For my birthday, I got rushed by an angry basketball parent
Yesterday (Nov. 28) was my 40th birthday. Thank you, thank you very much.
On my birthday, I got the present of not being kicked in the balls by an angry parent as I coached my daughter’s basketball game. No, the angry parent was not my wife.
In the second quarter, out of the corner of my eye I see one of my assistants rushing to push back what appeared to be an angry mother who rushed from the other side of court, around the north basket and in the direction of your humble blogger.
All I heard was: “I didn’t pay $80 to have my kid sit on the bench!” Then I saw one of my assistants restraining and pushing this mom back.
“Who was that?” I asked.
“That was my daughter,” he said.
[youtubevid id="K1DqBuhcF0s"]
Not what actually happened.
What happened was, I took one of my players out of the game. To rest. To give other players time because this is a fifth- and sixth-grade coed league where everyone is supposed to get equal time. And apparently his mother got ticked, particularly because, in her view, she was tired of seeing our team lose (we’re now 0-4, with two close losses and two blowouts, including one on my birthday) while other, suckier players than her son were on the floor.
I’ve been fortunate in my youth coaching career that I’ve overwhelmingly dealt with parents who are friendly and supportive. I guess this woman’s birthday present was to show me a little bit of all the horror stories you hear about from other coaches. Gift accepted!
[...] had parents who merely thought I wasn’t screwing up their kid too much, and I’ve had parents scream my head off. I’ve been able to come to common ground with parents when we’ve had differences, and [...]
Are Parents Really Driving Coaches to Quit? - Forbes
February 7, 2012 at 5:56 pm