Parents Are Ruining Youth Sports

“When did sports stop being fun?”

If your child plays sports, you’ve probably asked yourself that very question. Perhaps after your 5-year-old’s soccer game, when you saw a father berating his son for his lack of hustle. Maybe during your teenage daughter’s high school basketball game, when you realized the mom next to you was literally foaming at the mouth over an unpunished foul. Or possibly at your 12-year-old’s football game, when you witnessed a parental mob surround the losing team’s coach with invisible pitchforks.

For Dr. Michael Austin, a philosophy professor at Eastern Kentucky University, the question surfaced in 2013, when recurrent violence—tripping, shoving, even punching—prompted the Kentucky State High School Athletic Association to recommend that schools cease organizing postgame handshake lines.

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