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Fortunately, I haven't really had to deal with any really irate parents at youth league games, although the fact that I'm a pretty big guy helps out. It will be really hard to stop this problem, especially with middle schoolers appearing in Sports Illustrated, and the fact that many of the referees doing these games are relatively inexperienced in terms of game awareness. The parents are more competitive and the officials don't always have the tools to recognize or control this type of situation. The whole thing IMO starts with the coaches, if you control the coaches, the parents will then often (not always) follow suit. I think that any sort of a coaching box should be eliminated for MS and below games, that privilege should be reserved for HS coaches and zero tolerance policies should be implemented and enforced regarding the coach's behavior. Officials often don't penalize the coaches and the impact trickles down to the players and fans, and the game gets out of control. I also often see with younger officials and younger coaches, several adults standing on the bench. I think we take care of these things nationwide, things will begin to improve for the better.
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