Sportsmanship - worse in AAU? Getting worse overall?

[26 Year Gap]

Some weekends are worse than others with AAU. I think too many parents live through their kids. They do not realize that there is NOT going to be a write-up in the paper about how great their kid is and what wonderful parents they must be to have a great kid. Good site managers can help with problem fans. Same with problem coaches. I really only had a big problem with one coach and one fan this past season. The players on the coach's team were also whiners. And the fan was a fan of this team. He quieted down quite a bit after I pointed him out to game mgmnt. I think many officials tire of loud mouths in empty gyms and have a lower threshhold for issuing technical fouls to players & coaches. Generally, a lot of the coaches would not be hired as HS coaches...they are there to make sure their kid gets lots of playing time. Those that are HS coaches and are coaching younger kids are generally pretty well behaved from my experience.

Well, actually there was one other coaching staff I had problems with. And by not issuing a T right away on the AC I made it worse. Of course this team did not even remember to bring any basketballs to the tournament, so that tells you quite a bit about their skill level.

[CoachCER]

Interesting. I really didn't see too much from fans this year in my age group (15U), though now that I think about it, fewer parents attend. I didn't go to many games in the younger age group, but I do remember one where site management had to get involved with an overzealous dad.

What prompted my first post was an incident last weekend, where the opposing coach of a team we beat in the quarters threatened one of the referees after the game. I didn't hear the actual words exchanged, but my assistant did, and it apparently got fairly ugly. (His team wasn't handling the loss well, which had my attention as we had a postgame incident the day before with a different team.) I spoke with the partner of the referee later that day and I mentioned I was surprised that someone didn't call the police, but she shrugged and said that kind of thing seems to happen a lot, and her partner had decided it wasn't worth the fuss. The team was eliminated, and was from 4 hours away, so he kind of brushed it off.

[BktBallRef]

If you're having trouble with parents, I can give you a real simple solution.

If a parent is a problem, eject him/her. When the parent goes, the kid goes as well. If the coach is a parent and gets tossd, the kid goes as well.

We had terrible problems with parents several years ago. But this took care of it. A few parents found out the hard way but it didn't take long for it to get cleaned up.

[Back In The Saddle]

I haven't had any real issues with AAU this year. I had a couple of coaches who started in, but backed off as soon as I addressed it (which was right away).

But I was surprised to have trouble at a HS tourney I worked this weekend. I worked mostly V games, and had no problems with those guys. But the sub-varsity was another story. I had coaches who were not much older than the kids. They're in baseball caps, pants that ride down, looking like wannabe thugs. One in particular "calls" a timeout just before the half to get in my face about how I am not the show and this is about the kids. His kids are acting like a bunch of punks and have been from the very first foul call of the game. Gee, I wonder why.

Is this the next generation of coaches? Supposedly grown men who can't figure out how to dress and act like adults? Who can't control themselves and thus have no concept of how to control their teams? Maybe the NFHS needs to leave off worrying about how players are dressed long enough to address how coaches are dressed.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Back In The Saddle

I haven't had any real issues with AAU this year. I had a couple of coaches who started in, but backed off as soon as I addressed it (which was right away).

But I was surprised to have trouble at a HS tourney I worked this weekend. I worked mostly V games, and had no problems with those guys. But the sub-varsity was another story. I had coaches who were not much older than the kids. They're in baseball caps, pants that ride down, looking like wannabe thugs. One in particular "calls" a timeout just before the half to get in my face about how I am not the show and this is about the kids. His kids are acting like a bunch of punks and have been from the very first foul call of the game. Gee, I wonder why.

Is this the next generation of coaches? Supposedly grown men who can't figure out how to dress and act like adults? Who can't control themselves and thus have no concept of how to control their teams? Maybe the NFHS needs to leave off worrying about how players are dressed long enough to address how coaches are dressed.

Well I guess the NF needs to outlaw suits and ties, because I see more silly behavior from coaches (and fans) wearing those types of clothing.

Peace