Youth soccer game today. 11-year-old ladies.
No lie: the amount of parental and coaching anxiety present was disturbing. Naturally, it moved right off the sidelines onto the kids. Non-stop directions from the sidelines. And officiating (poor officiating).
The actual official wasn’t good. But the other adults were worse. Not all of them, but enough of them. Countless directions from the sidelines–almost all of which make the players worse. It was ridiculous.
I understand the emotion at a professional game. Kind of. But man, I coach college basketball and don’t encounter the kind of anxiety I felt today. We have to get ourselves under control, because it doesn’t help the kids.
Thankfully it ended in a tie, but it was a good reminder that we are out of control. Do we need our kids to succeed? Need them to win? What is it? It’s a good thing to look within and to deal honestly with the answers.
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