It's a familiar scene: A coach or manager gets ejected for disputing a call. Then come the endlessly replayed dirt-kicking, base-tossing theatrics that make him an overnight celebrity.
What's worse, youth sports experts say, is that a disturbing number of youth coaches are modeling their behavior after these and other displays. The experts say the misbehavior can take such varied forms as using foul language, dealing with a player too harshly after a mistake or intentionally running up a score.
To combat inappropriate behavior, organizations in Maryland and across the country are educating players, parents and coaches, and requiring that coaches be certified. For example, more than a thousand Maryland State Youth Soccer Association coaches will have to be licensed beginning this fall. The association and others like it have adopted zero-tolerance policies on misbehavior.
The easy availability of Internet video means many Americans can easily see or hear about antics that used to remain little-known - the California youth football coach caught on videotape last year tackling a 13-year-old from another team, or the Staten Island (N.Y.) manager who appeared to strike a player during the 2006 Little League World Series.
Some other incidents in which coaches came under fire:
At a recent soccer game for boys ages 7-9 at Freestate Sports Arena in White Marsh, an official ejected a coach for alleged repeated profanity. After the game, Baltimore County police were called because the other team said the coach had an altercation with some parents. No charges were filed, but each team's coaches were left fuming at the other's and disputing what may or may not have occurred.
Marty Kuser, a tough-minded former Marine who instructs and assigns referees for youth games in the state, says coach-created problems are making "the lives of my referees as miserable as can be. Our referee base is dwindling and we lose a large part of it due to what comes from the sidelines."
Kuser, 56, a referee for 25 years, says with a hint of exasperation, "If we could just get the coaches to coach."
In Utah last year, a coach in a 10-and-under boys championship baseball game ordered a top hitter walked intentionally. That left the pitcher to face a weaker hitter who was a cancer survivor with a shunt in his brain. The cancer survivor struck out to end the game, and baseball fans flooded Internet message boards with opinions ranging from outrage that the winning team "humiliated a child with brain cancer" to impassioned defenses of the coach's tactic. Intentional walks frequently provoke debates in Maryland youth leagues, too.
"Is it [misbehavior] prevalent? I think that's a fair statement," says Virginia Tech health and physical education professor Richard Stratton, who has written frequently about coaching youth sports. Stratton says too many coaches seem to forget their players are kids. "The thing I think we have to beat into coaches is to get them to think about who it is they're coaching. The term is 'developmentally appropriate,'" he says.
Training for change
Parents are often torn about coaches' heavy-handed tactics, Stratton says. A study presented last year to the American College of Sports Medicine found that extra exercise, verbal scolding and - to a lesser extent - public embarrassment were widely used by youth sports coaches. Stratton says that though some parents find such discipline distasteful, others accept the methods because "they see these ridiculous salaries the pro athletes are making and wonder if their kids can make it."
The survey, led by a Wisconsin pediatrician, sampled 376 parents of kids involved in organized sports. One-hundred thirty-five hoped their son or daughter would play college sports, and 22 expected their children to become professional athletes.
Kuser, who assigns referees for about 2,000 soccer games a year in Baltimore, Harford and Cecil counties, says problems with coaches are as inevitable as twisted ankles. "We put a percentage on it. If you're in a group of three referees and you average four games a day, then the odds are that your crew will have one game where you're going to be uncomfortable from coaches or parents yelling and screaming," he says.
Some youth league officials worry that kids' enthusiasm is being drained by coaches with misplaced priorities.
"I think we've lost our way a bit. We get competitive too early," says Graham Ramsay, director of soccer development for the Maryland State Youth Soccer Association.
Ken Kellner agrees. The Silver Spring father, whose two girls, 8 and 10, have both played organized soccer, wonders why kids rarely kick soccer balls around for fun in his neighborhood the way they shoot baskets or toss a football. "As the kids get older, the games and practices become more joyless. What is the purpose of all this? Is it to grow the next great American soccer star?" Kellner says.
On Sept. 1, the Maryland association, affiliated with US Youth Soccer, will begin requiring 1,600 to 1,900 head coaches to be licensed. At a minimum, they must complete an 18-hour training course covering topics such as coaching methods and injury prevention for the 60,000 kids under their supervision.
"It's in the best interest of the kids," says Jerry May, the Maryland association's executive director. "There's no question that taking the license course will help pretty much any coach. How many absolutely need it? Impossible to say."
The push for more training suits Louie Jaramillo just fine. Jaramillo, a Montgomery County soccer referee assigner, says disputes often occur in youth games because "a high percentage of coaches don't know the rules - a very high percentage. The most popular [error] is on the offsides rule."
Fewer than half of US Youth Soccer's 55 state associations (some states have more than one) require certification or licensing, according to Sam Snow, director of coaching education for the Texas-based organization. Some associations require half as much training - a nine-hour course - as the one in Maryland.
"The national average from studies estimates that 20 percent of youth sports coaches in general have some sort of training, ranging from a three-hour course to a weeklong course," Snow says. "Eighty percent have nothing."
The vast majority of youth coaches are volunteers. Snow says that while most do a commendable job, all could benefit from more education about coaching methods and the intricacies of the game.
Youth sports have grown so quickly that there aren't enough trained coaches to go around. "You have 20 [million] to 30 million kids participating annually in youth sports and one coach for every 15 kids," Stratton says. "You're talking 1.5 [million] to 2 million coaches. There's no way you're going to train all these people."
In youth baseball, a Coaching Education Center was created online so coaches can become certified in Babe Ruth Baseball, Cal Ripken Baseball or Babe Ruth Softball. All are required to be trained by the end of July 2008.
No tolerance
Leagues around the country - from a San Diego-area Pop Warner football program to a Nebraska ice hockey association - are adopting zero-tolerance policies in which teams can be penalized for coaches' or parents' misbehavior.
Colorado-based USA Hockey, ice hockey's American governing body, has long had such a policy and began a "Relax, it's just a game" public service campaign in 2003 featuring advertisements demonstrating boorish behavior at youth games. In one mocking TV spot, a parent requests a urine sample from a youthful competitor in a potato sack race.
"It got to the point where something really needed to done," USA Hockey spokesman Dave Fischer says.
While most coaches' training focuses on skills of the game, there is a growing recognition that sportsmanship must also be stressed, Snow says. "It's an evolving thing because a few decades ago we didn't need to discuss it," he says.
Bad sportsmanship complaints can fall into a gray area. Often, youth coaches are cited for strategy or behavior that is within the rules but that some consider inappropriate, particularly for younger players.
Examples of such complaints include:
In McLean, Va., high school senior Debra Cohen, coach of a girls basketball middle school "B-League" team, told the league earlier this year that an opposing coach employed a full-court press when Cohen's team didn't have its full complement of players.
Rather than forfeit, Cohen's team had decided to play its four against the other team's five. While a press wasn't breaking the rules, Cohen says: "It was really upsetting. We had four girls. There was no way we were going to win."
The other coach was "very apologetic" afterward, says Gerry Megas, the league coordinator.
In Anne Arundel County, some parents have complained that girls coaches have embarrassed opponents by running up scores.
One target has been Arundel High and its girls basketball coach, Lee Rogers. In recent years, his team has beaten opponents by such scores as 116-42, 88-18, 100-21 and 90-25.
Rogers declined a request to be interviewed about the games.
But Greg Le Grand, the county's athletic coordinator, says, "It's hard for a coach to get his kids motivated to play super hard all week and then slow them down during a game."
Massachusetts author Dan Fitzpatrick, who has coached more than a dozen youth teams, says he once had to tactfully ask an opposing basketball coach to stop fast-breaking with a 50-point lead.
Fitzpatrick says the more attention paid to youth coaches and their issues, the better.
"I'm optimistic this [coaching] situation is going to get better," says Fitzpatrick, author of a book on youth sports.
"When you think about a youth coach, they really have the kids' attention and it's a perfect opportunity to teach values," Fitzpatrick says. "What does it mean to have integrity? What does it mean to have honesty? What does it mean to save opponents' face?"
Stratton says he wishes youth sports coaches had fewer excitable role models. He says he recently watched ... and watched ... a dirt-kicking tirade by Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella that drew a four-game suspension.
The clip played over and over on television as if it were a game-winning home run.
jeff.barker@baltsun.com
Your coaches
Want to tell us about a memorable youth sports coach? We would like to hear about specific experiences, good or bad, with the people who coach you or your kids. Did they emphasize the right values? Were they good role models or poor sports? The Sun will collect the accounts (please keep them brief) and consider a follow-up story with the results. Submissions may be sent to jeff.barker @baltsun.com