Growing up in little league and seeing how parents get into games is the reason I came up with these “rules” for parents and coaches. These rules are just a jab at us adults and me included, at what we go through as we watch our kids grow up in sports.
FCSN Rule #1
1. Parents, enjoy the game win or lose.
Parents, we understand that winning the game is better than losing the game. However, Winning the game is not everything. One example of this rule is a parent who gets too excited over a little league game. The parent of a little league athlete who was playing third base and a ball was hit to him. The ball with through his legs for an error. The parent then starting yelling at his child like he just lost the world series. The child is a little league athlete, not a pro athlete. Parents just need to enjoy the game win or lose. The reason for this is if the parents can have fun, the kids have even more fun and do perform better because of it.
FCSN Rule #2 No Cussing Zone-Youth Sporting Event in progress.
Their is nothing worse than sitting at a game and having people cursing at the umpires or referees during the game. Parents or siblings need to understand that their is other little children around and they need to set a good example by not using those words in public. Hostel words lead to hostel actions and reactions by those around them. So, before you are temped to curse at the those involved in the game, be respectful for those around you please. It is just a game after all. Bad plays and bad calls are part the game.
If you get knocked down, get back up and try again.
High School Athletics can be the best experience for your child. In high school, most sports have a try out session lasting a few days or weeks. When I was freshman going to my first baseball tryout, there was about 40 athletes trying out for the team. This could be intimidating for most children because when you have played with and or against these same kids growing up in little league, you kind of know how good they are. I had just started hitting from both sides of the plate and the Varsity coach like what he saw but told me to just hit from the right side. I chose to stick with the switch hitting through the try outs and did not hit as well as I had hope during that week. I made it through the first cuts and now was ready to prove my self again the second week. I improved some over the second week from the left side and did very well on everything else, but the list came out for the final cut and I was not on it.
This was hard because I knew I was good enough to play on the team. This was a humbling experience for me. I talked to the coach after their practice to see why I wasn’t chosen to be on the team. He said it was a tough decision and that I was slated to be a practice team player. I said thanks but no thanks. That team went on to a undefeated season. That made me feel a little better about what happen to me. I then took a break till the summer league season started and played in a league that helped me become more confident. I worked harder over the fall season under a new Varsity head coach and JV coach. I then tried out in the spring again for JV and this time I proved that I deserved to be on the team. I made the final cut that year and went on to becoming the starting center fielder for the Varsity baseball team my senior year. This lead to playing all four years of college against division 1 teams. Over those same years my story of my comeback was told to every freshman class that tried out for the baseball team. The coach related my story to Micheal Jordan’s story of getting cut his freshman year from the basketball team and turning it around to having great success. So if your child gets knocked down, tell them get back up and try again. Work on your weaknesses and improve on your strengths and who knows, maybe those coaches will be telling your story long after you left.
FCSN Rule #3 : Stop Stacking the teams in youth sports.
A great coach will take an average team and make them better. An average coach stacks the team to make them self’s look better than they really are.
Far to often we see a team in every league that has a stacked team. When your in High School, getting the best players is expected. When the kids are in a 4 and 5 year old co-ed league and your facing a team who has mostly 51/2 or 6 year old boys who do not belong in this league, it can be frustrating to watch and dangerous for those younger players.
I have watched two of these frustrating games in indoor soccer with in a week. When the team who has 10 girls with one boy, who are mostly around 6 years old and in their first season in this level going against a team that has 10 boys and 2 girls who’s ages are on the higher side of the 6 to 7 age group. This makes it impossible for these players to learn anything valuable from this experience. I saw these boys pushing their way through the crowd and kicking the other younger players while they were down and running up the score like a college football game. This was even worse for the even younger group. The 4 to5 year old group had 6 year olds on the team because of where their birthday fell. I watch this stacked team of mostly 6 year boys play against mostly 4 to 5 year old and play in way I have not seen since watching the 76 Raiders team. The discipline of these youth teams was missing. The respect of the kids on this team was missing. The parents who are the role models for this team in indoor soccer were an embarrassment to society. This is not the World Cup Parents, these athletes are only 4 to 8 years old. The refereeing in these events were terrible because they bring in these kids that do not understand the rules and safety of the game they are referring. The ref at the 4 to 5 year old game never blew the whistle when the goalie had the ball in their hands and the undisciplined team continued to kick wildly until the ball came out of the goalies hands and then scored. Then continued to kick the ball into the net over and over again. They pushed and again kick the other team when they fell and with the cheers of those parents who have no respect or care for a fellow human being and just continued to run the score up.
All parents want is for their child to have fun playing the game. Not to be physically beat up by a team formed by over competitive parents who think their child is their ticket to wealth. To sum up this rule up, Parents/Coaches of youth sports of pre-high school and under: Stop stacking the teams- The children will never grow in skill if they dominant every game. At this level of competition, Parents need to realize that their children are still learning how to play and not covet the talent of another child who has picked up the sport faster than your child.
Rule #4 Player of the game
Since when did player of the game become a mandatory award to give out after every game in youth sports? I remember their not being any player of game when I was growing up in youth sports. The players chose the best player of season. When did this start? I did not even know about this until my wife was coaching an indoor soccer team last year. The league gave them 10 players of the game for the 10 games of the season. This was so each child would get a player of the game award. The award was a free pizza for the local pizza place. This is an example of what is wrong with youth sports today. To have businesses make deals with the recreational centers to give out awards to drum up some business is wrong. This also dumb down the achievement of being the player of the game. To give a child an award for sucking their thumb the whole game is destroying that child’s development in society. What this activity does for the child is create a thought process that makes these children think that they can be rewarded for doing nothing. This enables the child instead of them growing as a person.
I understand the belief of fairness in sports, but in sports their is no guarantee of fairness. For companies to use this idea to get business is smart but not ETHICAL. The player of the game should only go to the player who went above and beyond in their performance during the game to help their team compete. An example of this is when you have that nose picking child playing in a soccer game. For that child to get player of the game, that child would have to go from picking their nose to participating in a way that helped the team compete by kicking or passing the ball down field during the game. Then would have to do this through out the game and not just once.
Parent/Coaches do not get this option of choice anymore and it is shameful. They are forced to give out handouts to each player even though some kids may not deserve it. What ever happen to the phrase “life is not always fair.” Now their is not much character building in youth sports because of this fairness committee attitude in sports. You win or you lose and you keep moving forward with your life. It is not everyone wins and everyone gets an award. Here is a question for you parents who work. Does everyone on your job deserve to get a raise every year? I sure the answer would be NO. That is what is going to be inspected by this generation of athletes and children. We have already seen in infect Professional Sports with athletes asking for more money each year even though their performance on the field was the same or worse than the year before. This was taught to these athletes during youth sports by these every body is player of the game programs. Then for those who don’t make it sports, it carries over to their job or getting what they want from their parents or country. This creates laziness on the child athlete.
It means more to child to be mention in the local paper or on this site in a sports article, than some pizza handout that is given to every player. If you want to recognize your players on your teams, then send your notes and any photos of the game to article@fan-code.com. Then we will post your event on this site for FREE and who knows maybe you will get this response: “Mom, I made ESPN” Landon P. from Hemet CA after seeing his name in a indoor soccer article. Any videos you might have just upload them to YouTube and send us the link with the article so we can put the video in the article as well.
Rule #5 Be careful of what you say on Facebook
Thought of the Day is something new to FCSN. My goal is to bring you something I saw in sports or a thought about during each day. Today I learned that I got face booked by a comment I had put on Facebook in January. “Just got smashed by the best most overstacked little NBA team tonight. Yes we played the Liberty.“ 
This comment was made in regard to a night where my 1st and 2nd grade girls basketball team lost 47 to 3. My team had only one player that had played before. If we where to grade each team with a 1 to 5 stars. This team we played at this point of the season had two 5 star players, four players that where at the 3.5 star range, and two girls that where beginners or at the 2 star level. My team had one 3 star player, 4 players in the 2.5 range, and 2 players in the 2 range. That being said, we prepared our team to not look at the scoreboard because it really didn’t matter to us as coaches what the score was going to be. Then the game begins and with in 4 minutes of the game starting, the scoreboard was turned off. The only reason I even knew what the score was because my mom kept score.
The loss wasn’t the bad part of the game, but some the girls after the game on their way home had trouble with the loss like any competitive kid would. I remember being a kid and hated losing too. In Fact I remember losing every game in little league one season after getting second place the year before. I went into the season wanting to teach them how to play the game of Basketball. I guess I overachieved and didn’t understand the style of basketball that has been taught to this age group. So in a joking matter I said those words above and can you believe those words got taken out of context in a more humorous matter latter on.
I also learned that it had been said that FCSN wrote that comment in the article of that game. That game was never written because what do right about, when a team gets beat that bad at this level. It was frustrating to watch as a coach for sure. Kinda like watching my Raiders lose every year and in the Super Bowl in 2002 as fan. Believe it or not our team did improve against this Highly talented team to the point where we ended up with Five 3.5 star players and two 2.5 star players by seasons end. So be careful what you say on Facebook because it might end up as a FCSN rule one day.
Fire gives Liberty a tough game
Fire Play Hard vs Liberty
