[Atocep]

This is my first year not coaching son at any level of baseball and I thoroughly enjoy not coaching and having more of a Dad/Son relationship with my son rather than Dad/Coach/Son/Player relationship.

What I hated as a coach the most was dealing with parents (not uncommon). They're truly awful in most instances. It was easy early on when my son was younger, but as my son got older the complaints from parents over playing time and whatnot got louder and more viscous. It really is what made it easy for me to step aside as a coach and strictly become a parent and I haven't looked back or regretted the decision one bit.

Unfortunately, I'm finding parents aren't easy to avoid. My son is playing on a 14U team in an organization that has teams at all age levels. This is his 4th year playing in this organization and he has generally loved it. Until this year. He's playing with a group of kids that seem to be out for themselves. If they're not playing, they're pouting on the bench. If they're playing, they're not giving much effort. They don't really support one another at all. Particularly frustrating because this is a very talented group of kids, but it's sucked the fun out of the game for my son.

My son's coach has recognized this and got him rostered with one of our 15u teams. They had 2 catchers, well 1 actual catcher, so he was added to their roster kind of as a tryout to see if it worked for the coaches and other kids. This weekend was his first games with the team (2 yesterday and 1 today) and in game 1 he didn't play. Not a problem at all, he was told by me not to expect playing time. Work hard, be a good teammate, and be thankful for playing time if/when it comes with this group. Game 2 he caught and caught a hell of a game. He was given the game ball by the coaches, was given an open invitation and encouraged to show up whenever he could.

After game 1 when he received no playing time the first thing he said to me after the game was "I'd rather play with this team than our team". They're not the best team, but they are a team. They encourage, support one another, and play hard. After game 2 I hadn't seen him happier in a long time after a game. He had a blast and knew he had played well and proved himself.

Today I didn't expect him to play much and definitely not catch. A fill in player simply isn't going to take the job of the kid that's there every day nor should he.

In the 5th inning they sent him out to left field during a pitching change as the leftfielder went to pitch and the pitcher went to the bench. What I wasn't expecting was the attitude of the parents. I'm standing there watching the game and someone asked who was going out to left field, someone else said his name, which was followed up with questions about who he is and why he's on the team. Someone said he was added as a 3rd catcher and pointed out he caught yesterday. That was followed up with comments about how he's not needed, as long as their guys play first, and then general bitching about him being on the team. After listening to it non-stop for a half inning I moved to my car in an attempt to try to enjoy watching my son play baseball a bit.

The kids on this team are great, they've made my son one of them without question, and he's having a blast. The coaches have been fantastic with him and I've made it clear they don't have to play him as there really is zero expectations for playing time.

After all of that, the reason for this post is just to complain about how sports parents want kids like my son ostracized since he's "not one of us". As coach when we needed a fill in just to have a minimum number of players it drove me nuts to listen to parents tell me shit like "as long as our kids play first". If this were anything else besides sports it would be ridiculous to act like this. These are young teens and instead of encouraging the one thing an outside kid needs (inclusion) they encourage an us vs them attitude.

What makes this particularly ridiculous is my son is from the same organization and wears the same uniform as these kids every day. The only difference is the age level. It frustrates the hell out of me how much hate and entitlement sports parents have. Normally, I sit as far away from parents on our team as I can because I know how they can be. I thought with this group it would be different after seeing how great these kids are. I was wrong. Apparently all youth sports parents are the same.