Officiating aside, this would result in kids liking youth sports a whole lot more.
Yeah, my 14 year old umpires baseball. It's a great experience for him and I think you are right that it will filter out most (though not all) of the negative crap. And honestly, I hope he does catch a little bit of crap, just as a life lesson on how stupid people can be (even otherwise intelligent ones) and to help him empathize with what people have to put up with sometimes.
My town does this for baseball and soccer, too. Umps can start at about 14-15 years old. The soccer stuff, the kids can be lines judges (offsides, OOB etc) at 11 or 12. My son did the soccer thing for a bit, and I made sure I attended to keep an eye on things. It went well - some occasional parent grumbling, but nothing big at all. Great learning experience.
When I was 12 or so I umped a peewee game (regular ump didn't show). Some other kid in the stands gave me shit all game. We had a fight afterwards and he beat my ass pretty good. Then my friend (a girl) beat the absolute shit out of him. Multiple lessons were learned that day.
This is a good point. I made sure as a good parent to go to all of my kids games. But, looking back on when I was a kid and now that you mention it, I never gave a crap as to whether my parents were there or not. Or perhaps it was marginally less fun when they were there because I didn’t want to strike out or whatever in front of them.
That's a great idea, below Majors at least. At Majors, the pitching is fast and the situations are complicated, although if a kid spent a year umping Minors, he'd probably be ready.
There was a kid that age reffing one of my daughter's U10 team games. One of the coaches from the other town was yapping so much that the kid went over and showed him a yellow card, which apparently they only carry for this express purpose. Yielded the biggest cheer of the year from the assembled parents.
That commute is insane though. It would be like putting West Virginia in the Big 12, and UCLA in the Big 10
I think this is right. Youth sports brings out powerful emotions in most people. My kids aren't great athletes but have both found their niche as solid varsity performers on the HS sports scene. They've both had their moments when they've shined and make huge contributions in big spots, and those moments produce way, way more excitement in me than say, when they were named in the top 10% of their class academically. And I'm levelheaded enough to know that the latter is far more important than the former. Still, there is just nothing like the feeling of a great moment on the athletic field. But there's a darkside to that, and sometimes this is the result.
I umpire at a fairly high level, and I would be happy if just the coaches would have to take a baseball rules course before being allowed to coach. I can put up with fans yelling or booing, I just ignore that crap. But the number of coaches - some who were ex-players, either in the minors or semi pro leagues - who don't know some rules, and want to argue a rule call is ridiculous.
Maybe the other guy is the shitty ump. Lord knows I had to stifle a few comments from the sidelines on my off days.
Soccer, too. But when the coach is an adult (say, in his 40s), and the refs, tho nationally certified and current players, are in their mid teens, it can get very "I know more/better than you do!".
My son plays VB and in VB they make the players ref or keep score, which I guess is good for them and usually works out well (except this one time when it seemed like this girl wasn't even looking before making a call).
Funny part is that the abuse is counterproductive as any decent ref isn't going to spend her/his time taking it and all that's left are the really bad ones.
If you're in MA, I can tell you the handful of towns that those parents are from. They're uneducated white trash.
CT. But it’s not just a town-specific thing. Happens everywhere.
That's so great on many levels.Man, the tournaments at the Taunton West baseball fields in the 1980s were a highlight of my childhood. We played on mud and crabgrass in my town, but Taunton West had bullpens and a warning track and a PA announcer. I was thrilled when I stepped into the batters box and the announcer actually pronounced my name correctly.
Too bad the parents there have to be such idiots. When my son was playing in the 9-10 league in town I saw a teenage ump toss a coach on the opposing team who was acting like a jackass. I felt like running on the field in the middle of the game and giving that kid a high five.
Especially since a coach's behavior influences fans' behavior in the moment.
“I’m going to hold on to this ball and no kid is going to touch it until you are out of my sight”.
You‘re confused. East Taunton, home of the Beer Can Museum & Hall of Fame, is God’s country. Parents at Taunton EAST Little League games are respectful and kind and just happy to be alive. The hot dogs taste a little better, the Cokes are a bit colder, and fans are still happily doing the wave. Don’t get me started on Taunton West …
My daughter did soccer for three years, the last year she was not treated very well in a couple of occasions, definitely made her give it up.
Doing soccer all along; and, in the distant past, Little League and a small bit of high school sub-varsity; I always know I'm in for a long afternoon/evening when the first words out of a coach's mouth are "I'm a referee/umpire too".
Our small boro had to put up black wraps/tarps on the fences behind home plate on ALL of our softball fields because of one particular Dad who would stand behind the home plate fence whenever his daughter pitched and provide a running 'commentary' the entire game.
In the moment, that's not a bad way to deal with this sort of thing. I've had to confront parents for yelling at kid umps. Once I got mad and yelled at the guy, another time I said "hey, come on, that's a 14 year old kid". Regardless of what the parent "deserved", the latter worked a lot better.
The fuck are you talking about? I’ve seen horrible behavior from parents from some of the richest towns at some of the nicest rinks. It’s a universal trait in hockey and it sucks.
I'll double down here, the only fan I've ever personally removed was years ago at the richest private high school in the state (that sponsored football, at least).
My wife and I have found that some of the poorer towns often have some of the more difficult softball parents and coaches. Not all, for sure. But our read on it is that … for some of the more economically depressed places, there’s not always a lot of other stuff to cheer about. They don’t always have access to personal coaches and great equipment. So I get being maybe a little too wrapped up in a 13 year old’s softball game and predisposed to be pissed at the other side.
Only dude I've ever seen get tossed from a high school game was a Harvard educated ER doc. He'd stand right behind the screen when his kid pitched and offer an opinion on every call. Was so happy when the ump tossed him. I fear for that household though. No way that guy doesn't throw his hands around. Such an asshole.
