Save me from Little League parents

[gamebirdboy]

My football team was playing our last game against our biggest rival and they wouldn't show the clock, the refs kept it instead of putting it on the score board. Well my coach who was an NFL ref kept it on his clock, well we supposedly got cheated out of 2 minutes. We had to stand on the field for 20 minutes to protest it... For some reason my team always protested games...

 

[thekid]

kinda like baseball, one of the kids on my team threw a knuckle ball and it hit the kid. And the ump didnt give him a base because he said he had enough time to get out of the way. The other coach got really mad. It happened to us once too. So if the pitch is really slow we have time...

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

I knew you guys would understand! It isn't about winning. It is about turning the little beasties into good adults!

Don't get me wrong. I love to win as much as the next coach. Losing a meet is not fun. But it is not the end of the world when we do. It is one meet one summer in a neighborhood league. It will not change anyone's chances of college scholarships or going to the Olympics.

We do all of this to teach kids to enjoy swimming and to do it well. And to get them out of the house in the morning and doing something active! Many of my kids do go on to winter swim with a competitive league or with the high school team. I love that! Some kids really do need more competition than we give them. Most of my kids though are just regular ol' kids learning to swim. The point is to have fun with it.

I am no longer responding to the irate parent. I am done. The decision has been made. This parent has consistently been a problem in the past. In the past she has put her younger child on one of the local super competitive teams. The kid requested to come back to us this year. Her sister refuses to swim anywhere else. Clearly we are doing something right.

Kristyhall- you are very right. The younger daughter (age 11) has long been cossetted and babied. She still talks with baby talk and acts much younger than her years. Despite the fact that she is an AWESOME swimmer, her social skills are lacking. The elder daughter (the one ignored by her mother) is actually the stonger kid. I adore the older one (perhaps because I feel like her mother picks on her). The mother is completely screwing up the younger girl. It's sad.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

I think you should take your first post, edit it to leave out the stuff about the specific call and reaction, and print out a copy as your Coaching Philosophy. Hand it out to every parent at your next practice. And next year, make sure to hand it out to everyone who is considering your team. You might want to throw in a comment about when you will and will not contest a call, and why. You might also want to take it up with the league to create a policy of how to deal with complaints about bad calls--who issues a final judgement and time limits (at most 24 hours after the meet; preferably before it is complete). Might want to throw in something that is done in some other sports. If you want to contest a call, you have to put up $$--usually $25 or $50, depending on the sport--if a protest is upheld, the $$ are returned; if not, they are not.

I think your attitude about coaching is fantastic!