Youth Football Sportsmanship

[davidfv1]

Aboselli wrote in a different thread:
"That's what I hate about youth football. You'll have the coaches yelling, and the parents yelling - and the kids will be standing next to you rolling their eyes in embarrassment because they know that the behavior of the 'grown ups' is inappropriate. They want to play some football and go get some ice cream - it's not some life or death struggle to them...

Here is what I did to help combat the problem...

For the past 6 years, I participated in a youth coaches clinic talking about the new rules and taking questions. Every year I end my talk about sportsmanship and what we, the youth football officials, will do about it.

This does two things, first, it shows that we are out there for the kids and love of the game. I am willing to take 2 hours of my time and talk to the coaches, listen to last year's gripes, and tell them how things will be run once the officials take charge of the game.

Second, it really builds up a relationship with the coaches and working together we can help control the parents that get out of line. I set up an email address so they can gripe during the year and I answer them too.

I tell the coaches, in the youth leagues we are lucky to get an official to come back a second year so the guys on the field are mostly rookies and sometimes the officiating reflects the inexperience. In the past few years, the sportsmanship of the league has greatly improved and more experienced officials are coming out again to work the games.

If you do not have a forum to talk with the coaches get one... it has really helped.

HAve a great season.

[cowbyfan1]

good idea.. I am going to do that with the baseball league I assign umpires for in the spring... I love the coaches that gripe about their parents cuz those are the ones that I usually have the least problems with..

[pmacklin]

I really apriecated that post David

[HLin NC]

I think we have offered.

Crickets......

[ajmc]

Each of us always has the choice, to walk away from a problem, or elect to be part of a solution.

Locally, our Officials organization and Pop Warner organization have developed a healthy, supportive relationship for over 50 years, that despite occasional ebbs and flows, has managed to respect, and support, each others needs and preferences to forge a positive, workable relationship that deals effectively with problems.

There may always be unexpected bumps in the road, but rational people willing to insure rational behavior, working towards a common objective are usually able to effectively manage problems.

[Suudy]

My experience when I was involved was that the same people running the league were the same guys yelling at us. And when their kids were no longer playing, it was the next kids dad running the league.

It's hard to get "a forum to talk with the coaches," when the coaches are different every year, and the league leadership is different every couple of years.

[Canned Heat]

Originally Posted by Suudy

My experience when I was involved was that the same people running the league were the same guys yelling at us. And when their kids were no longer playing, it was the next kids dad running the league.

It's hard to get "a forum to talk with the coaches," when the coaches are different every year, and the league leadership is different every couple of years.

That's the problem we ran into here when I helped our league try to fold that in. We actually worked and/or went to some scrimmages and practices to address new rules or revisions, and to assist the new coaches on rules that otherwise knew little, but when you have assembly line turnover that seems to be commonplace at about 80%+ of the programs, you end up with coaches that are teaching their QB to throw the ball away when he gets out of the pocket to avoid a sack instead of browsing thru a rule book. What gets lost at the lower levels is teaching the kids the game. Period.

Win vs. Loss column should be a moot point at 5th/6th/7th grade level. I discussed this here on another thread about 2-3 weeks ago where the 5th grade offense for a team here in my neck of the woods has essentially 45 different plays on offense. Again...no, that's not a typo. It's ridiculousness. Probably 3 kids on the offense get it, and the rest are lost and they can't figure out why they struggled offensively.

[HLin NC]

5th grade offense for a team here in my neck of the woods has essentially 45 different plays on offense. Again...no, that's not a typo. It's ridiculousness.

And as we head down the rabbit hole......we've got a similar aged team who runs "shotgun" formation (more like pistol in reality). I would venture to guess their total offensive production for the season is in the red. Put the QB under center and I imagine he could fall forward for at least a couple of yards every play.