Quote:
Originally posted by TexLex
Are you going to be punishing the whole team by keeping him out (you say hes a good player).
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This is a dangerous logical road to follow. The kids sign up for LL for the opportunity to play their sport. They and their parents rely on the coach to set a tone for the team; the idea that your misbehavior is judged on a sliding scale with your ability shouldn't come into play until the pro leagues. A lot of misbehavior comes from the best players on any team precisely because of this rationalization that coaches do as young players develop --- being talented means never having to say you're sorry. Hard slides and tags are probably just showing off, but every kid appreciates that every member of the team needs to take direction, or not play at all. It's an assumption built into the player/coach relationship.
Pony, it's a tough thing you have to do, because what you are about to do you're trying to do with your Coach hat on. But your kid will think you're wearing the Dad hat, even if that's not true. I would suggest that your introduction of this reprimand carry as much of the "Coach" hallmarks as possible --- impose it privately after a practice, while both of you are wearing your cleats. If you have an assistant coach, make sure he's there. Make it look official. If you do it at the dinner table, you're fucked --- he'll think he's really being unjustly punished for something off the field.
BTW, kudos to Pony for coaching the team. Some of the best learning experiences I had as a kid were playing team sports in leagues, and that simply isn't possible without coaches.* My dad coached me in a couple of years of soccer. I don't think we ever had this kind of confrontation (I wasn't talented enough, maybe), but I'm 100% confident that he could have imposed team discipline without regard to familial ties. As Hank correctly observed, that isn't always true --- I was on several teams where dad was really hard on son/star.
*I think some of the gender personality traits we attribute to "Mars vs. Venus" are actually a side effect of generations of women not having an equal opportunity to play team sports. Fortunately, this is changing.
