This is the 17th installment of “Old Pueblo Abuelo,” a Sunday night (OK it’s Monday) thought on positive things happening in the Old Pueblo from a sometimes cranky and often times humorous grandfather actually born in Tucson and writing from my desk in Tucson.…
Sports parents are crazy. OK, not all sports parents are crazy, just the crazy ones and by that I mean most of them and I was once of them, which means I’m a recovering crazy person. OK, still crazy.
In my day, parents kept the craziness confined to the stands and to the car rides home. Now, we have social media and the craziness is off the charts. I’m not talking about parents actually fighting each other, the coaches, the opposing players, security…. because that has always happened and, sadly, it continues to happen and, if you point out how crazy it is for a parent to attack a coach and his or her family after a game then the nuts call you a bully for…. pointing out how nutty they are. Which only proves just how crazy they are.
I have a theory that all baseball moms can keep score and all softball moms can pack a good snack and softball dads think they are going to get a chance to umpire and baseball dads think they just might get a chance to play. You know like, “Hey Tommy we need an outfielder, do you think your dad can give us a hand?” It’s not going to happen. Ever. Just relax.
I’m often reminded, by people who can’t forget things, that I was a problem at my kids’ games when they were young. My wife was coaching one of our daughters in Baja Softball and the umpire told her he didn’t like calling our games. She asked him why and he said there’s a guy in your stands who knows all the rules.
Yes, I knew, and probably still know, all the rules but those girls were like 5 years old for goodness sake, I should have just sat back and enjoyed the games. Now, I miss those games.
More “Old Pueblo Abuelo” can be found here.
Social media wasn’t much of an issue when my kids were young, we just had internet forums and the worst those ever got was the shocking news that a girl was playing for a different club team next week. Oh, the horror. How did we survive a child being picked up by another team? The world ended.
Now, I look through recent posts about youth football on Facebook and I see a very small but vocal group of parents bragging on one team over another and how one team is afraid to play them and they didn’t play anyone and our kids are legit and we have the coaches and you didn’t travel and we have this and you have that and we don’t have this and you don’t have that and our uniforms are blue and yours are red. I scroll up and see they are arguing over a bunch of second graders. It’s only about 4-5 parents but it’s crazy. Humorous, but crazy.
You only get to go on this ride once so enjoy it. You will miss it. You’re not the one getting a college scholarship and either are they because they are still trying to figure out if they have art or music on Monday. The competition is all in your head.
There will come a time, much later, when college becomes an issue and being a crazy parent will only make the recruiting process worse. Also, don’t do what I did with one of my daughters. I had her play high-level softball from the age of 8 to 18 and when it became time to go off to college she refused. I burned her out. I was an idiot. I blew it and we can never get those years back. I get teary-eyed every time I think about it. Let your children live.
And try not to send us messages like, “Retweet this,” or “Interview my kid,” or “My kid is better than that kid,” and so on. First, demands are not requests and second, lifting your child up by stepping on other kids is not good parenting. It’s crazy parenting.
If you spent as much time, money and energy on educational supplies and tutors, the chances of advancing in life would be much greater, but I get it. We are athletes, or we once were. I was a somewhat good athlete and my wife is in the University of Arizona Sports Hall of Fame so athletics was an obvious choice for our kids. By “obvious choice” I mean they had no choice and you probably feel your kids have no choice either. They don’t.
Kids might not have a choice when it comes to playing youth sports but how about giving them the choice to have fun in the process? How about tagging an opponent on a Facebook post telling them their child did a great job out there and that you hope they can watch your kid play someday? How about not pointing out mistakes on the car ride home?
How about telling your kids about the mistakes you made when you were young and how you wish you could go to art or music tomorrow? Just one more time.
FOLLOW @ANDYMORALES8 ON TWITTER
Andy Morales was recognized by the AIA as the top high school reporter in 2014, he was awarded the Ray McNally Award in 2017, a 2019 AZ Education News award winner and he has been a youth, high school and college coach for over 30 years. He was the first in Arizona to write about high school beach volleyball and high school girls wrestling. His own children have won multiple state high school championships and were named to all-state teams. Competing in hockey, basketball, baseball and track & field in high school, his unique perspective can only be found here and on AZPreps365.com. Andy is the Southern Arizona voting member of the Ed Doherty Award, recognizing the top football player in Arizona, and he was named a Local Hero by the Tucson Weekly for 2016. Andy was named an Honorary Flowing Wells Caballero in 2019, became a member of the Sunnyside Los Mezquites Cross Country Hall of Fame in 2021 and he was a member of the Amphi COVID-19 Blue Ribbon Committee and he earned a Distinguished Service Award from Amphitheater. Contact Andy Morales at amoralesmytucson@yahoo.com
Recommended for you
