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flag football.

J

jigs

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 17, 2005
Messages
8,447
Location
KANSAS
well, I coach a little league flag football team. we go up to Superior Nebraska to play. this was our second weeek. we play two games each Sunday, and so far we have played 2 of the top teams in the league.

both teams are stacked. which in this age range (4th 5th 6th) I think is foolish. the kids are there to learn the game, and sportsmanship.

Superior has enough kids for 3 teams. but this one guy hand picked his 12 kids before they got sign up sheets out to the kids. real scummy move in my opinion.

we lost to them by 2 touchdowns, then beat the #2 Superior team by 4 touchdowns.

today we beat Superior#3 54 - 6 and then lost to a Kansas team by 10 points. this Kansas team has won the league the last 2 years, so we knew it would be a hard game.

my boy plays wide reciever. and dropped 2 touchdown passes, but made up for it when he hauled one in, and ran for the corner of the endzone, he was slipping, and dove for the goalline, laying it out and stretching it across for the score!!!

man was I proud!!!

next 2 weeks we ge one easy team and 3 tough ones....... gonna be tough, but fun!
 
Jigs, we ran across the same thing when son #1 played baseball about three years ago. And it's not who wins the game, it's how ya played. And it's alot better for your boys down the road as for the other stacked team.
Son #1 wrestles. And I always tell him win or loose, what did ya learn?? And sometimes getting stuck in 16 seconds is kinda hard to say...... But if nothing else it's a charector builder......... Sports is suppost to be fun, and that's the bottom line.... I'll bet your a good coach....
 
When I was a kid we had a baseball league in the town next door. I don't know how many kids there were but you were looking at 12 teams or so for each age group.. Well, every year this one person who was the chairperson of the park district would stack his team and everyear they lost in the playoffs EARLY. Usually because the kids were good players but dumb and fell for things like hidden ball trick or forgot to step on home plate.... One of my best moment as a kid was being on the 1-11 team and playing them in the playoffs and beating them by the slaughter rule... Yep.. Just beat the tar out of them.. That coach, who I knew because I was friends with his son just stood there with a beat red face and I just had to laugh under my breath.. Couldn't stand the man.

Parents/coaches really forget that the game is about the game and the kids having a good time and learning. It is not about the parents egos,
 
I have always hated this about sports. It's not just to let the kids have fun a blow off steam anymore. Now if you don't win, you ain't s***.
And they wonder why kids have problems. Not everyone is an athlete.

I have mentioned this to someone whose husband is a coach and she
opened my eyes a bit to the fact that if the coaches team doesn't win
the coach could very easily lose his job. That was something I had never
thought about before. Parents, schools, peer pressure, everyone wants to WIN.

Not that it's right, but it just IS.
 
no pressure here about getting fired, I volunteer!

the parents are the worst part. our fans ride the refs on calls and where they mark the ball. then after the game they come up to me and whine, I remind thm it is little league, and it is for fun!

every team gets first place medals, so what is the big deal???

small town rivalry, and parents trying to relive thier youth are terrible things to mix!!!

not to sound cocky, but I am glad I am the one out on the field with these boys....because a few who want to help me are NOT the guys who need to be molding young kids!

not that I am a good roll model either :twisted:
 
I don't know what's worse hockey mom's or barrel racing momma's running down the fence baying at the top of their lungs lol. Just a word to all you leather lunged females out there the athletes can't hear you anyway-most of them learned to block out the railbirds at a pretty young age. Can you tell I've coached hockey for ten years or so-does it show-does it lol. The biggest thing that's changed from when I played is that parents aren't acting like parents any more more like player agents. If you can't handle the heat of coaching I guess get out of the kitchen because nothing is going to change it. We have a 24 hour rule about coaches talking to refs and parents talking to coaches. Once a day passes and things have to be put in writing it's amazing how things settle down. If a parent get's abusive in our rink they just get escorted out-there is zero tolerance-it works pretty good. As far as wanting to win just becoming a modern phenomenon I call B.S.-all of us in any sport want to have fun but we also want to win-that's why they have scoreboards,timers for barrel racers,judges for bull riders. Winning isn't the be all and end all but competition is an integral part of sport-if it wasn't why would somebody brag about putting the wood to the top team. The key to coaching is teaching your kids to be class individuals at both sides of the scoreboard-it isn't a sin to be the best or the worst but it's what you take out of it that matters.
 
Oh NR, as a kid of course I wanted to win... I have a nasty competative streak whenit comes to sports... But I think the parents have been getting worse and I think they are the ones who really need to look at things in perspective... Little Jimmy or Suzy are probably not going to be the next (Instert famous Athlete of your choice here) so berating the coach and officials, picking fights in the stands and screaming at someone elses kid for striking out, letting a goal by or missing a block is a bit much... Let the kids do their darndest to win, that is fine, I just think that stacking the deck or crazy fan behaviour is reprehensible and counter productive in the end.. If you can watch without screaming obscenities than don't come..
 
I never said such behavior was acceptable but a dreamlike spoorets utopia where no one keeps score or cares about winning is pretty unrealistic either. I've 'NEVER' got a bench penalty in all my years of coaching not many can say that and as I said unruly parents, grandparents(yikes) or other fans get escorted from our rink.
 
I use to help kids with there riding and showmanship..... Not ever would I do that again. Not walk away.........RUN......... and not because of the kids, I got a long great with them. I still keep in contact with some.. Matter of fact one has my horse trailier and a horse.... It's not worth the abuse......... I commend those that do....jigs, NR and all you others, YOU ARE VERY SPECIAL....
 
Gee NR, you forgot the leather lunged horse show moms! They act like the loss of a ribbon is a life altering experience for their child, so beat the judge over the head with the rule book in hopes of placing their child in the ribbons after the class is over. The world will end for sure if their kid doesn't ribbon in every class he/she enters, which is every class they are eligible for. Ten years as a 4H leader was fun in a lot of ways but definitely an eye opener! I have many good memories of great kids and supportive parents, but it only takes a few bad parents to leave lasting bad memories.
 
Yeah I just about threw a party when a couple families were done 4H-life suddenly became ALOT simpler lol. What I find is the kids act like adults and the adults act like kids so I treat both groups accordingly lol.
 
Thats what our club is like.... 1 family that is the 'head' of the club, telling us what to do, etc, etc, even if their your own stock, 2 families with parents doing to work, and yelling at the kids for not winning etc, and 2 families that do their own work, win and loose, and have a bast.... the latter are me sheldon and a buddy.... when I won every show I was at with the rest of em in '04, it was worth their weight in gold just to see how miffed that a 'kid that doesnt know anything, or whose arents dont know anything about raising cattle.... specially showcattle". Keep the kids on the right page, and turn the other cheek to 'em.
 
4H clubs are to be run by the kids, not by the parents, with guidance from the leaders, but so many clubs aren't that way. I like to see the kids that do their own work, (as they are supposed to), do well, and it's great to see the seniors helping out the juniors, and having fun doing it. That should be what it's all about - not whether you win at any cost. I don't know how the kids whose parents do all the work can hold their heads up and accept a ribbon or trophy when they didn't win it, they just showed up for achievement day. Of course in light horse, which is what I was involved with, its a bit different, as the kids ride through out the year, so you see them improving as they go. It's the year end regional horse show that brings out the evil in parents around here.
 
that is why my kids are not in 4h. several years ago a neighbor lady was over visiting, and as she left she said she needed to go finish her daughters sewing project, and bake a ckae for the cooking contest.
I decided right there that FFA was a billion times better than 4h.
 
I'm not a 4h fan either.... Bottom line on 4h is who's parents have the most money to buy there kids ribbons. Now if they all started at the same level it would be a differant story...... Just doesn't teach the values I want to instill in my kids.... Maybe differant in other counties, but not hear.....
Before you flame me. When I was helping kids with there horses, we were at the county fair and this grandma brought in some hogs for her grandkids to show, and they unloaded them in the ring and the pigs scattered and ran into some waist high grass field. Everyone spent an hour trying to chase these wild hogs so we could get them caught.. We didn't... So grandma takes her trailier and goes and gets some more.... Now you tell me how much time did those kids spend working with those hogs??? I can tell you...NONE......
Another story...My kids qualified for state and we were ready for the pleasure class.......Low and behold hear is this kid from our county in the pleasure..... The kids are all puzzled....... Anyway we start the class this kid rides too... He is almost out of control with his horse, he disrupts the class, arms flapping jee hawwing....... Anyway after the state fair I ask how this kid got to go to state........ His grandma went to county agent and badgered and bawled till the agent forged the papers so the kid could compete at state...... Thing is grandma has done this for years......
4H.......No thank you...... You want to compete??? Go in the open classes..
 
I have to agree theres politics involved in 4-H,always seemed funny to me at achievment day,year after year the SAME kids won. And if same as our group,the ones that were winning,the parents were feeding and breaking the cattle :? That being said,Gregs theory was our daughter was learning and doing on her own ,so in reality she was a winner.Our daughter rarely placed in her judging at our county achievment day{same kids always won} but when she went to Vermillion to the province wide one she came home with firsts all the time. 4-H for sure has its benefits,more so then not.Winning isn't everything,its the lessons you learn while participating,meeting new people from province,country and out of country,speaking in public,responsibility etc. I still encorage every child to join a 4-h club of some sort :nod:
 
This was my first year as a 4-H parent and I have to say the experience was a learning one not only for myself but also my child. She gained a lesson in responsibility. She had a bucket calf and she had to feed it twice a day, bathe it, and had to help with the breaking it to lead process. It was good for the whole family as grandma and grandpa also helped her with breaking the calf to lead. She weighed 42 pounds and the 4th of July he weighed 465. The day of fair as she led in her huge calf the comment was made that what were we thinking letting that little girl in with that great big calf. But to us we knew that he was gentle and the hours she'd spent messing with him he was just gonna follow her around the ring and wait patiently until she led him out. This little girl got along better with her 500+ pound calf then some of the high school age kids that were bigger and had smaller cattle to work with.

I agree some parents do it for their kids but I still feel it's a valuable organization for the ones who truely do it on their own or with the assistance of family members.


This year was also my first year for being involved in an organized youth sports organization. It was t-ball. They don't keep score, everyone bats, and everyone gets to run the bases. Yet there was still one father that was a complete a$$. We had a special needs child on our team that usually took 8 times to ever hit the ball. The father on the other team said to the kids on the field we are going to wait all day for this kid to hit it. With parent's like this in today's society do we really wonder where the snot nosed pain in the butt kids are coming from??
 

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