Youth Football Blues

First, let me say I believe in youth sports. Many important life lessons can be learned by participating in sports. Often, these life lesson are not positive ones.

What I don't believe in is pretending youth ball is the NFL. Youth Football, whether it is called Pop Warner, Pee Wee, or whatever its called in your area should teach the boys how to play the game... and more importantly, how to deal with losing. Far too often winning is the only attribute of the game that is emphasized.

When I first started to officiate Football I work both HS and Youth. I'll never go back to Youth ball again. As depressing as the All-Star game I mentioned last entry, Youth Football is grotesque.

Most, and I would say none, of the coaches I encountered, have any real knowledge of rules, yet they are the first to scream when their team are losing. It's as if they have to show-off their authority or something. This has something to do with Youth Football culture because they all act like the more emphatic they are the more right they are. I kept thinking they must be watching too much Jerry Springer or something.

All this does is show young boys a very poor way to get an officials attention. Let's yell and scream so much that the official pays more attention to the coach than what the coach is bitching about. Just like on Jerry's show, a whole hell of a lot of screaming, and nothing really changes. Does the official ever change his mind? It doesn't matter if you are effective in changing the officials mind or not. The young boy looks up to you and thinks this is how a man should act.

I bring this up because in HS ball none of this goes on. The NFHS has really come down hard on sportsmanship. No cursing on the field, no bad mouthing the refs, no adornments on the uniforms, no high-stepping "look at me" NFL bullshit. This is very welcomed, but unfortunatly, when I work a HS game, and the frustration sets in on the losing team, I can still tell who played and coached Youth Football.