Youth Sports Parents Are Crazy Vol. 1,398,403 – We've Got Two Quality Courtside Brawls at Youth Basketball Games
This youth basketball mom-fight I grade a solid C. It's passable. If I really need something to blog about (which yes, that is the case today), I could throw together 400 words or so. There's some quality hair pulling in there. It had the feel of a hockey fight where both parties grab hold of each other and start throwing wild haymakers that look scary but don't really land. I do appreciate how after the initial mom-fight had been broken up, and a second dad-fight spawned in the corner, the mom in red tagged back in to get a few more sucker punches in.
But there are no real "WOW" moments in that clip. The video leaves some unanswered questions. We don't know what started the fight. The clip cuts off before the fight comes to an end. The fight may have had nothing to do with the action on the court at all. That's just a couple of pissed-off fighting mom's who happen to be courtside at a basketball game.
This next fight however… this fight tells a story. In this short 30 second clip, I can tell you exactly what happened and why. See if you can identify the "WOW" moment in this one.
I suppose that wasn't much of a fight. It was more of a targeting penalty.
That dad/coach in red who got laid out… I wouldn't say he deserved it. He didn't do anything overly aggressive to the opposing player. But you gotta know better than to put yourself in that situation. When you're breaking up a kid fight, if you must lay hands on one of the kids, it has to be your own player. The second you lay hands on someone else's kid, even if it's completely harmless… even if the kid deserves it… all bets are off. Once you do that, you're just begging for Terry Tate Office Linebacker to come charging from the stands and put you comically on your ass.
Advertisement
Poor guy. I know things move fast in real time. But in hindsight, he didn't need to break up that fight at all. The opposing player made his point. He took his cheap shot. He drove his opponent into the wall. But by the time he stepped in, the fight was over. Had he he been able to stop himself right here…
Then the ref kicks the kid out of the game and everyone gets on with their lives. But he couldn't quite stop himself before he reached the kid. And when you do that at a youth sporting event, where you know parents are notoriously insane, that's how you find yourself in this situation.
That's what youth sports are all about. Catching an assault charge because you couldn't help but fight your kid's battle for him. Maybe youth basketball take a page out of mite hockey's book. Let the kids fend for themselves and suffer the consequences. Maybe they'll even learn something from it.