Sportsmanship Should Extend to Parents
Sportsmanship Should Extend to Parents
Editorial, thehour.com, November 3, 2017
In July of 2000, in an incident that focused widespread attention on the growing problem of parental violence in youth sports, one suburban hockey dad killed another during an argument over rough play involving their 10-year-old sons.
Editorial writers and TV talk shows hosts, psychologists and sports officials urged a stunned nation to make the Commonwealth of Massachusetts vs. Thomas Junta a wake-up call for fanatical parents whose
behavior was ruining children’s sports.
The call went unheeded. Sports rage has become increasingly prevalent. In the years since Junta was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, another Massachusetts dad, whose sixth grader’s team had just lost a Catholic League basketball championship, flew into a rage and bit off a piece of the coach’s ear.
