loser sports parents rgmg
my son (who is 7) has been playing in a 3-3 'pond hockey' league for the last number of weeks. he's been playing goal (absolutely LOVES being between the pipes!). the games are at 4pm on thursdays, so usually my wife takes him.
she's been telling me about the dad of the other goalie - you can hear them talking in the other change room before/after the game and the two of them going on and on that his kid is the best goalie ever and it's not if, but WHEN he makes it to the nhl...blah blah blah.
well, our little guy is pretty solid in goal and is really starting to figure out 'the moves' of the skaters. the "future nhl-er"... not so much.
the dad of the other goalie volunteers to 'help with the scoreboard' and what that has amounted to is at the end of each period, if...errrr.... i mean WHEN his kid has been lit up he tells him to switch ends - so now my son is in goal for the team that is getting thumped. at the end of the game the other goalie will exclaim, "I WON DAD!!!!", when in reality he let in waaaaay more goals than my son, and the win is only a result of the dad getting his kid to switch ends.
another thing my wife noticed was that if our kid is getting lit up and say the score is 15-5, the scoreboard shows 15-5. if the other kid is getting lit up and the score is 15-5, the scoreboard will only show 7-5.
so - all that to say i had to take matthew to hockey yesterday.
at the end of the first period matthew's team was up 5-2, so of course the dad tells his kid to switch ends.
within the first 90 seconds of the second period it was 5-5 and my son had only let in 2 goals all game.
at the end of the second period the score was 7-6 for the 'other team' (so after 2 periods my kid had let in 4, the other kid 9). becuz the other goalie was on the team with the lead his dad told him to stay at that end.
matthew played great in the third period and the final score ended up being 16-13 for matthew's team. when i did my tally at the end of the game, matthew had let in 10 goals, the future nhl-er let in 19.
after the game matthew was happy that 'his' team won, but he was happier to find out that he won by 9 goals, not 3.
i just don't get how a parent can do crap like that. yea - i get that you want to encourage your kid - all parents do, but not at the expense of another kid - we're talking SEVEN year olds!!! when matthew made a nice save i'd yell out something like "great save matthew, that was a great shot you stopped!" not only am i encouraging my kid in goal, but also the kid who took the shot can hear that he had a great shot on goal.
oh - and my solution to a guy like this dad being a loser... do games to 5 goals. once a goalie lets in 5 the goalie's switch ends and the scoreboard goes back to 0-0... but i guess that's not what they do in the nhl
