Sportsmanship - worse in AAU? Getting worse overall?
 

I was visiting some of my old coaching links and happened by this site, and I recognized some of the names from when I visited some of these boards back in 2000-2002. I even saw "The Mulk" is still hanging around here, and I am fortunate enough to actually see him referee in person every now and then.

As you can tell by my handle, I am a coach. I officiated a few years in my younger days to learn the game better, and I would be tempted to get back in, but a bad back makes it too difficult right now.

To keep myself busy, I direct the feeder program for a local high school, and do player development for the freshmen - varsity in the offseason, along with coaching some of the little guys from time to time. I also am one of those dreaded AAU coaches.

Which brings me to my reason for posting. I had not coached in the older age groups of AAU for several years until this past season, and it seems as if the sportsmanship has gotten dramatically worse. I had noticed some trends with the younger kids (particularly with the parents), but at the older ages it seems to be more with the coaches and players.

Is it that bad in high school as well, and I have just been blissfully insulated? Or are too many AAU coaches just out there for the wrong reasons? Or are too many just the wrong guys to be out there in the first place?

Or am I just getting older, crankier, and more easily annoyed?

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.

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.

Helicopters ...
 

These are called "Helicopter Parents", they spend a lot of time "hovering" over their kids. I coached middle school for over 25 years. It wasn't like this in the early 1980's, but it has increasing gotten worse. It's one of the many reasons that I left coaching.

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.

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. :rolleyes:

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

Concur. While my memory is probably not the best, back in my day (which is pre-80's) I can't remember my parents or coaches putting such an empahsis on winning - at almost any cost......the refs/umps and adults in general were treated with more respect.

Unfortunately, it's the state of our society. We can only hope there is a turn around with maturity......