in law 😳😳…she’s a piece of work that I don’t wish upon anyone. Once she hears this she got all up in dudes face and it was a shouting match that spilled into the area outside the rink. Which went on for several minutes after the game while the little 9yr olds looked on watching their mom/dad and grandma dog cuss the teams fans.
Needless to say, hockey gets vote.
I’ve heard them are rough but from my limited experience umpiring softball it was great. Players don’t give you any issues and the game flies by.
I possibly just got a few good organizations to ump for.
We stayed at a hotel this summer with about 80% softball families. The conversations I overheard in passing were jaw dropping. The parents to kids, coaches to parents, parents to parents, and even two coaches I felt almost squared off.
I was in awe.
Typical stupid parent stuff. You're strike zone was terrible, my kid was safe on that play in the 3rd inning. It's tough to break it to them that little Jimmy isn't being scouted by the Cubs as a 9 year old.
I voted football but meant it to apply at the JFL level. The games are sparsely attended and lots of times the parents sit just a few yards from the field. The refs take a ton of abuse and can hear everything. Parents tend to be overprotective of their kids and react worse to hard hits or cheap shots than when the kids are older and larger. I have seen several near brawls between combinations of players, parents, and coaches and a former Superintendent of District 186 was KO'd at a game in Rochester trying to be peacemaker between an angry parent and the kid's coach. The joke used to be that you knew it was fall once the cops had been called to a JFL game at Rochester.
Soccer parents get my vote. You're dealing with a large percentage of parents who have no familiarity with the sport before their kid started playing, yelling at refs and coaches about what they're doing wrong.
Have only heard stories about it, but I'd vote hockey. I think the cost of playing any sort of travel hockey, makes parents think they "deserve" to be able to do whatever they want.
I don’t know about all this. I think wrestling parents are insane. It’s not uncommon to see six-year-old coming off the mat crying with his dad screaming at him and then turning around and screaming at his wife to shut up. I would say it’s multiple times per tournament that I see something like that.
Youth Swimming in Illinois is insane. Betting on kids, thinking they're going to be Olympians at age 8, throwing them in a pool for 4 hours a day looking at a black line, seeing kids have full on breakdowns over every race at a young age. Not really so much so of yelling at Ref's or fighting with parents, but the sheer commitment and intensity is absurd.
Hockey is the worst and it is not even close. Having spent 25 in administration for sports, youth hockey puts them all to shame. It is absolutely toxic and embarrassing. From the top down, no one involved with hockey has the courage to confront the problem. Coaches verbal abusing referees and players. Parents verbal abusing referees, players and coaches. Players displaying zero sportsmanship. It is rare to show up at a hockey game and not encounter appalling behavior.
My buddy posted his seven-year-old's first hockey fight and it was just darling.
In house soccer, I dedicated a half practice to show PARENTS what constitutes offsides and the mechanics of the field ref and sideline refs.
In my experience and i have literally covered everything except badminton and cheerleading (which is not a sport).
1. Hockey parents are the worst. What other youth sport sells alcohol at their events? I know people bring stuff to games, but it is usually on the QT. This is wide open. Even the moms are nuts.
2. Tennis. I don't care, boys or girls. It is all the same. The parents think that theri kids are the next star. They yell at their opponents and accuse them of cheating on a close like call. Remember, this is a sport where you make the calls yourself. Can't tell you how many times they have had to bring a linesman into a game.
3. Soccer. Every parent thinks that their kid is being cheated by the referees. They yell and scream at a bunch of officials about hard fould, offsides, handballs, etc.
4. Softball. The dads are insane. Especially those who never had boys. You can pikc those guys out right away.
1. Hockey parents are the worst. What other youth sport sells alcohol at their events? I know people bring stuff to games, but it is usually on the QT. This is wide open. Even the moms are nuts.
2. Tennis. I don't care, boys or girls. It is all the same. The parents think that theri kids are the next star. They yell at their opponents and accuse them of cheating on a close like call. Remember, this is a sport where you make the calls yourself. Can't tell you how many times they have had to bring a linesman into a game.
3. Soccer. Every parent thinks that their kid is being cheated by the referees. They yell and scream at a bunch of officials about hard fould, offsides, handballs, etc.
4. Softball. The dads are insane. Especially those who never had boys. You can pikc those guys out right away.
Some cheerleading parents may fight you over that. Don’t forget horse racing, darts, corn hole and competitive hot dog eating.
You all ever been to a HS Lacrosse game. I saw a woman try to push another woman down the bleachers after the game. Brutal parents. And no one knows the rules.
A couple of things:
1. A lot of older coaches and administrators that have not developed with the times. It would be like if every basketball coach still used the Bobby Knight handbook on discipline. Personally I do think it has swung a little bit too far with how kids are treated like fragile glass but clearly the style from the 70s/80s is not acceptable anymore. Tom Izzoa quotes after the Northwestern game last night were a perfect example.
2. Hockey is a monopoly. Kids are basically stuck at their clubs. They have a rule that is you are a basic travel team player that you can only switch teams 1 time. If you are playing for 7 years of travel before high school then you are pretty much trapped. This clubs are notorious for retaliation so people are afraid to speak up out of fear that their kid gets put on a lower team or doesn’t play much.
At the higher level, AAA, the clubs are the conduit to recruiting and hold those connections over the families heads.
3. The state administration is an old boys club. They are all friends with the coaches and club directors. They scratch each others’ back and make sure to look out for the boys. It is not like the IHSA that is independent and answers to the school principals .
4. A lot of these clubs and facilities are in the private market. They are not organized by the park district or are relying on park district facilities. That is why they just kept playing during COVID while most other sports took a pause. They do not have to answer to a park board but a group of parents that are kissing their butts so their kid will make the top team.
Thanks for sharing. It’s so odd with my brother.
He travels all over the Midwest for hockey and his son is only 8. They miss every family function. I go to about one game a year cause I’m so turned off by their lifestyle. So shockenong to see parents/grandparents screaming at 13yr refs in training. That ref in training is somebody’s child as well. Their parent is likely in the stands watching their son/daughter as well and listening to mf them the whole game.
I had 2 daughters involved in tennis and badminton. A sport without officiating is a recipe for disaster and although it worked well most of the time, when it was bad, it was very bad. Particularly when it came to varsity tournaments, conference and sectionals, it was obscene to have competition without officials. Very disrespectful to the athletes, coaches and parents.
Any sport where alcohol consumption is part of the regular culture and landscape of the contest can go off the rails at any time.
JCA Do you fishing parents get into this conversation?
The worst I have seen
Wrestling school GN
It was more the wrestlers as the police had to be called to get them to exit the building after a team playoff loss.
Of course certain hockey teams too in high school.
The worst I have seen
Wrestling school GN
It was more the wrestlers as the police had to be called to get them to exit the building after a team playoff loss.
Of course certain hockey teams too in high school.
This seems relevant to the thread topic:
I'm also waiting on Joe Trost to spill his beans.
'I don't feel comfortable': Laney girls basketball coach Chinyere Bell resigns 11 games into season
The second-year coach was honest about what led to her decision to resign after an encounter with a parent during a holiday tournament. Read it here.
www.starnewsonline.com
I'm also waiting on Joe Trost to spill his beans.
Trost tweeted that his dog passed away suddenly around December 9th, now mysteriously has deleted his twitter. Just vanished, very weird. He said he was about to name the HC parents that were causing the basketball issuesThis seems relevant to the thread topic:
'I don't feel comfortable': Laney girls basketball coach Chinyere Bell resigns 11 games into season
The second-year coach was honest about what led to her decision to resign after an encounter with a parent during a holiday tournament. Read it here.www.starnewsonline.com
I'm also waiting on Joe Trost to spill his beans.
I don't think it's possible to nail down one sport and point to it as having the worst parents. Bad, to awful parents have infected all sports. The worst thing I ever saw occurred at my older son's baseball tournament game.
My son was 7 years old. Yeah...7. I had him in the Lockport in house baseball league. At the end of the season the league picked an all star team of 7 year olds that played a few games in a league tournament. So one day we were playing a team from Morris. During the game the Morris coach took a kid out of the game and the dad went up to the dugout and started yelling at the coach. It wasn't an enclosed dugout and only a fence separated the two.
Things cooled off...I thought. But after the game I was in the parking lot with my son and I saw that dad and the coach arguing to the point where I thought I was going to see a fight. That didn't happen because the dad pulled a gun on the coach. The coach talked that psycho off the ledge and shortly afterwards they left. I wouldn't bring it up if I didn't see it for myself. That happened in the summer of 1994. So, this stuff isn't new. There just seems to be more of it. Maybe because everyone has a phone with video capabilities.
My son was 7 years old. Yeah...7. I had him in the Lockport in house baseball league. At the end of the season the league picked an all star team of 7 year olds that played a few games in a league tournament. So one day we were playing a team from Morris. During the game the Morris coach took a kid out of the game and the dad went up to the dugout and started yelling at the coach. It wasn't an enclosed dugout and only a fence separated the two.
Things cooled off...I thought. But after the game I was in the parking lot with my son and I saw that dad and the coach arguing to the point where I thought I was going to see a fight. That didn't happen because the dad pulled a gun on the coach. The coach talked that psycho off the ledge and shortly afterwards they left. I wouldn't bring it up if I didn't see it for myself. That happened in the summer of 1994. So, this stuff isn't new. There just seems to be more of it. Maybe because everyone has a phone with video capabilities.
I coached youth sports at St. Celestine in Elmwood Park from 2006-2019. I did everything from soccer to basketball to volleyball to track...you name it, I did it.
The parents were always the issue. It's what eventually led me to walk away.
But hands down my biggest issues were always with the parents of my girls basketball players.
The parents were always the issue. It's what eventually led me to walk away.
But hands down my biggest issues were always with the parents of my girls basketball players.
Its definitely track and field....every parent thinks their son is next world record holder, or jumper. Or thinks their child deserves to be on a relay with the 7th fastest time on the team
I've heard nightmares about Hockey parents but thankfully my kids never took a liking to Hockey. From what i experienced from travel baseball and high school baseball is a dissatisfied parent stand out more because with a smaller crowd and proximity to the game their voice of disapproval can be heard more clearly to the coaches, players and umpires. I've seen some horrible ones in baseball.
i have to respectfully disagree. the stopwatch and tape measure don't lie.
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