Yeah its a big difference. I am proud of these 1st graders standing in the box taking swings as a 3rd grader is sidearming a ball at them as fast as he can. My son (1st grade) got his first kid pitch hit last night. He was pumped.
Putting this in spoiler because it’s all so stupid and completely unnecessary. Please note my involvement is because 1. My wife, especially, and I have put a lot of work in to help the league and the children that play in it. 2. I fucking hate this guy. Just putting it here to vent so please feel free to skip over. El Tiburon please don’t share any of this Spoiler I was on the board of directors for the local youth sports organization. The board is largely symbolic and the only actions we ever did was suspending people that deserved it and in one case filing charges against a league president who stole lots of money from the league. Each sport has its own board as well and each league president sits on the board I was a part of. Several years ago the league president of soccer starting acting up and they needed a replacement quickly. Soccer appointed a guy who everyone thought would raise no problems. Well very quickly he started overstepping and needing to be the most important person in any room he ever went in. He was an asshole to everyone involved with soccer, including my wife, and the soccer board moved to remove him. During the process to remove him it was discovered he ran the program at a loss of $200,000 which the club always had money left over at the end of every other year. The president of the main board however would not remove him from his position and said he can be voted out at the next election. At the same time the president of the main boards term was coming to an end and announced he would not run for reelection, however he would stay on and do the job if we hired him in a non elected role, at a pay of $90,000 a year. His attempt for this thankfully stalled but he kept pushing. Time for election came and only 2 people submitted, a woman who had been on the board for years and myself. The main reason I submitted was to make sure the past soccer president could not take the job as he said he had wanted to in the past. I very quickly pulled my submission and the woman was named president. The next morning she called me and said she can’t do it and so I will be the next president. For the next couple of days we moved forward as if I would be the next president. Until somehow the current president, still trying to get the salary and knowing I wouldn’t hire him, magically finds a form that a third person had submitted before the deadline that had passed several days before and had never been disclosed before. It went to an election and the current president handed out favors and got his hand picked replacement elected 5-4 as only the main board members can vote for president. In the past year the new president has been out for vengeance, fired multiple people and just basically being a piece of shit. Time has come for the election again this year and long story short he was going to lose control of the board and not be voted back in at the meeting which was supposed to happen tonight as was listed in the by-laws of the league. He has since hired lawyers and pushed the meeting back indefinitely. So I’m sure some sort of bullshit will happen again all in the name of an adult who needs to feel important in a youth sports league.
He might have a shiner. Worst part is his mom is crazy. Kid deserved an Ice Cream after that but she won't let them eat most things.
The club in question — which my son was part of until this year — is a wealthy club by youth sports standards. The product they deliver does not match the shiny veneer.
He still is a part, flag football is still a part of it. Speaking of which there’s a spot on the flag football board with your name on it
The board spots are all volunteer as there are some good people that still do help and want to do good. Barring anymore BS I’ll be the flag football league president. The last president was trying to hire a commissioner which would basically be a part time job for 6-8 weeks and he was offering up to $10k
After going back and forth on it, we wound up pulling our son out of the competitive soccer organization he was a part of last year and going with futsal full time. It's what I thought was best all along but my wife kept waffling on pulling the trigger. But I went to all the practices last year and there was just no development for anyone at a club that markets itself as the standard for development (they're partnered with MLS) whereas my son has gotten markedly better from futsal this summer. The experience is night and day and my son has already grown so much because of it. It's also been nice to get a break from all the politicking and keeping up with the joneses that was going on at the soccer club and just letting the kids learn the game, get better, and have fun. The coach is also a perfect match for what my son needs from a personality standpoint. Tough and demanding, but highlights and praises the good as much as possible.
You grow up and learn that adults often times never mature if not act worse than teenagers. These types of men probably verbally abuse their spouse and kids at home.
I personally enjoy futsal more than watching my son play soccer. The pace is so quick. It’s great for development too. My son improved so much as a scorer from that training and the high number of touches in a 5v5 format. As I watch him in soccer now, he doesn’t have a big leg like some of his teammates (probably median kick strength) but he gets it off his foot so much more quickly than anybody else. That is way better in a congested offensive zone.
Was hanging out with Couple/Friends of ours last night. Wife Works with her and ours sons play in the same baseball league so we and the kids have become friends in the past two years. So the other Dad and I are watching the UGA/Bama game and out of nowhere he says "So the All-Star Team is still Practicing together?" I told him yeah they play under the league name or under a travel ball organization in weekend Tournaments. So he instantly says "So in the spring they are just going to pick those same kids for All-Stars aren't they. Thats total Bullshit and not fair to so many kids. Was hoping that Baseball Politics were a few more years away" Felt totally validated for my feelings back in August. He played D1 Football at a small school in Florida and knows his son isn't great at baseball but doesn't want him playing football yet and likes the structure that Baseball is providing him. Said I weren't going to leave the league but definitely going to check out some opportunities for growth outside of it.
This guy is still suspended. I happened to be at a nearby field and this guy is wearing a custom jersey with his last name and out coaching. If he wasn’t wearing a custom football jersey to coach I never would have known it was him but now he won’t be able to anymore
Yeah, it's been so much better for Hank Jr. He's enjoying it and clearly getting better. He doesn't have the big leg either, but his awareness of where to flick the ball to where a teammate *should* be breaking open on a run is top notch. If he decides to stick with soccer through middle and high school, futsal will be the reason he makes those teams and does well.
Quick background- Coach A is an assistant coach for travel team. Coach B’s son didn’t make the travel team, and blames coach A for it. Coach A is the head coach for a fall C-league team, and Coach B is an assistant for my boys C-league team. Tonight was the first round of the playoffs, and of course… it’s Coach A’s team. They were going at each other so bad between innings that the parents and other coaches had to tell them to stop because they were being horrible examples. We’re talking yelling back and forth from the outfield to the dugout about fighting each other. Game ends, they don’t shake hands and are still yapping. Coach B calls our head coach (who I’m close friends with) and tells him Coach A tracked down his number tonight and called him wanting to meet up to fight. Oh yeah, the kids are 8-9 by the way.
Coach B’s HC for the C-League team didn’t send him walking and shut him down. Feel like he shouldn’t have let it get that out of hand and stepped in.
I almost got to tossed tonight. Been a tough season so far and we are not that good. Lot of kids have trouble listening but we usually hang in there and give a good effort. We were playing the best team in the league tonight and it was also my son’s old team. I knew we were not going to win. We didn’t have a chance . Their entire infield plays travel. So it’s the 3rd inning and it’s 5-0 and I’m shocked that we are keeping it this close. So our lead off hitter hits a single and it’s over thrown. As he is trying to run to 2nd he slips and falls right next to first. He is super slow to get up but does and gets back on the bag. The player tags him and the ump calls him out. The kids black shoe is on the white bag before the tag is applied and the ump called him out. It was awful. I blew up. We aren’t winning this game but don’t give them an easy out they don't deserve. Of course we get a couple more hits after that and get some runs which should have been 1 more. Put me in a bad mood the rest of the game.
I don't mean any offense by this, but it sounds a little like you're making this situation about yourself. Yes, it sucks when things don't go your kid's way, whether that's being on the team you think he should be on, or a call etc. but being in the position of being thrown out of a little league game 99% of the time isn't going to be a good look, and your kid will end up at least slightly embarrassed.
Every parent flipping out on an ump finds a reason to justify it in their head. They’re making like $50 a game and are trying their best
Good point, but on the other hand... "GET SOME GLASSES UMP, SO YOU CAN SEE THE GOOD GAME YOU'RE MISSING!!!"
my son is only four but he's obsessed with soccer and I'm already dreading trying to navigate the club soccer scene. it sounds like an absolute nightmare where you can just light money on fire if you're not careful.
I get that and most of these guys I have relationships with who have been umping in the league for years. Some even give my kid lessons that ump in higher divisions. I was barking from 3rd Base and he pointed at me to calm down and I got 1 more word in and shut up. Had a player/kid that was super embarrassed about falling flat on his face and then completely confused and upset when he was called out. I'm going to let the kid know that I will stick up for him. Bad calls happen every game. You only got 2 umps and they can only cover so much ground so I get it when its a close play. If he had called our guy safe the other team wouldn't have been questioning it. The next innings I was by the on deck circle and one of the other players that I know goes "Coach Bishop that was a real bad call"
my town currently has a partnership with the Barons and everything I hear about them sounds like a grift. I will probably get more involved as my son gets older and hopefully we can build up the town program, but right now it's not very good from what I understand. my nephew just left town to play in Voorhees and that's not cheap but not as expensive as the big clubs. being able to stay in town would definitely be ideal.
This is where we are 10 year old has played parks &rec league soccer for years, it's been great got interested in football last year, so we signed up for parks and rec flag league and again it's been great
Imagine “barking” at an umpire in 6U baseball and thinking it was the right thing. Every 7 year old wants to play for me because they know I stand up for them when, checks notes, their older brothers make a mistake umpiring.
When the parents/coaches start complaining about the officials it filters down to the kids and is super counterproductive imo. They’re not mature enough to understand there are going to be bad calls at every level and you’ve just got to deal with it and keep going. Nothing more annoying than a kid that routinely has his palms up looking at the referee. Just keep playing…
Yeah, the kid said it was a bad call because you went ballistic about it. That right there is your shining fucking example to correct your behavior. The kids around you are looking up to you, watching and listening. They watched you go crazy about a stupid call in a meaningless game. Some of them now think that is perfectly acceptable behavior. Way to go
I had something like this typed up and didn't want to be too harsh lol. but Artoo is right. kids are little assholes because of modeled behavior.
At what age is it appropriate to start giving the umps some talk back? I feel like there is a line. Like some "c'mon blue" is acceptable. But obviously screaming isn't. Am I wrong? I ump'd coach pitch one summer during college and came close to throwing a woman out b/c she got overly mad at a call or two. This is a level where the kid sprints to the infield to hold up a ball and I have to then look at 4 kids running the bases and simultaneously determine if they were half way or not. At this point lets have fun....but feel like when you start pushing middle school some talking to the umps is acceptable. I don't have kids, just going off experience from 30 years ago playing semi competitive Pony ball until ~9th grade
Will take everyone's feedback and revaluate myself. Yall are correct. Not the attitude I want the kids to display.
My 10 year old is already buddies with most of the refs in his leagues because they are also the summer camp councilors for the parks and rec department summer camps. He's pretty bad about giving the ones he knows shit, and they give it back pretty good too. But it's just more like friendly jawing at each other. Luckily there isn't much parent getting on the refs in this league.
Just gotta realize as your kid gets older if they are a player or a payer for the team they are on. Hear many of these horror stories from these parents chasing those alphabet patches. About how their kid is sitting on the bench of not even dressing for games because they took 24-30 kids for the roster. All the while they are paying the 15k in training and travel costs still.
If my kid gets an NIL deal from Puma, you better believe I'm letting the ref hear it for every missed call.
I've coached from Tee Ball to JV in h.s., giving them shit has never once helped me. I've gotten tossed once, because of an egregious ejection of one of my players in a 15u tournament. When you're dealing with the same umps year over year, I've found it best to just approach them and ask them what they saw, or ask where a pitch was in relation to the zone, etc. At the end of the day they aren't going to change a judgement call because of something a coach says, and in my experience it's better to have a good reputation with them as they all talk/
I don't think it was every an intention to get a make up call or anything like that, but seemed more just normal huff and puff of games. I played/managed a self run n'hood adult co-ed softball league. 10-12 neighborhoods, we all played against each other. All adults, but the main ump was an ex-player and has been the primary ump for 15 years. I feel like once we got to know him he would get more shit/questions over calls. But that's adults vs adults, no kids
I think around puberty things change a bit and it's okay to work the refs a little. Anything with coach pitch IMO needs to be no questioning ref at all unless something cooky goes down. (weird things happen with 7 year olds running bases) I don't think there is anything wrong with pausing the game on occasion and having a respectful discussion with an official if a weird sequence goes down. In terms of actually barking at missed tags and/or balls/strikes I have no clue. I doubt it ever really works. Boomers love that shit though. the worst fans are the grandparents.
if you aren't kicking dirt on the ump's shoes and belly bumping him over bad calls what are you even doing
For some reason my mind went “high school” but just for more calm mannered “ahhhh come on!” and only as an instantaneous reaction that just comes out. Anything extended beyond that still not until college/pro level when it’s not your kid and you’re just being a dumb fan. maybe it’s when the spectator starts paying actual ticket prices is the cutoff idk.
I don’t remember a single bad call from my youth sports days prior to playing for my high school team. I do remember lots of times that I saw parents and coaches yell and be embarrassing when I was young. I don’t think I ever heard my parents address an umpire or ref, and I’m very glad for that.