the more the parents are involved, the worse it gets, but I do find that most kids enjoy competing. I'm coaching 5-6 girls t-ball right now and every inning at least one girl on my team asks who is winning and they're starting to not believe me when I say it's tied.
In our 8U baseball league, we have a team 14-0 and a team 0-14. Guess who runs the league, coaches the travel team, etc. The only reason why I’m involved is to hopefully help create better memories/experiences for the kids on my teams than they would otherwise get with the jackals that can’t help themselves.
My daughter is old enough now to play flag football and I’m coaching her team. I had 2 players I’ve coached the last 2 years in soccer request to be on my team that are fairly athletic but the rest of the team was random draw by the league secretary. I somehow got the 2 most athletic kids in the league. This one kid is 6/7 and can do a standing backflip. It’s nuts and actually unfair. I rotate the kids and keep it so the games don’t get out of hand. I’d hate to see what would have happened if this team ended up in the hands of one of these asshole coaches.
My son just turned 7, currently plays baseball and soccer in the Spring. We dont really keep score or anything in soccer, but all the kids know what it is during the game. The league had to send an email out about running up the score, because there is one team full of pretty athletic kids(and very obnoxious parents) that would win by 10+ and never have the kids stop scoring, or put the good ones on D. Our division is for 2016/2017 birthyears, so runs Pre-K - 1st Grade, which is a huge gap at this age. I semi know the coach of the team that runs the score up, he and his wife were bragging to me about how they were the reason that email was sent, and kept calling the other coach that complained to the league a cunt and a karen. I was mind-blown.
My nephew got boxed out of all-stars in baseball and both of the coaches involved deserve to have their ass kicked. His coach ranked his son above my nephew because he said he thought my nephew was a lock and knew this was the only way his son would get picked. The all-star coach cut my nephew in favor of his golfing buddy's kid. My nephew also plays travel ball with the kid, and he can barely walk and chew gum at the same time. He is totally devastated and neither coach had the balls to tell my sister. They made the asst coach for the all-star team call her. A few days later his current coach texted an apology and admission of what he did to my sister. I'm guessing he only did that because they still have a few games left in the season.
Our club soccer team has a group of psycho parents on our girls u9 team. They constantly complain about how the coach gives even playing time to all kids and doesn't separate the A players and the B players. Our director showed them the US Soccer Guidelines for developing kids that age and the parents were basically like US Soccer is wrong I know what my kid needs.
It sucks because both of them also coach his travel ball team and the options for playing elsewhere for him are not good.
This happens in my league every season. The little league mafia dons chalk it up to volunteer privilege: the kids of the adults that volunteer/coach get preferential treatment regardless of merit. It’s a feature, not a bug. I plan to talk to our league director after summer ball because it got pretty nasty/egregious this time around.
One of the parents was the kit sponsor for our club and literally told me she should have major input in club decisions because of this. She also said we should not travel out of state because her husband's business only operates in Alabama. We will be getting a new kit sponsor next fall.
My daughters first basketball game (8 year olds) we got there at half time of the game before and shortly after one of the girls comes off the court to her mom sitting in front of us. The kid is crying and begging her mom to leave "I was doing just fine until you got here, you need to leave, you're messing me up" and so on and so on. Poor kid, I have no idea what the mom was doing before we got there, but I couldn't imagine being that much of an asshole parent to an 8 year old that they're crying begging you to leave the gym.
My son was the best hitter on his coach pitch team and the coaches picked their own kids over him for the all star team. I’m not the dad to bitch but it was glaring. My son wasn’t even phased and it’s freaking 6 year olds so I dgaf. My sons team is the asshole team that’s rigged and I found myself pulling against us at times this year not going to lie. I coached church basketball against his coach and had a team of first graders going up against his third graders. They were up 25 with under 60 seconds and he was screaming DONT LET THEM SCORE until the very end. I had two kids start crying during the game. I’ve been plotting the petty shit I’m going to talk to him when my squad is big enough to give them a game.
When money in sports got so high that parents saw kids with an ounce of talent as meal tickets. They pay all this money for travel ball and want to see some ROI even though the odds of kids panning out are super rare. In 15 years of refereeing five different sports, I think I’ve seen 4 kids get high college scholarships and I maybe one pro athlete who may no longer be in the NFL. Parents spend all this money and feel their “investment” gives them a right to berate people on balls and strikes or fouls. Its crazy.
Had a dude I know on social media ask for funds to help support a UfuckingFive yr old AllStar team. U5. Tee ball lmao people are crazy
My cousin quit baseball because of shit like that. He led his team in batting average and was their number 1 pitcher. Both coaches chose their sons over him. He said fuck it I like hunting more anyways and quit.
I’m coaching 4-5 year olds who know that there are no outs and know that each of them scores every time they come to bat and yet I still get this question at the end of every game
Big scandal in the 8U baseball league. Turns out the team who went undefeated in the regular season and won the playoffs was using ‘illegal’ balls for most of the season. 8U balls are softer for safety and these guys were using 14U balls which are wound tighter and fly farther. The two coaches that played in the championship also coach the travel team. The losing coach went to get some game balls for a scrimmage from the winning coach’s bucket and noticed they were all the 14U. Apparently sparks flew because there have been whispers about irregularities. The balls are essentially the same outside of a letter or two in the model name. It makes sense because we lost to the cheaters in the playoffs and our team hit 3 HRs when there were none the rest of the season. Nothing will come of it, but it’s still hilarious what these guys do to win.
I get that they're the wrong ball, but would it really be an advantage? Don't both teams use the same balls during a game? It's not like football where you use your own ball on offense.
it's not about an advantage. balls that fly further travel faster. there's a reason why there's a different ball used for eight year olds.
I had a treat last night. There is a coach in my son's league that everyone hates. All the umps can't stand him as well as all the other coaches. We play little league 14-16, everyone hits and you can sub defensively whenever/wherever. In the 5th inning his assistant coach comes over to our dugout and says they're subbing in 2 guys, and I tell him he doesn't have to tell me since everyone hits blah blah, and he tells me "no they haven't hit yet, we're not running a continuous batting order." I brought it to the umpires attention that this guy was breaking the rules, and that we were good to continue playing, just that we were going to play in protest. My team was up 7-1 and in no danger of losing the game. This dude throws an absolute fit and pulls his team off the field. As if we're playing for the damn world series and he can't be bothered to let his whole team bat, meanwhile every other team in the league has no problem batting at 13 of their kids and following the rules every game.
i mean i get the argument, they're both using the same ball (we think) but it's cheating because it's against the rules.
They were the best hitting team in the league. I think they started with the juiced balls once that was realized and it extended the lead.
So my sons Teeball League is divided into two divisions. Teeball A (5 and Under) and Teeball AA (6). He has played 1 Fall and 1 Spring in Teeball A. This season he was easily the best fielder and improved in batting significantly. Most of the kids on this team turned 6 during the season when he just turned 5 in Jan. Signups for Fall ball will be soon. Trying to decide if I should ask for him to move up to play with the older kids in Teeball AA or let him be the big dog in Teeball A.
Does he have a lot of friends on the team his age? Or are they all just sort of acquaintances? That should be the biggest factor imo. Being good at tee ball doesn’t really mean anything.
I just don't get the every kid gets a trophy mindset. Parents filled out a form with name, address, and phone number, and a kid is awarded with a trophy? I know some parents go way overboard, but the trophy thing is ridiculous.
By and large, kids like trophies, and maybe that helps take the sting out of living the experiences described in this thread. HTH.
this. we had the same situation with my son, he was the youngest 6 year old so he stayed down with his best friend. It was technically t ball but they would get 5 coach pitches and then a tee so it wasn’t like he was really missing out on much.
On the other hand most kids realize the trophy is supposed to mean something even if you pretend it doesn't. They know who wins and loses. My 8 y/o daughter was disgusted with a participation medal after a thing that she didn't place in. But she's like, a competitive lunatic and it has nothing to do with my parenting.
Participation trophy outrage is one I'll never understand. Why not make kids feel good and crystalize a good memory in their mind, especially those kids who may not have a lot to feel good about? I feel like you were dropped on your head as a baby to have this take.
Also a shit ton, if not the majority, of teams in kids sports are manipulated by hardo parents to get the best kids on their team. When I was a kid one of my friends dad told some of the better players to purposely do shitty I’m tryouts so he could draft then later Let’s only give that team trophies it’s all just dumb kids sports shouldn’t really matter until high school and even then they shouldn’t really matter that much
Not outraged, just confused about it. I've always thought trophies were rewards for achievements, not for filling out a form.