Player thrown under the bus........

[NCASAUmp]

Originally Posted by topper

Pretty strong stance. Must be a new stance. I mean this IS you in the OP and you didn't do anything at the time.

There's a big difference between a coach talking about a player's performance and a coach talking about the player.

It's one thing if the coach is making comments that have to do with the game, even if the coach's criticism is particularly strong. It's not up to me to determine how a coach coaches and motivates his/her team.

Just thinking out loud here, but so long as the coach's comments aren't derogatory against the player, there's not much I'd even consider doing. But if the coach begins to lay into a player with devastating comments that have ZERO to do with either the game at hand or softball in general, I'm not so certain I'd want to let it slide. It all depends on what's being said, as well as the age group.

If a 10U-B coach starts screaming at a child that she's a "worthless little kid," I'd probably have something to say about it by going either to the league or ASA, or by just plain tossing the coach. That kind of abuse on the field should not be permitted by anyone.

I will acknowledge that this is, however, a VERY slippery slope. My example above is an extreme case, and I would imagine that most "harsh comments" made by a coach will (hopefully) fall quite short of this.

Knowing where to draw that line is difficult, at best.