Action Call - CA Parents Not Allowed To Cheer For Their Own Kids At Youth Soccer Games

Incredibly scary, Soviet-style stuff going on in the People's Republic Of California. Below is the text of the decree from a youth soccer league, stating that parents are not permited to cheer for THEIR OWN KIDS, or they will be THROWN OUT. Below that is an excellent freelance article penned by one of the parents. PLEASE EMAIL THIS ROGUE SOCIALIST LEAGUE AT reg46rc@ca.rr.com and let them know what you think. FLOOD THEM. -----------------------

Region 46 will be holding a Sunday edition of Silent Saturday on November 16th, 2008, during the make up games. The AYSO Board requests that there be no comments from the sidelines audible to players or the referee during games.

We are sponsoring this program to allow our players to better develop their game skills by communicating with each other without interference from coaches, parents or other spectators and to learn to make their own decisions in games.

Players: Have fun and enjoy the opportunity to communicate with your teammates. Play fairly and show your best sportsmanship. While on the field talk to your teammates in a positive supporting manner and while on the sideline as a substitute please follow the same rules as your coaches and parents and only clap for your teammates. 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.

Coaches: You may not provide any direction, verbal or non-verbal, to players who are on the field. You may speak quietly to any players who are on the bench. You may address the players before the game, at halftime, and during water breaks. Remember as the coach you are responsible for the behavior of your sideline. Please help make sure everyone follows the rules for this day.

Parents: Speak only quietly, if at all, to others on the sidelines. Avoid any comments that could be heard by players for either team or the referee. We ask for your respect for our efforts. When a goal is scored, please restrain your reaction to low-key applause. Please do follow the game closely, 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 referee will halt the match and issue a warning to the offending sideline the first time any person from the sideline breaks the rules. The warning will apply to every person on that sideline. If any person from that sideline breaks the Silent Saturday rules following a warning that person, or persons, will be asked to leave. The game will be suspended until the person has left the field.

There will be board members and field monitors at the fields helping to monitor this program.

We appreciate your giving us the opportunity for a single day to get a new perspective. All feedback will be used to evaluate the possibility of having a Silent Saturday again in the future.

California has sunk to a new low. A mind-boggling level of psuedo-intellectual social engineering is underway at a youth soccer league, of all places. AYSO Region 46, in Santa Clarita CA, is holding what it terms "Silent Sunday" this weekend - a Sunday where coaches are not permitted to direct their team from the sideline, and parents are not permitted to cheer for their own children.

I'll repeat that so there no confusion: Coaches are not permitted to direct their team from the sideline, and parents are not permitted to cheer for their own children. Direct quotes from this Pravda press release follow.

By decree from on high by the Region 46 Board, coaches "may not privde any direction, verbal or non-verbal, to players who are on the field." That is a direct quote. If that is not galling enough, parents - PARENTS - are the told to "speak only quietly, if at all, to others on the sidelines." In other words, children as young as 5 will be rewarded for their effort and athletic achievments by "low-key applause," and nothing more. The insidiousness of this idea is abhorrent and terrifying. Any child who scores a goal or makes a good play will now wonder why no one is cheering or encouraging them. The younger ones -again, some as young as 5 - will be confused and likely scared, thinking they've done something wrong. They will wonder why Mommy and Daddy, who have always told them that they will be rewarded if they try their best in any endeavor, have now abandoned them just at the moment when they have achieved something wonderful. The detrimental effect that this incredibly confusing message will have on these children is immeasurable, and the social-controlling aspect of this is frightening on a "big brother" level that is quite real.

The supposed goal of "Silent Sunday" is to allow the children to make their own decisions on the field, while keeping any bad parents from yelling at the kids or referees in an abusive or harmful manner. A fine goal indeed, and had this decree said anything even approachnig that, I would be its biggest supporter. However, like most social engineering experiments, this is directed at the wrong people. Why not simply address this problem with the individuals responsible for the offensive behavior? Why not approach the problem directly with the parents who have committed these acts, rather than punishing everyone in the league - most of whom are positive, supportive parents who have never done anything wrong on the sideline - by banning the cheering or encouragement of their own children? When it can be explained how "banning" emotions and actions results in "open mindedness" and "tolerance," perhaps I'll listen; until that happens, this horrific encroachment of freedom and liberties needs to be exposed as the repugnant, Soviet-style thought control that it is.

As a parent in Region 46, I am livid at the presumptiousness of the board members, in their thinking that they have a say in the raising of my child. AYSO exists for one reason, to provide the infrastructure of a sports league. That is all. AYSO is not a parent or a moral educator, it is a sports league. As such, board members telling me what to think, how to act, and what to teach my daughter is an offensively egotistical act, and needless to say far outside the realm of their responsibility. As parents we need to stand up and resist this type of action, and I will be the first to do so. I will teach my child that effort and hard work are rewarded, both on and off the sports field. I will teach her right from wrong as I see fit, as is my right as a law-abiding American citizen and a responsible adult. When she scores a goal or makes a good defensive play, I will cheer for her accordingly, and for AYSO or anyone else to attempt to stop me is disgusting, intrusive, and rabidly un-American.

Being a parent is a tough job, but despite the self-important and pseudo-intellectual opinions of a few small-minded individuals with Napoleonic complexes, raising a child does not "take a village." It takes two involved, caring parents. Keep the village out of my family room.

You’re not serious. If you go to the thrift store or craigslist, you’ll see youth sparring gear for taekwondo and karate as far as the eye can see, mostly from parents whose children got bored after a year.

Sit them in front of the wii after they’re done doing their homework so they can get exercise.

We kept our daughter out of this Social Engineering Mind-Control experiment yesterday - spent the day having family fun instead...you know, being a parent and not a goose-stepping follower of The Village - and it looks as if we were right on the money. Of course, the elders of the High Council (or “board members,” if you prefer) are digging in their heels and refusing to admit they’ve done anything wrong, but every parent we’ve talked to hated this idea.
More than that, the very notion that the High Council thinks they have the power to change the rules 80% of the way through the season and impose their morality on rule-abiding parents is despicable.

Here’s the link: http://www.the-signal.com/news/article/6049

Please help us out and send an email to the AYSO Region 46 High Council Elders and tell them what you think of this nonsens.

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