DON’T LET SPORT TAKE NASTY TURN
Some parents seem to have forgotten that winning really isn’t everything
MOST of our junior football codes on the Gold Coast finish with grand finals this weekend. Your kids might get a trophy.
But what about us as parents, how have we performed this winter?
As your child races towards the teenage years, their game becomes more physical. They are trained to tackle, grit their teeth behind a compulsory mouth guard.
Why is it that the sidelines for us can be more painful as some parents become as obsessed with winning as Will Ferrell in soccer comedy flick Kicking and Screaming?
“Punch him,” shouts the woman, at a junior rugby league ground, as the siren sounds and the away team loses to Parkwood.
Even her partner tells her: “It’s a game of football. It’s not a boxing match.”
At Pacific Pines, an opposition player punches a kid off the ball. The youngster backs away, holds back the tears. Umpires either do not see or fail to intervene.
Watching this kid later after the game, at the canteen with a soft drink, he is still angry.
Where are his coaches? How is it that his parents can allow this?
A new team from Mudgee- raba arrives. We learn they have been struggling to assemble a squad all season, let alone win a game.
Inside the Pacific Pines dressing room, one of the club’s most competitive players offers a solution. Why don’t we share our players with them? The sun is shining like summer outside.
Later this week at the Q1 Observation Desk, at the announcement of a Commonwealth Games sponsorship deal, 1982 gold medallist Glynis Nunn-Cearns talks about the legacy of enjoying sport.
The new generation of athletes need to maintain the “excitement factor” and not being “torn about performing all the time”.
“It’s all about enjoyment. It’s all about participating. I think the Commonwealth Games is a bit different to the Olympics because it’s about that friendship,” she says.
Soon there will be trophy presentation days. The angry kid, he will almost certainly pick up a trophy, so will others deemed as future stars.
Their parents should reflect on what Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy wrote to the critics who questioned his second rower Tim Glasby being picked for Queensland.
Statistics did not matter and Glasby was not a star but he was the player his mates each week most wanted beside them, Bellamy wrote.
Think about your junior sporting years. Your memories are not about the star but the mate beside you who helped the most when the score line hurt. They didn’t win a trophy, just your respect.