COACHING OUT OF BOUNDS: Where has sportsmanship gone?-- Some images from Poland

The last few days have been fairly uneventful. I am gradually settling back into the pace of life here in Maryland. The pace is certainly faster here than it was in both North Dakota and Finland. Traffic is more intense here and people drive a lot more aggressively. In fact, I forgot just how competitive and aggressive people from the "big city" can be. I have been at two of my son's football practices and one game and it has been a real education for me. I have heard some parents telling their 6 and 7 year old kids to push their opponents faces in the dirt and step on them. I witnessed one guy openly slapping his kid in the face for making a "bad play" Apparently, some coaches in the league have been in some trouble in the past for scouting and filming their opponents. Can you imagine filming and scouting kids this young just so you can get an edge? I have to admit I have been literally speechless a few times based on what I have observed. I was a bit worried that last weekends game could get out of hand. Our team played against a squad that ended up beating a team by forfeit the previous week. Apparently, the team that decided to forfeit did so because the parents of the opposing team were out of control and things were escalating. Fortunately, the game went off without any major problems, but the recipe for mayhem was certainly in the air. As a parent, this does give me some cause for concern. However, I realize that it is my responsibility to explain to my son that there is a right and a wrong way to compete in sports. Kodie made a tackle early in the game and as he was getting up, a kid wrapped his arm around Kodie's neck and gave it a little twist. Kodie just ignored the incident and jogged back to the huddle. I must say that I was proud of Kodie for not retaliating and just playing the game. In effect, my son showed more restraint than most professional athletes show on the nightly ESPN highlights. I may be a bit old school, but I firmly believe that any player who participates in violence or cheap shots is simply disgracing the very sport that he or she competes in. Simply put, I am not a proponent of the mentality of the current "age", which subscribes to the ideas of "showboating" and uttering senseless phrases like " I got your back." I hear this kind of talk all the time in sports these days and I think it is a bunch of Bull****. Unfortunatley, young kids see this kind of behavior and begin to emulate and model exactly what they observe. It is up to us to teach them that it takes more strength and courage to go against the current. Winning is certainly important, but it has to spring forth from a well of integrity. This may rub some people the wrong way, but I would rather lose with my integrity intact than trade it off for winning without class. I wonder if Bill Bellichick feels this way. I respect his knowledge as a coach and his ability to outwit his opponents. However, I lost respect for him as a coach when it came out that he was allowing someone from his organization to videotape the defensive signals of his opponents. That tarnishes what the Patriots accomplished over the last several years and I wonder why such a good coach would engage in this kind of activity. It is cheating and there is no way to justify it as ethical or appropriate behavior. I wonder if he would encourage these types of tactics if he was speaking to a room full of youth coaches. Okay, I feel better now that I got some of these things off my chest. Here are some pics from my time in Poland a few weeks ago.