Sometimes sports can bring out the best — and the worst — from participants, officials and spectators.
We have seen it far too many times when parents go a little too far in their enthusiasm for their sons or daughters, yelling at a coach for not playing little Johnny or little Suzy, or attacking an official either verbally or physically for a bad call that in the parents’ eyes cost their team a victory.
Recently the Vancouver Island Amateur Hockey Association took drastic steps to try to put a kibosh on the bad spectator behaviour by considering banning all spectators from attending youth hockey games.
The association’s executive said it was a last ditch move and one they don’t want to take, but feel it could be their only option as parent abuse of coaches and officials is getting way too out of hand. The complaints have come from other fans, coaches, officials — even the players themselves.
On the bright side, it appears that the threat of spectator bans is having an effect as the conduct shown at the games recently has been improving. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t still a problem, but at least some improvement is being shown. Will the association have to follow through and indeed ban spectators? We sure hope not.
We all want to win and be the best at everything we do, whether it’s a sporting event, playing a musical instrument, acting in a play, creating a piece of art, cooking a meal, whatever it is, we all want to take pride in knowing that we have done our best. And if we are somehow rewarded for that effort, even better.
But there is a line in all of this that should not be crossed. It is never an excuse to berate a coach or an official, be it in hockey, soccer or any other sport. Parents and other spectators should be able to cheer and support their sons’ or daughters’ teams, but do so in a respectful manner. Cheer and yell all you want, just don’t be abusive while doing it.
A colleague of this writer, who is also a minor hockey coach in Maple Ridge, posted a spectator code of conduct to his Facebook page recently. The code of conduct is posted at his local rink. It says: “Please remember: these are kids, this is a game, parents should cheer for everyone, the referees are human, and you and your child do not play for the Canucks.”
Wise words for all of you out there with children in organized sports to think about. After all, remember: it is just a game.
