ill called the Youth Sports Official Protection Act, which would stiffen the penalties for violence against youth-league officials. It passed the House of Representatives, but was defeated in the senate. However, as a result of their actions, 14 states have boosted the penalties for assault on officials in recreational, interscholastic, and college level sports. A more hands on approach that focuses more on prevention that deterrents is the idea of training coaches and league presidents on how to prevent and deal with such parents and their behavior. The training focuses on how to disagree with a referees call and most often requested, how to deal with parents. To go along with this many people believe that more than coaches must get involved, every parent must get involved. When someone in the stands gets out of line, it is everyones duty to tell that person that he or she is out of line, that they must control themselves or they have to leave.In 1995 one could expect 5% of a crowd to get out of line, but now just five years later that number has tripled to 15%. At this rate, by 2008 the sidelines of our youth sports fields, pools, and rinks might resemble something out of a Jerry Springer show, if not worse. Parents are ruining the sports that they themselves grew up loving and enjoying, and for what reason, to get one more chance at the greatness that they never achieved? Parents need to understand that kids play sports to have fun, they need to take the perspective of a child and see what their inappropriate behavior is doing, not only to the child, but to the game, and youth sports in general. Most incidents that occur at sporting events do not make the headlines, but that too was true of school violence until the massacre at Columbine High School, let us all hope that this is not the tipping point of American youth sports. As supporters of youth sports we must hope that the incident in Reading, Massachusetts will not be the op...
