PSR Showdown
Drawing The Line Between Parental Involvement And Interference

Game Day
By Jerry DiPaola
Pittsburgh Tribune Review

There is no day greater than game day. Allow me to tell you why.

I coached my daughter's softball team through nine glorious summers. She loved hitting line drives, running like a greyhound, breathing the fresh air and soaking up the sunshine. For those reasons, she tolerated her dad's obsessive behavior when it came to sports.

On the morning of every game of her life, I would wake her with the same question:

"Sara, what day is it?"

"It's game day, dad." (Always said with a sigh and a roll of her eyeballs.)

I envision myself waking her on the morning of her wedding with the same question. In my dream, she smiles and answers like she's 10 again. Maybe that's why it makes me crazy when people accuse parents of getting too involved in their child's sporting events. Yes, parents can go too far. We've all seen or heard parents ridiculing their children, threatening coaches, shoving umpires - even getting hauled off to jail. After all, you need a license to catch a fish, but anyone can be a parent.

I coached youth sports for 16 seasons in Cranberry Township. Baseball with my son Nick; softball with Sara. So I've seen tears dampen home plate as they fell from young eyes. Yet the number of kids participating in baseball, softball, soccer and football leagues grows every year. The kids keep coming back for more. They are resilient. It's their greatest quality.

Kids love wearing uniforms, hearing their name called out by people in the stands and playing for first place. With temperance and tolerance, kids need to be taught the concept of competition. Look around. That's life.

If your kid strikes out to end a game, yeah, he'll feel bad for about five minutes - or about as long as it takes you to drive him and the rest of the team to Dairy Queen.

Long after the strikeout is a blur, he'll still be able to taste the ice cream.

Jerry DiPaola is the Assistant Sports Editor of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Necessary - Not Evil
By Jim Colony
ESPN Radio 1250

I started coaching youth sports even before my kids were born. I was just out of college and starting in radio, but still thinking about teaching. When the local high school basketball coach asked me to take a 7th and 8th grade team, I jumped at the chance. I soon became disillusioned, however; stunned at the behavior and strategies of some of the other coaches and parents. I swore I'd never be like them.

Several years later I became a dad, and like every other parent, I wanted my kids to be better than I was; better students, better people and, of course, better athletes.

We often had trouble finding volunteers in McCandless, but my work schedule allowed me to coach baseball and basketball, maintain fields, and run tournaments...so I did. And I loved every minute of it - from cutting grass to helping a child achieve success. All the while, I tried very hard not to become them, the parents I swore I'd never become...although the words, "Come on, Chris," and "Dammit, Pat," probably still echo throughout North Allegheny's middle school gyms and the fields at Vincentian.

My coaching days came to an end when I started working afternoons and evenings, but I still tried to help when and where I could. Parental involvement is necessary; the trick is to keep that involvement from becoming a necessary evil.

More and more parents are paying significant amounts of money for their sons or daughters - some as young as 10 or even younger - to play on high-level AAU teams, with the hopes of a college scholarship that, more often than not, never materializes. When parents are paying that kind of money, they're bound to demand playing time and significant improvement. That's a little young for sports to become a business, don't you think?

Oh, did my kids become better athletes? Only a little, but they're definitely better students and better people. They must take after their mom.

Jim Colony is the drive time sports anchor on ESPN Radio 1250.