Inside the Cupboard

You knew it was coming and here it is.

Sports are a part of so many families’ lives and they can be a super positive if treated as they should be. That includes from tee ball or I guess it would be wee ball now all the way through professional sports.

This past weekend is clearly not the direction sports needs to go. That being said, nor is it the way social media gets to go. Imagine my shock when I looked at Facebook Sunday and saw a post that FSU football coach Mike Norvell was blasting Virginia officials for the out-of-control crowd following their upset of FSU.

That wasn’t the clincher, it was the picture beside it of Squirrel White and the caption said, “FSU player dead after stampede following Virginia/FSU game.”

Of course, none of that was even remotely true and thank goodness for that.

Storming the field didn’t just start happening in recent years. Many moons ago, I took three die-hard FSU ladies who were then my age now and older to an FSU – Miami game. FSU won and the oranges went flying through the air as did fans leaving the stands to head to the field.

 Every team at ever level has that one group of fans that you wish would go away. Back in the day of my walking the fields at Optimist Park, I would watch closely what I called the ‘teams’ to watch.

There was a team in the midget league of soccer that was dominating the league. In watching that team, I had the opportunity to watch their opponents. There was the one player that NEVER shook hands and I picked up on it the second game that I watched.

You know me, I made it a point to key in on that team following the last tick off the clock. This player was magically ‘hurt’ late in the game if they were losing and dad/coach would carry him off the field.

As soon as the handshaking was over, that same player could trot to the concession stand to get his treat that the Optimist Club (that ran the stand at that time) would give to the winners and the non-winners.

 That ‘attitude’ followed him through high school sports.

My point – it starts before college level! You cannot wait until a child/player is in his teens to start enforcing sportsmanship. As Andy Griffin says, “It’s not hard to be a good winner, but it takes courage to be a good loser.” Kids learn at an early age, make sure you’re instilling in them (DESPITE WHAT SOME COACHES BELIEVE), it’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game. And never think for one second, “My team’s fans would never act that,” and that’s the way it is from Inside the Cupboard.