Bob Cook’s blog, “Your Kid’s Not Going Pro,” which appears on “True/Slant,” is a treasure trove of examples of Adults Behaving Badly. For the sensitive among you, we’ll tell you in advance that Cook isn’t always PG-rated.
His posts have documented incidents such as the volleyball coach in New Jersey who threw a volleyball at the ball at the head of one of his own players, (listen especially to the parent at the end of the video who says “he gets kicked out every time”); a youth basketball commissioner who suffered a concussion, had his jaw dislocated and has dental damage after being attacked by a dad immediately after a tournament game; and a wrestling referee who grabbed the throat of a high school wrestler while “advising” the wrestler not to “misbehave on my mat.” Finally, a recent column chronicled a number of fights that have occurred at high school basketball games across the country.
Sadly, as these articles and accompanying videos demonstrate, inappropriate behavior can come from just about any adult acting in just about any capacity of youth sports. And Bob Cook will continue to document them for us. Job security. Depressing, but job security.
Thanks for the cite. Yes, I'm not always PG-rated, but when you track this stuff, it's hard to be. Actually, I try to talk about the good stuff, too (hey, I have four kids in youth sports, and I coach), but it's hard to focus on that when you have, for example, a major hazing scandal blowing up at the high school from which I graduated.
Keep up the good work.
Posted by: Bob Cook | February 26, 2010 at 07:23 PM