Catching up on some Google reader-subscribed blogs, I came across a great post from my buddy Kwana. 

First off, let me say that if I saw her at one of Little IT’s games, we’d totally hang.  She’s cool, smart and funny as heck. 

No, she’s not a baseball guru. But she’s there for her kid, and supporting him and that’s what matters. 

Ah, do I miss those Little League games.  For what is supposed to be a kid’s game, it’s really played pretty intensely in our little village.  Little IT played t-ball for one year, and then spent another year in softball before she decided to hang up her glove.  I coached t-ball but was pregnant with IT Boy during softball year so I had to sit out.   This was on top of my 3 but really 2 years coaching her soccer teams. 

The experience was a blast and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.  Most of the parents were great, amazing really. Supportive of my giving my time as a volunteer and helping their kids.  There were just a few that really needed some attitude adjustments.  

There was one dad who showed up at practices, I believe, to criticize how we were working with the kids on the field.  At the suggestion of my co-coach, we called him in it, and asked him to come out onto the field and help us out.  He declined, and seemed to get the message about “put up or shut up.”

I remember calling the t-ball parents at the start of the season, and hearing that one kid’s dad was the softball coach at the high school.  I panicked, thinking he’d be on us every game about what a poor coaching job we were doing.  I got him totally wrong.  The experience was exactly the opposite.  Apparently, he wanted to coach, but couldn’t commit the time, so he felt horribly guilty about not being a part of the team.  He was totally 100% supportive of our role as coach, and only came on the field when we begged him to help out.  As a fellow coach, he understood how to help us do our job and work with the kids, and I’m forever grateful to him for that. 

As a coach, I also saw first hand how there can only be one coach, and if you’re the parent in the stands, you aren’t the coach.  Yelling and screaming at your child to go right, turn left, run the ball, throw the ball is distracting, and in the case of soccer often runs contrary to what the coach is telling the kids.  I remember one game where the dad was yelling at his kid to run after the ball, being very specific about when and how.  At next break, the girl ran up to her dad and said what he was telling her to do was going to put her team offside, so she’s just going to listen to the coach from now on and not him.  Out of the mouths of babes.   Your child hears you, so think about what you’re saying.  Be supportive, but don’t try to do the coaches job.  Heck, relax and WATCH the game.  Your kids are young for such a short time, be sure to sit back and marvel in the splendor of it all.  It goes by too damn fast. 

Now, I’m off to find Kwana in her car to talk about the new Philipa Gregory book…