10u playoffs

[cat]

My daughter was on AP1 and I find the Wyandotte account of our playoff game a little inaccurate. There was a lot of hold ups at the game because of coaches still not aware of the rules. As I recall it was the Wyandotte coach who was spoken to about his behavior and not being prepared. To say he remained calm and cool is a joke. He was one of the loudest voices out there before he was spoken to about it. It may only be 10 year old girls out there, but since when does any age override palying anything by the rules? Rules are in place to make any competition fair and safe. If you decide to coach, take some time to learn the rules and do it right.

[ADMIN]

The problem I have with discussions such as these is that they almost always break down into broad brushed indictments of entire cities. I run the DBA mail box, and people would be shocked how many emails start out with:

I just wanted to bring to your attention that all the managers, players and parents in (FILL IN THE BLANK) are idiots.

Regardless of the age group, introduction of the element of competition brings out strong emotional reactions to the moment. Mix in the idea of playing "those people" from another city and, well, it is a perfect catalyst for silliness.

This is not to say that there are no individual managers or parents who go over the top on one or more occassions. What I also find interesting is that, to the extent that we get verified reports of this, they almost always involve the youngest age groups. And, to be honest, I was way more intense back when I started my involvement in youth baseball. Some of this stuff is just a function of age and experience.

While I agree that the failure to be fully prepared leads to a fair number of conflicts that we hear about, it is my opinion that things would run smoother if everyone would just remember to take a deep breath and consider what they are about to say or do. One can almost never go wrong while observing the requirements of basic civility.

N.