The Ugly Parent
The Ugly Parent
And NO, I am not talking about me.
My youngest son Blake, plays U17 Football for Palm beach here in the Gold Coast. A bunch of lads who enjoy the game and each other. They are not the best team and are running second from bottom, but they have been putting up a good show of late.
Anyway, there is always that kid with those parents who think their child is better than everyone else’s and have to make sure everyone knows about it. In this case it is the goal keeper and his parents. Without detail, there has been tension between them and the coach since before the season started and there was a bit of a blow up a few weeks ago.
Last Friday night it came to an enormous head. They were playing against a very well drilled team who sat second on the table. 2-1 down at half time was not too bad and the boys had shown glimpses of good football and almost scored a second goal. With about 20 mins to go till full time it was 5-1 and the coach decided to replace the Goal Keeper.
The Ugly Parents came out with a tirade of abuse against the coach. They were literally yelling across the ground at the coach in a very sarcastic way. We were at home and this was happening right next to the oppositions parents and supporters. At one stage the dad was even yelling at the Palm Beach players but some of the lads put him in his place quick smart.
Another 2 goals and with each the vitriol towards the coach grew. It was very embarrassing and we could not even ask the ground official to step in because she was the mum of the goal keeper and is fully supportive of the dad.
It became even worse after the match when the coach was leaving the ground. He had to walk past the clubhouse where the parents and son were waiting for him. They just surrounded him and started yelling abuse in front of everyone. The coach just kept walking and tred not to inflame an already volitile situation.
The upshot of all this is that there were committee members there to witness this and at a meeting on Monday night the Goal Keeper was suspended for the season, the dad was banned from the club and the Mum was sacked from the committee. There was also another boy from the team suspended for his part in yelling abuse at the coach after the match.
A sad day in junior club football, but one I am sure is repeated at some sports ground around the country on a weekly basis. There is simply NO excuse for this to happen like it did.
July 03 2008 06:21 am | General
