It's Only 1st Grade Soccer, Man! Part 2

Here we are, 10 days later, and the 1st grade soccer drama still has life. Allow me to fill you in.

Last Monday, we learned that an "Incident Report" had been filed. We were happy about this, assuming that the coach who had physically assaulted our 7 year old child would be held accountable. Much to our dismay, we received an email on Thursday outlining new protocol for player and parent behavior.

After clearing it with my son's coach, I immediately fired off an email to both the league commissioner and the 1st grade commissioner, expressing my concern that they had failed to address the most important issue, namely, the behavior of the coach toward my son. I waited impatiently for a response and when 24 hours had passed with no reply, I fired off another strongly worded email. No reply.

Saturday morning, we returned to the soccer fields for my son's next game. A 1-0 victory, making them 4-0 on the season, (if they kept track of these things). While heading back to the car after the game, I noticed the coach from last week's game, still out there coaching. I was struck by simultaneous feelings of anger and fear, that this guy might lose his temper again and this time seriously hurt a child.

I went home and waited for a reply from either commissioner. When no reply came I decided enough was enough. I called the 1st grade commish. He answered and immediately became defensive. He made excuses for not getting back to me and actually went so far as to say that the teenage children who referee the games have authority over coaches who physically assault children from the opposing team, not the commissioner. I lit into him. I had no choice. I told him it was time for him to man up and take some responsibility.

Once we were done thumping our chests and establishing dominance, we settled into a sincere and productive conversation. It turns out, the coach from the other team, in an extreme example of "Cover Your Ass", told the commish that my son had punched one of his kids in the face and that he was breaking up a fight when he assaulted my child.

No wonder the commish didn't respond to my concerns. He was thinking that my kid was beating on some other kid and the coach did the right thing by breaking it up. Further, he thought that I was some insane parent who thought that the coach was wrong for breaking up the "fight".

Once I explained that there was no "fight" and that my kid most definitely did not punch anyone in the face, we were able to get down to what really happened and what we might be able to do to prevent future incidents. It turns out, the commish is a nice, caring guy, who just happened to be swayed by the lies of the offending coach.

I explained that I appreciate that the commish is willing to volunteer his time and I most definitely appreciate all of the coaches who do what they do, but at the same time, we have to protect these 6 and 7 year old kids from coaches who apparently have anger management issues. This coach obviously doesn't feel that he did anything wrong and if left to that belief, what is to stop him from another melt down in a future game, with the well being of our children at stake?

We discussed better ways of handling the situation and he suggested that I file an official "Incident Report" to ensure that the situation is dealt with. I still don't have much faith that anything will be done about this man, and honestly, I'm not really sure what should be done. But he at least has to be held accountable for his actions and he has to be made aware that his behavior was wrong and can not be allowed to happen again.

Beyond that, we'll just have to hope that it was a one time incident and not a foreshadowing of future behavior.