Posted on 11/14/2008 7:08:39 PM PST by ebbscomic
I’m ebbscomic’s wife.
If we had known they were going to pull garbage like this we would not have joined. We are not allowing our daughter to play on “Silent Sunday” and have explained to her coach and the league why.
In addition to what they are doing, what is scaring me is the complacency of the population. My daughter’s team had her soccer practice this evening. While the other parents agreed that the “Silent Sunday” was a crazy idea, none of them are willing to stand up to it. They are acting like sheep and going along.
In case you are wondering if this is for real. Here is the link to the AYSO Region website.
Yeah, hear an earthquakes coming.
It got so bad, we were going to call the police when my daughter's coach simply walked over and turned on the sprinklers. Cooled things off quick and in a hurry. Parents get nuts.
When you want to razz the referee, hold up an appropriate sign. Use sign language to cheer your team.........Oh, I forgot that this was Soviet Socialist California! GGGRRRR!!
Time for all the parents to remove their children and let this group realize that without the kids...no team. Can it be that simple?
I should have known that somebody here would have stepped-up in support of this garbage.
First a day, then a week, next a month. These control freaks just need a toe in the door.
They represent that this is all about letting the children make their own decisions. Decisions heavily prejudiced by the indoctrination of children by these socialist idiots.
I wonder if Rove has an earthquake machine that he no longer needs. California is long past due for a dip in the Pacific.
LOL - then sing wildly my friends, Sing!!!
Fight fiercely, Harvard, fight, fight, fight!
Demonstrate to them our skill.
Albeit they possess the might,
Nonetheless we have the will.
How we shall celebrate our victory,
We shall invite the whole team up for tea, how jolly.
Hurl that spheroid down the field
And fight, fight, fight!
—Tom Lehrer, 1945
Sounds like the scumbag liberals are even using kids' sports leagues as social engineering laboratories.
Like the military isn't enough for them....
After the game, let your coach and parents know how you felt about playing on Silent Saturday, or send email to reg46rc@ca.rr.com.
....think about the effects of what is going on and let us know your thoughts by email to reg46rc@ca.rr.com. We need your help to make your child’s soccer experience the best it can be.
The reason they are asking for feedback is so that when they make 'Silent Saturday' an everyday way of playing the sport, they can say that the "feedback" was "positive". I also strongly suspect that the scumbags running this league don't allow scorekeeping or standings, either.
You've obviously never heard 100,000 people belting out the words to "Land of Hope and Glory " at Wembley Stadium, It's so loud the stadium vibrates and you can't hear yourself sing, or the non stop cacophony at Galatasaray, or Liverpool's Kop in full song.
American sports crowds are wimps by copmparison, Soccer crowds don't need organs, Marching Bands or Cheerleaders to bring tell them when to make a pathetic little whimper of "Charge". They sing in massed choirs with a varied repertoire and a a lot of wit.
Watching soccer will turn you gay...
If you’re pink enough that your kids play soccer, then don’t cheer. You might harm the self esteem of the opposing team.
We should stop keeping score too.
And “opponents” is so confrontational, we should call them “my friends.”
And kicking! The horror, taking out agression on an inanimate object like that just whets the appetite and should be banned.
If we all just had a group hug, that would be nice, but NO TOUCHING! So let’s all just smile at each other and have a nice tofu dog.
You have never 75,000 people calling the Hogs, or 100,000 singing “Rockytop” or 92,000 Cajuns just screaming for two solid hours.
I coached soccer here for 7 years when my son was growing up in the local parks league.
During the spring I would have as many a 150 kids and I was the only coach.
I can honestly say I never had a bad kid. Every one was a pleasure. Parents however were a royal pain in the rear.
I got to where I wouldn’t even talk to adults. You got a problem? Your kid can let me know,
Now get off my pitch.
Well said. I hope to hear that sung in person one day.
No, but I've seen plenty of American Football games where the referee has called for the crowd to be quiet because the little darlings can't hear the plays being called.
I've also been to plenty of games where they have to prompt for noise on the Jumbotron, and then the farce is that the crowd makes exactly the same "white noise" in support of their team as they make when trying to "psyche out" the opposition...LOL.
The point I am making is that, having been to many Soccer matches and many football matches I can tell you there is no comparison in the noise level or the atmosphere created. It is partly due to the fact that American Football has long been marketed as a family event and has a much less intensive fan base.
Front page article on this in our local paper - http://www.the-signal.com/news/article/5990/
Again, they try to spin it as “keeping the bad parents from yelling all the time.” Again, WHY DON’T YOU ADDRESS IT WTH THOSE INDIVIDUALS, INSTEAD OF PUNISHING EVERYONE ELSE WHO’S DONE NOTHING WRONG?
The worst part is, my wife and I are apparently completely alone in having the gumption to stand up to these mini-dictators. I am utterly amazed at how far the American spirit of freedom has fallen in the past 20 years. I barely recognize my country anymore.
The text of the article:
Mum’s The Word, Soccer Moms
Local soccer moms and dads will observe 50 minutes of silence this weekend in the valley’s first-ever silent soccer games.
The event billed by a Santa Clarita division of the American Youth Soccer Organization as “Silent Sunday” will be the first game in which moms and dads are expected to keep quiet.
Some parents and coaches think it’s a great idea to promote better communication between young players.
Some parents think it’s ridiculous that they’ll be prohibited from cheering on their kids.
John Cox, regional commissioner of the AYSO Saugus Region 46, is the man behind the valley’s silence.
The national AYSO calls the event Silent Saturday, but Santa Clarita Valley officials scheduled the historic event for Sunday.
“It’s been tried in other regions but this is the first for Santa Clarita. Overall, I think it’ll go over quite well.
I’ve received a little bit of negativity from one parent and I was kind of anticipating your call,” Cox said.
Beginning at 9 a.m. Sunday, six AYSO games will be played out in two locations: Rio Norte Junior High School and Arroyo Seco Junior High School.
Will parents be allowed to cheer on their kids?
“They can cheer on their kids ... to an extent,” Cox said.
The point of Silent Sunday is not so much about muzzling vocal and excitable parents, but about allowing kids to play and communicate with each other.
“We’re trying to get the kids to play without people from the sidelines telling (them) what to do,” Cox said.
Stephen Thomas, a Valencia father, calls the program, “an absolutely insane event.”
“Basically, it’s a policy where no parent is allowed to cheer for their kids. I’m not kidding, it’s insane, and we’re not going to allow our daughter to participate,” he said.
Thomas is a local comedian but finds nothing funny in the AYSO policy.
“I’m also going to draft an official letter to them,” Thomas said.
Jackie Ferialdi is the Director of Sportsmanship for Region 46 which is initiating the “Silent Sunday” in Santa Clarita Valley.
As a mother of five young soccer players, she is the quintessential Santa Clarita Valley soccer mom.
She and her husband, Mike, are both coaches for a sport and try to promote good sportsmanship - whether the game is competitive or not.
Some of the games slated for Silent Sunday are competitive, others are not.
“A ‘woo-hoo’ is OK,” she said about parents cheering when their child scores. “I can’t imagine a place where a ‘woo-hoo’ wouldn’t be OK.”
Ferialdi was asked if the Silent Sunday rules were meant to muzzle parents yelling constantly on the sidelines.
“Bingo,” she said.
The AYSO rules for Silent Sunday are spelled out on the group’s Web site and are simple: parents may speak quietly among themselves on the sidelines and make no comment that could be heard by the players or the referee; coaches may not provide any direction verbal or non-verbal and players may “have fun and enjoy the opportunity to communicate with your teammates.”
Carlos Vasquez, a Valencia father of three, just wrapped up his first season as coach of his son, Mateo’s, team of five-year-olds called The Cheetah Cats.
“I think it’s a great idea,” Vasquez said. “The biggest rule-breakers are the parents. They forget that they sign a contract for their kids to have fun.”
Simon Howell, a Valencia father of two, whose daughter Rachel is a long-standing player, is a former AYSO referee.
“I can see the justification for this from one side of the fence,” he said. “But I think to expect the parents to be quiet completely is wrong. I’ve heard of one alternative that moves the parents farther back from the play and I think that’s a much better idea.”
Parents should be encouraged to support their children, accompany them to games and relive the experience with their children after the contest is over but parents should observe the proceedings from afar while maintaining a reasoned silence.
There is no bigger fool, no more obnoxious individual, than a parent at an under 8 soccer match giving detailed instructions to their child, their child's coach and the youth referees.
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