Ah, I remember little league sports. I got to square off with an opposing coach once and exchange "ideas". I'm glad we left sports behind and got into scouting. I've yet to square off with another scouter in my 10 years as an adult scouter.

An incident kind of like that is why I stopped playing ball as a kid. The coach in question was mine. And he yelled at us in the same manner that he yelled at the opposing coaches. Who needs that garbage. I suppose he felt big, getting in the faces of 10 year olds, and other adults, too.

Eng61, I'm glad to hear you took the high road.

You know Engineer......you are exactly right. It is a privilege for us to lead kids....very well said.

I agree that when young people give up their time and are willing to spend it with us it really is a privilege.
This privilege doesn't in any way vacate our responsibility and in many ways makes it even more important.
Eamonn.

When my son was 4 or 5, he wanted to play soccer. So we joined a county soccer league.

His coach was awesome. She was great witrh the boys and girls and she was more about the learning and trying and participating than anything else.

WEll, game day was always on a Saturday at one of the centralized county parks.

Now realize, this park was a county park. Soccer firleds, baseball fields, swings, slides, open fields, walking trails , basketball and tennis courts.

So when you showed up Saturday morning, the first thing you were greeted by was a person sitting in a chair at the entrance to the park...collecting money for the youth leagues.

You were EXPECTED to pay to get into the park.

This was not a park employee or county employee, juust somebody on the soccer league.

So I would say: "WE have a soccer player here." Meaning that - I have paid his dues, bought over priced shirt, shorts, shin gaurds and shoes through the league at a higher cost than I could from a sporting goods store. This was my way of helping out, even though I PAID FULLY for my son to play soccer.

Well, this would get you a snooty speach about why we were just shameful people for not supporting the socer players ( you know...my own son!)

Now, this person also felt that if grandma and granpa wanted to take their grandchildren to the park to swing - and had absolutely nothing to do with playing soccer, watching soccer, or even being near the soccer fields - shouyld also pay some mony since soccer was going on at the time. THis would get you cussed at when you didn't "donate of your own free will".

Okay game time: COaches screaming and yelling at kids. Parents cusing and screaming at refs and coaches. Parents telling kids to kich or trip other players intentionally. Threats of parents kicking other kids ( remember - 4 and 5 year olds ) butts for getting the ball away from "precious" .

About halfway through the season, my son didn't want to play any more. Which was fine as my wife and I were ready to tell all these people where to stick it. The coach even called the league secretary and said that the bahaviors from parents, coaches and even committee was unacceptable.

She ended up quitting too.

So, after that, my son played Upward soccer. That's a church league in case you didn't know or never heard of it.

The down side is they never keep score. Sure, I get why, but learning that everybody is not a winner all the time is important too. Nothing wrong when celebrating a win or learning good sportsmanship when you lose. Winning shows your work and teamwork paid off. Losing teaches you to try harder and work on your weaknesses.

Besides, wether you officially kept score or not, the players knew who won or lost.

But the main thing was, you didn't have the threat of fistfights, bad language and total lack of respect for the kids.

So, yeah, it is a priveledge to work with kids. No matter if in sports, school, scouting,anything!

Maybe people who work with our kids should have to pass a test and carry a the card just like you do for a tot'in chip.

Having kids is a big responsibility, working with other peoples kids is a huge undertaking and a BIG priveledge!