THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 26, 1995 TAG: 9502240187
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 24 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Lee Tolliver
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
There was some mighty fine basketball played in the opening round of the Beach District girls tournament at Ocean Lakes High.
Indeed, there also were some great individual performances.
But it sure was a shame that some fans were so caught up in their own emotions that they failed to enjoy any of it.
Virginian-Pilot/Ledger-Star sports columnist Bob Molinaro recently wrote about spectator behavior at collegiate and professional events and, sorrowfully, I guess there is little reason to think fans would act any differently at the high school and community sports level.
However, the way fans act at the lower levels of athletics comes across in a much more pitiful manner. And even worse is the fact that most of the time, it's parents of the athletes on the playing field that are the most guilty.
For starters, the crowds are smaller and the individuals causing the commotion are much more visible, and unfortunately, more audible.
Sometimes their intensity is almost hard to fathom.
It is fine, and perfectly understandable, to cheer for your favorite team and voice your opinions on certain calls or plays. Unfortunately, many fans do so blindly. They wouldn't know the difference between a charge and a charge card, or a walk from a pleasant stroll through an area park.
But all of a sudden, they become NBA official material on every call - as long as it's in favor of their team.
At this level, the game is for the youngsters playing it - not for reporters or parents. It's for the kids, and their efforts - both sides - should be appreciated and applauded.
But some parents just don't seem to understand that, and Monday afternoon, it got bad.
In one game, a fan was ejected from the gym by security personnel for chastising the coach and players of the opposing team.
He accused the coach of teaching her players strong-arm tactics. He shouted at a particular player about a foul she had just committed. When the coach got fed up with the way she and her players were being treated, she yelled at the man to stop it or she'd have him removed. He then proceeded to tell her that she couldn't do such a thing and that she should be removed for teaching her kids to play dirty.
This particular person is involved with youth athletics and should have known that a coach isn't going to teach her players to try and hurt someone. That's just ridiculous. And, get this, his team was winning.
His escorted departure from the gym was met with cheers from opposing fans, and actually to the applause of some fans of the team he was involved with.
Think of the embarrassment his actions caused his daughter.
In a recent conversation with a sports psychologist, it was confirmed that such behavior could be extremely harmful to the child.
Luckily, the player is one of the class acts in the Beach both on and off the playing field.
But it didn't stop with this one incident.
You'd have thought after all this took place that fans would have cooled their jets for the next game. But they didn't.
At one point of the last game of the evening, I was actually concerned that one man in the stands was going to get his blood pressure up so high that his head would explode. He was red-faced and angry, yelling and shouting, pointing his finger at officials and players and was, in my opinion, way too upset about simple things that were taking place during the game.
I guess he was upset because his team was playing the top-ranked team in the area and his team was getting schooled on the court.
Whatever the case, there is no excuse for such behavior and having to put up with it brought back a great memory from a basketball game a few years ago.
There were two older gentlemen watching the action and one of the players was a granddaughter of one of the men.
All they talked about was how hard both teams were playing
``Nice shot,'' or ``tough call'' or ``great play'' was all I heard from them - and they said these things for both teams. Sure they wanted one team to win, but they were wise enough to understand that the game was for the kids.
And they were a sterling example of how fans should make more of an effort to act. by CNB