I was at this tournament, The Breast Cancer Shootout, the entire weekend and have been following this thread w/ interest so time to chime in. There was outstanding play by all the teams involved in all the age brackets and there was a load of talent as well, but this incident concerning less than sportsmanship by parents happened at a 10u quarterfinal between Thunder Elite and The Jackson Royals.
I was watching from behind the bench of the team the parents in question belonged to, Thunder Elite, and I must say, and this is too polite, these 4 were rude, crude ( one of the females making kissing sounds towards The Jackson Royals scorer and then getting off her chair and pointing at her butt, what an outstanding role model ) instigating and obnoxiously loud towards the officials and the Jackson Royals, who displayed great restraint by not sinking to this level. To make matters worse, the father exchanged words and called out a parent from a team who was not even involved in this game, this parents team was awaiting the winner and he was simply watching the game, but became involved because the immature father (who along with his wife labeled themselves well by wearing their DD's team colors, a fluorescent green shirt that had a large number 7 on each of their backs so I must assume this is their DD's number) accused him of making a comment directed towards him so the behavior extended past the Jackson Royals and to other spectators trying to enjoy what was a great game between two teams of talented young ladies. Major props by the way to that father, from Ohio Ice, who, while not backing down from this man child, had the maturity and intelligence to set the proper example for his DD and her team and organization and not escalate an argument with an obvious fool.
I also heard and witnessed one parent from the Thunder issue an apology as she left to all those affected by these parents, so obviously at least one parent from the Thunder realized these Thunder parents were out of line and was respectful enough to realize an apology was in order, and as posted previously by another person in this thread I also noticed that these trouble making parents in question were very isolated from the other Thunder parents so I also wonder if they are kept at a distance by the other players Moms and Dads. I for one would certainly not wish to sit near them.
The Tournament Director did make an appearance to diffuse the situation and I would also like to commend him for taking charge of the situation as quickly as possible, however incidents such as these tend to follow a team and their respective organization, after all the Fastpitch community is small and tightly knit and Coaches and Umpires and Tournament Directors communicate frequently and I would hate to see an organization like Thunder Elite gain a reputation of being difficult due to the actions of these few, but it does happen.
It makes me wonder if perhaps the Thunder coach, who by the way I have always observed being an excellent example for his team of girls, or any coach for that matter should cut ties with these types of parents rather than have them be associated with their organization(s). I would welcome thoughts on that and also if anyone feels that situations such as these follow the DD's of this type of parent to tryouts after a season has ended? In other words, would you as a coach overlook the reputation of a trouble causing parent and take the player or would you error on the side of caution and pass on her?