Restoring my soul.

The trouble with organised sport, junior sport in particular is not the children participating.  quite often any trouble there is on the sideline at any kids sport game is caused by the so called “adult guardians”.  The competitiveness of the spectator often outweighs that of the children.  Let’s face it the little kids are just wanting to have fun and emulate their idols, simple, that is it.  They don’t care about winning until an adult puts that in their heads, especially the win at all costs theme that seems to be rampant in teenage sport.

It’s time for there to be harsher penalties for bullish, abusive and aggressive behaviour from side line spectators.  Referees/Umpires/game officials are under constant attack be it verbal abuse to more physical altercations such as pushing/shoving/being spat on.  What these spectators need to understand is without these officials there is no team sport, there would be no game on Saturday or Sunday for their kid to participate in.

Team Coaches are often the instigators in this abuse of officials – screaming and yelling, questioning judgement calls and penalties with fervour and malice.  They in turn, whip the crowd into a frenzy behind them. They forget the players are minors, the young ones playing are in some cases under the age of 12 and very impressionable.  How can we as parents ask our children to be respectful of officials if their own coach is displaying an attitude of disrespect and anger.  How can we as parents expect our children to actually enjoy their sport if all they hear on game day is “go out there and WIN, no excuses” and then have to listen to their coach/es and own parents screaming abuse at the other team and the officials?

As Australians we love our sport, passionately and no holds barred, however in this era of incessant bullying and antagonism being acceptable behaviour at sporting venues and children’s sport in particular, have we taken it all too far?  Penalties for this proven behaviour should be no less than a ban for the adult from ALL sport for a certain period of time. Zero tolerance policies should be in place, no excuses accepted, this would send a clear message to the sporting community that offensive behaviours will never be acceptable especially around children.  Quite often if an incident is escalated to the Tribunal for investigation and a penalty imposed on the instigator/s it is a slap on the wrist, some see it as a joke and continue to attend games even after a ban has been made.  If adults show no respect to authority then how do we then in turn expect children to?

If you are a coach of a junior sport and you may not be doing this but have parents that do, on game day act atrociously, be brave, stand up; point them out and drag them out on display and say “NO, This is not acceptable”.  If you are another parent and you see another parent acting this way or your coach acts this way. Be brave, report them to the officials, they will let you know what your call of action is.  This bullish, nasty behaviour will continue and get worse the more often decent people sit quiet and say nothing.

If your concern is backlash onto your child – well that is a different conversation and consideration about whether that club is the right fit for you and your family may need to be taken into account.  Only AFTER the offensive behaviour is reported and the correct mediation procedures are in place.  If the result is the troublemakers move on to another club – let the new club know why they are moving on.  Yes the child loses in this scenario, however this may make the adult reassess their behaviour in the future.

Be brave, Stand up to bullies.