All my kids play sports and my husband has been very involved in thrir teams sometimes...more often than not coaching. Our oldest dd played in a coed b-ball league for a few years but dh realized that in this league most of the coaches did not play the girls and when they did many of the boys would not pass to them, etc. So, for several years he coached an all girls team in another local league. Our middle dd is 10 now and he has done the same thing with her. Well last spring he reserved the local elementary school gym for one two hour practice session for his girls team. (all the girls but one attend this school) When the coed league found out they become very upset with my husband and demanded he give up "their" gym time. He would not but offered to share the gym with the league. Since then they have been very uncooperative with dh. Among other things, when no one else stepped up in this same league to coach my ds's 2nd grade team he volunteered...he was given 5 girls on his team when everyone else had only three and today they made a "mistake" and scheduled another team to practice during the girls time. When he called to ask about the oversight they were borderline rude.The worst part is the guy running the league (and his wife) were friends of ours!! I cannot imagine treating someone this way. Initially, I told DH that we should give these people the benefit of the doubt and if they had done this stuff on purpose they needed our prayers because someone who took it so seriously was a mixed up soul. Nevertheless, it hurts and since our ds and their youngest are good friends, very awkward.Why do people act like this when it comes to sports??? By the way, I feel better already!!

By Karen~moderator on Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - 04:22 pm:

The behavior of *sports* parents constantly amazes me. So many of these *adults* seem to forget that this should be all about the kids.

By Tink on Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - 04:38 pm:

Honestly, none of my kids are in team sports and the horror stories I hear about it are one of the reasons. There are other reasons behind it but I'm so glad to not have to deal with parents that act like this! I think our society has become SO competitive that adults take their own competitive natures and project it onto the kids and their activities. I'm really sorry that you're having to deal with this. It's even worse that these are family friends.