Youth sports and the parents who try to ruin them

Feeling pretty irritated this afternoon, everyone.

Had a negative experience while attending my grandson's junior varsity hockey game last night here in Lexington.  Here's the lowdown, and no real names are included.

I’ve watched Lexington teams play against Louisville teams for a long time, and it seems that the Louisville players always approach these games with more desire not just to win, but to humiliate their opponents from Lexington.  Last night’s game between my grandson's junior varsity hockey team was tied 1-1 and there had been numerous penalties against both teams.  Midway through the second period one of our players was at our defensive blue line with the puck and a Louisville player met him there, banged him pretty hard and took the puck.  Our player responded in kind and the next thing you know, three Louisville players were on top of him.  He fought his way out from under them and play was stopped, because you know there were going to be penalties assessed. 

Looked like things were settling down, then suddenly, along the walkway at the top of the grandstand, a fight broke out among parents from both teams.  The fight rolled directly toward my wife and me, and I was more concerned with her safety than anything.  So as they approached I had her crouch down and I covered her with my upper body, fully expecting one of these people to either jump or be thrown over the top railing behind where we were sitting.  Finally someone announced that the police had been called and things quieted down.  Played the rest of the game with four cops on the walkway.  The Lexington team played listlessly and lost 4-1.

This morning, we played another team with whom there had been some issues, from Troy, Ohio.  Their teams play in a neat old barn called Hobart Arena, which was built in the early 50s.  Their parents began heckling our team on our last visit there and two fights broke out on the ice.  We finished that game but lost.

But today, the game was less eventful, and both teams played well with the Troy team earning a 1-0 win.  My grandson told me afterward that it was a fun game and that everyone played hard.  That's good.

But let's go back to the fight among parents and other family members of players.  We were sitting at the top of the grandstand and heard kind of a scuffle way at the far end of the walkway I mentioned.  Then shouting.  Then people yelling with increasing volume and finally punches thrown and people grabbing each other, trying to throw them down or aside.

This was a game between two teams of high school underclassmen playing hockey.  Both teams had several girls on their teams, but with all of the excess testosterone flowing so freely, the dads and uncles and others just had to get in on the bad blood, I suppose.

My wife and I are retirement age and it should not be unsafe to watch our grandson play a game with kids his age, no matter where they're from.

Like so many other aspects of life, those who chronically feel aggrieved by, well, most everything are so often the ones who can't keep it together and have to act out in one way or another.

My grandson was not adversely affected by what happened last night, but he was as shocked as we were by seeing people fighting in the stands.

Some lesson, right?