This New Jersey town is giving argumentative parents a taste of their own medicine—by making them work as umpires for their kids’ little league games
There are a lot of great things about youth sports: the teamwork, the exercise, the lessons in sportsmanship and hard work. But because we can’t have nice things, there is one thing that absolutely sucks about youth sports: the over-the-top parents. You know the ones—they treat little league like it’s the World Series, they push the kids too hard, and they argue with coaches and umpires. Now, one town has come up with the perfect solution.
In Deptford Township, New Jersey, a suburb of Philadelphia, parents who argue with or abuse umpires have to take over the role themselves. The decision came after two volunteer umpires quit the town’s little league due to abuse from parents.
Now, if a parent gets in a fight with an umpire, they’ll be banned from entering the sports complex until they’ve signed up for and completed three volunteer umpire assignments themselves. These parents may get a taste of their own medicine (though hopefully not because seriously, who is still abusing umps at kids’ games?! Y’all need to calm down).
“People are very comfortable making officials uncomfortable, so it’s about time that we’ve reversed the trend and started making people uncomfortable who are harassing officials,” Brian Barlow, who founded Offside, a Facebook page that calls out bad behavior among youth sports parents, wrote on Facebook.
While (ahem) certain parents probably won’t love this rule, the level-headed ones are all for it.
“If the parents are going to be sitting there, yelling the whole entire game, they might as well use that energy out on the field,” mom Kateland Tokley told a local news station.
Even the nationwide little league president has weighed in.
“Little League International expects its participants and fans to adhere to the highest level of sportsmanship while attending local league events,” said Little League International President and CEO Stephen Keener. “We applaud the volunteers at Deptford Township Little League for coming up with a creative, fun solution to shine a light on the importance of treating everyone with respect, on and off the Little League field.”
Now what do we have to do to make this an official policy everywhere?
Need some fresh ideas?
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