Coaches and Youth Sports?/WTF

[ls317]

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- A T-ball coach allegedly paid one of his players $25 to hurt an 8-year-old mentally disabled teammate so he wouldn't have to put the boy in the game, police said Friday.

Mark R. Downs Jr., 27, of Dunbar, is accused of offering one of his players the money to hit the boy in the head with a baseball, police said. Witnesses told police Downs didn't want the boy to play in the game because of his disability.


http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/more/07/15/bc.bbo.youngplayerhurt.ap/index.html?cnn=yes

[Kerrytravelers]

1. I played sports. My parnts weren't nuts. If I lost... oh well. Work harder

What the fuck is wrong with these people. There is competition... and then there is just pitiful stupidity. Their poor, poor children. What expectations of life can they have with parents working so hard to pad their way toguth childhood with such soft, feathery coushins.

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. I pulled my kids out of little league

when I heard one of their coaches refer to a black kid as 'that N___ kid'

[ls317]

15. Damn

Are you serious???He said that??

[kodi]

2. dante would have to invent a special circle of hell for that guy

i have coached kids from ages 8 to 18 in athletics. what you try to teach them is to do their best and accept what happens. that guy is pond scum. i would bet he is going to be beaten senseless by some guys for asking a kid to hurt another one.

if my kid was the handicapped kid, i would be waiting in the tall grass for mr downs. hurt one of my kids and i will try to send you to your maker.

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. Seriously. I love the kids I coach and I can't imagine telling one of them

to purposely hurt another.

"Yeah, hey While she's up there.. do me a favor and don't catch her on the way down?"



Oy!

[Tommymac]

3. This is T-Ball!!!!

What the hell was that guy thinking????

Hate the Pittsburgh byline ...this was a township 40 miles away ...

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. Apparently he has a real need to win. And he will use 5 yr olds to do it

[dsc]

6. My dad was a coach for several years

of little league ball and some of those coaches were real pieces of work but this takes the cake. I have to thank my lucky stars I wasn't on this psycho's team as I would have been a gigantic target. As bad as I was though, I could only do so much damage to our teams efforts. This is just sick.

[Tommymac]

7. A true coach would teach

his team that they are only as good as their weakest link...and encourage the team to help the weaker individual to do their best in a positive manner.

I coached youth soccer 30 years ago.... and my greatest pride was the day the worst player on my team scored a goal. His teammates helped him all season...picked him up when he was down, and executed a play to perfection to help him get open in front of the goal despite his shortcomings. THEY would not let him fail.

They mobbed him afterwards...because his success was also theirs. I'll never forget that moment as long as I haunt this Universe.

[dsc]

9. That is a cool story

My dad was a terrific coach, I never played under him as I figured out my lack of talent before getting to the age he coached, but he was a firm believer in everyone playing and his teams were very successful. You sould like a coach in his mold.

[Tommymac]

11. Well, my team's record was pretty bad.

But as people they excelled. ;)

I was asked to coach the team in a new league, I wasn't particularly qualified or anything - just available. In fact I was pretty young myself. The team was the 'rejects' other coaches didn't want - the last team formed in the league, they got more kids than they expected to sign up.

We did win a few games...no cinderella story there, but the kids were wonderful. They gave me more than I taught them ... I never consciously thought about the philosophy I stated above...I learned it with this group. One thing I always did - EVERY kid played a full half of every game. And every kid played every position at least once over the coarse of the season. League rules only said they had to play half of a quarter.

Coaches like the one in the OP make me ill. They just don't get it.

[DanCa]

8. Damn it

And I thought I had it bad when I was in fifth grade and Coach Phill would make those of who couldnt climb the rope do medicine ball sit ups. Hope that sob looses his job and the parents level a law suit on the school.

[FreedomAngel82]

10. Oh God...

This is ridiculous!!!!!

[OneBlueSky]

12. makes me ponder whether there should be exceptions to . . .

the constitutional ban on "cruel and unusual punishment" . . . this coach should be hung by his balls . . . at least for a little while . . .

[Barad Simith]

14. I will pay $25 per minute...

...to be locked in a soundproof room with Mark R. Downs Jr.

[Greylyn58]

16. Years ago, when both of my nephews were little

my brother decided to coach their T-ball team. He finally gave it up because of the stupidity of the parents of some of the kids.

He said the parents would scream for their "little darlins"(be they male or female) to knock down the other team's players. They would yell at him to take out a player they felt wasn't good enough for the team. They would also scream at and deride their own child if they didn't hit right, run right, didn't score when they should have.

He finally had had enough when two fathers got into a fist fight during one game. I can't say I blame him. Some of the things he said happened during the games would have turned me off coaching and from what he told me, his problems during games wasn't unique--other coaches were having similar problems.

I guess the jock mentality of win, win, win doesn't just occur with the coaches, but among the parents too.

Just sick!