HIGH SCHOOL SOCCER PARENTS

This past Friday I had to go pick up my daughter from a HS girls soccer game (Douglas vs CSHS) where one of her good friends from school was playing and got to witness first hand the parental insanity (for lack of a better term) that people often talk about. OMGoodness people!!!! I am so glad our kids have only played individual sports where this craziness is not present. Moms and Dads screaming at the top of their lungs, complaining about every single call made against their team as if there was some sort of secret conspiracy taking place against their team, you folks really need to get a hold of yourselves. I recomend you have someone video tape your behavior without you knowing they are there, then go home and take a good look at the embarrasing show you all put on right in front of your children, if that doesn't scare you, don't know what will, get a grip people!!!!

What are you doing on this site if your daughter doesn't play soccer? You just happened to stumble on it? Sure.........LOL.

the first poster is right

What are you doing on this site if your daughter doesn't play soccer? You just happened to stumble on it? Sure.........LOL.

Did it ever cross your limited mind that maybe we have friends with kids that do play soccer and are always talking about this forum?? of course not, that would make way too much sense. By the "conspiracy theory" tone of your post, I bet you were one of those parents blaming the refs that night for trying to take away your kids game, go ahead...admit it.

Well, you certainly fit in just fine here. Too bad for you!

Have you had a chance to enjoy Keystones parents?

What are you doing on this site if your daughter doesn't play soccer? You just happened to stumble on it? Sure.........LOL.

Did it ever cross your limited mind that maybe we have friends with kids that do play soccer and are always talking about this forum?? of course not, that would make way too much sense. By the "conspiracy theory" tone of your post, I bet you were one of those parents blaming the refs that night for trying to take away your kids game, go ahead...admit it.

Some parents probably do get out of hand, however, before you can come on this newsgroup and make a sweeping comment about the refs, don't you think you should poll a few refs to get a fair picture? Some are incredibly fair (they've gotten better this year in my county, thank God), but refs do talk to each other from game to game, and they do share information on players and coaches from certain teams (She's a dirty player, she takes dives etc.) They also make subjective calls. Meaning, if they miss a call, they might try to make up for it somewhere else in the game. This is standard. How do I know? Someone who use to ref Club games for more than five years told me so.

So, I would suggest you poll a few refs and find out what they have to say, before coming on a newsgroup to make sweeping generalizations.

I don't completely disagree with you, mind you, just looking for the balance in the equation.

My personal favorite observation is when a team gets incredibly aggressive and brutual and their parents don't say a thing when they bully the other team. But when a player from your team fights back, their parents just go into vapors.

She is talking about the parents dum bo !!!

For all I know those Moms and Dads are very nice people that just get caught up in this stuff, I just thought that if someone from the outside pointed out how crazy they are behaving, it might make them change for the better, guess I was wrong and should have just done what I normally do which is stay out of it, sorry.

My personal favorite observation is when a team gets incredibly aggressive and brutual and their parents don't say a thing when they bully the other team. But when a player from your team fights back, their parents just go into vapors.

I love this as well. It is amazing how it is OK for their team to hack and grab jerseys and play to intimidate but when their "precious little angels" get it handed back to them, they go ballistic.

If you want to hand it out, you better be ready to take it back.

She is talking about the parents dum bo !!!

I know. I made a boo-boo. I meant to say "parents", instead of "refs," thusly:

"Some parents probably do get out of hand, however, before you can come on this newsgroup and make a sweeping comment about the **parents**, don't you think you should poll a few refs to get a fair picture? Some are incredibly fair ..."

The same thing happens in Football, difference being that in those games you cannot makeout individual comments. In soccer there are few spectators, mostly only parents present so you hear evry comment VERY WELL. I find most HS soccer parents do not truly understand the game and most are only looking at what their little Susie is doing. It's all part of playing soccer (Futbol) in America.

My personal favorite observation is when a team gets incredibly aggressive and brutual and their parents don't say a thing when they bully the other team. But when a player from your team fights back, their parents just go into vapors.

I love this as well. It is amazing how it is OK for their team to hack and grab jerseys and play to intimidate but when their "precious little angels" get it handed back to them, they go ballistic.

If you want to hand it out, you better be ready to take it back.

When the rough play comes from your child, it is considered just part of the game of soccer, but when it is the other way around the rules change and the game becomes a no-contact sport, it is just great to watch.

For all I know those Moms and Dads are very nice people that just get caught up in this stuff, I just thought that if someone from the outside pointed out how crazy they are behaving, it might make them change for the better, guess I was wrong and should have just done what I normally do which is stay out of it, sorry.

Soccer is a very strange sport. It has become far too physical, too early for the kids. Most parents of the top players have seen at least one medical bill past $10,000, so you can bet that the dominant parent in the household is supporting the kid in the sport. and you have the other parent thinking the other two are nuts. So, yes, expect parents to get out of control, and not for the reasons you think.

Especially in High School, some coaches with very firm soccer credentials, encourage their players to physically rough up the other girls. My daughter has mentioned that players come up behind her and "h*mp" her on the field, even before she gets the ball. The idea is to knock her off balance so she can't trap the ball and, thus, there's a loose ball on the field to pick up.

Another thing they do is stick their elbows in your gut or pull your arm back to hold you back as they move in front of you to take position to receive a pass. All of this is illegal and the refs should call it, but, for some reason, unless your player falls on the ground, the refs won't call it. Yet, it can turn a game around and a team can win, just on sheer dirty playing.

Unfortunately, there's a team in my county that is winning games this way and because it seems to work for them, it's catching on. It happens every year. Expect it to get more aggressive as we reach districts because the refs are not controlling the game. And that's why parents yell. To force the ref to control the game.

So, it's not the parents and it's not really even the refs that you should be annoyed at, but the coaches who have turned this game into a rugby match at too young an age, minimizing opportunities for kids to learn skills, and creating too many incidents of injury which elminate others from playing soccer.

Obviously, I'm a parent who thinks the other two in my household are nuts. :D

The same thing happens in Football, difference being that in those games you cannot makeout individual comments. In soccer there are few spectators, mostly only parents present so you hear evry comment VERY WELL. I find most HS soccer parents do not truly understand the game and most are only looking at what their little Susie is doing. It's all part of playing soccer (Futbol) in America.

Well, there is another difference between football and soccer. In football, you can play the player, and in soccer, you play the ball, not the girl. The tip-off: soccer players don't wear padding.