My husband is the coach of our 13 year old son's soccer team, but I am not a "soccer mom." To my shame, I have been to very few games this year. I went to the tournament on Saturday because I really wanted to see my son play, but while I was there, I was reminded once again why I don't like going to the games.
Was it the beating sun which burned my arms and nose? Was it the mosquitos that bit my calves? No; it was the atmosphere, beginning with the parents.
I don't like the parents on the soccer team that my husband coaches. They are too competitive, too critical, and too potty-mouthed. The kids are potty-mouthed. These kids are 13, 14, and 15 years old and they talk like sailors. It's sad. There is a girl on the team who is absolutely foul-mouthed, arrogant, and a bad sport. Her father is simply the older, male version of her. On Saturday, I witnessed an exchange between this man and the coach of the team we played in the final (we won in a shoot-out). Our team has a reputation for having potty-mouthed, nasty parents. It's terrible. The parents display the highest degree (in my opinion, anyway) of bad sportsmanship by bashing the refs to themselves and to the refs faces. The ref has control of the game; he has that authority. They get on the backs of the ref regularly, demonstrating before their kids that it is okay to bash the authorities in their lives.
The parents are also harsh on everyone else's kids. If my son makes a mistake, I hear them groaning and murmuring. If their kid gets pulled off too soon, I hear them bashing my husband. It's ironic: this team has one of the best records in the league. I think they've only lost one game. They won the tournament, yet the parents are still whining, complaining and competitive. What is wrong with these people?
I sat alongside some of the players and listened to them interact with each other. Remember, I like being with teenagers. I felt sorry for these teenagers because some of them are going to be carbon copies of their obnoxious parents. The girl on the team is the total antithesis of what used to be considered feminine. She's loud, obnoxious, harsh, aggressive, and foul-mouthed. She likes to push the boys around, but balks when they push back. When the other team was given a penalty kick because the girl shoved someone, she was removed from the field. She objected and argued with my husband and cursed out the ref under her breath. Not only was she making herself look ugly and nasty, she was being a terrible sport. I feel sorry for my husband having to deal with these kids because he is not like that at all.
Participating in sports is supposed to build team work, athletic ability, and co-operation. It's supposed to be fun. In a day and age when sports is marketed, it has turned into something else entirely, even at this young age. When young people grow up and watch human beings paid millions for displaying athletic prowess -- something God-given, and something so fleeting that it could be robbed of an individual in minutes -- it makes sports about something else entirely. Sports becomes a commodity to be exploited for the benefit of the individual. Having a good soccer-playing daughter obviously makes Mr. Potty-Mouth feel good about his life. No, I don't know him, but I've heard him talk often enough to know where he's coming from. When I hear these parents criticize my husband's coaching ability, I just want to say, "Well, I don't see you volunteering." The league in this town is always short coaches. Why don't they step up to the plate and put their money where their mouths are?
