OMG! You have no idea how I can relate to MANY of these stories. Both my 8 and 10 yr. old sons play baseball, basketball, and oldest plays football. DH is head coach of basketball and an assistant for baseball. (DD is on danceline and sometimes those parents are anal too.) I have seen coaches go nuts, kids go nuts, and parents go bonkers. We tend to have the same core group of boys playing together and not meaning to brag, but they're good athletes and we tend to win the divisions we're in in all three sports which means a lot of opposing teams HATE us! Our coaches and kids are not troublemakers but we are from a fairly small town and there is another small town near here that does not mind playing dirty, mainly the parents and coaches. We played them in the playoffs for football and one thing that makes me crazy is that normally when you play one team's fans stay on one end of the dugout for baseball, bleachers for basketball, and grandstands for football. They love (in every sport) to walk right in front of our fans (even blocking grandparent's view) and yell inappropriate things. I have no problem with cheering for your team at all! And if they were where they're supposed to be I won't hear whatever other comments they choose to make. So here it is city championship and our team is getting yardage and headed towards our end of the field and a whole group of the opponent's parents went and stood directly in front of the grandparents who sit in chairs (which is perfectly acceptable at our fields) and our side of the grandstands yelling to break our kid's legs. The head of the place came down in a golf cart and asked them to go back to their section. One of our moms was standing on the side of our endzone when we scored the next touchdown and a woman from the other team had squeezed her way in to see and when the mom from our team jumped up and down for the touchdown the other woman got mad and gave her a shove and knocked her down. She got up and called her a couple choice names. We won the game and we went out on the field to get the 1st place trophy and 2nd place and that woman's husband came up to our team's mom that had been shoved down and said, "Don't ever talk to my wife like that" and shoved her and acted like he was going to punch her. They had to break them up and order him out of the park. That is crazy! But it is also contagious. When other people start being that obnoxious it is easy to lose your own head and say something back. That's why when things get heated I go somewhere else to watch the game. I have to because one time this year my son's basketball team that my dh coaches was killing another team and my son was having a good day scoring and rebounding. One of the opponents moms was yelling for her son to take down #3 and then they went up for a rebound, ended up on the ground and my son had possession and they called it that way (with NO foul) and the woman yelled. "Get a grip #3!!!) "Keep him on the ground and teach him a lesson T.J!" I had had enough and turned around and said, "Ma'am there was no foul, that's MY son who is #3 - do you have anything else to say?" She wouldn't look at me and someone from our team said, "Who was it that said that?" And I replied. "It's the lady in the orange shirt." Half the bleachers turned around and looked at her. She never said a word when leaving but I was ready. I know, I shouldn't let people fluster me and that's why when I see the tide turning that way I move now because I can take a lot but not someone saying to purposely hurt my son. And for the record, he is a good athlete but he wouldn't purposely hurt anyone which I am proud of. Sorry for the rant and I didn't even tell you the flak the coaches get! "Johnny wants to play 1st base!!!" Well, Johnny can't catch and there are 6 other kids who can. Enough said.
) and has had several run-ins with other parents. 
