I’ve heard it said that the worst thing to happen to kids sports is the parents. That point was proven last night.
Sara’s team was one game from the Williamson county championship. Jeff and I had a great time coaching them this year, and the girls had come a long way. No one expected us to win a single tournament game this year, and we had won 4 going into last night’s game. The girls were excited and ready to play.
Things were going fine, and then the coach from the other team complained about our pitcher’s delivery. What made it so bad was that he stood in front of our pitcher while he complained to the umpire. This scared our pitcher so bad that she started crying, and she never recovered.
We’d played about 20 games this season before last night’s game, and this had never been an issue. So she had to completely change her mechanics in about 3 minutes. Ridiculous. I went to the “head guy” of the tournament and couldn’t get any help. He chickened out, I mean, took the easy way out, I mean, deferred judgment, saying it was up to the umpire in charge.
Ultimately, the blame goes to the umpire in charge. He gave in to a bully rather than do his job. I asked the home plate umpire if they were going to call the game or if they were going to let the other coach take charge. He smiled, gave me a look like “Hey, it’s not up to me. If it was, this wouldn’t be happening.”
Parents were upset, with emotions ranging from sad to angry. Tears were shed, by both moms and the girls. I told them that they had nothing to be ashamed of, that in life there would be people who tried to change the rules in the middle of a game and take advantage of the situation. But they acted like young ladies, and for that I was very proud of the way they handled it.
It’s not so much what other people do to you, but rather how you handle it. And last night our girls passed the test…..
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