Did I stare down a bit too long the coach who was calling out Charlie for being too old to play in a 7th grade basketball tournament? Maybe. Okay. That's on me.
Did I say "I'm sorry that my son is better than your team." When I was trying to defuse the situation . . . btw . . . saying that to an irate dad does not defuse things. But, yes. . . . yes I did say that.
What happened?
Well, finally, Charlie's team is playing well. For about two years now Charlie has had to suffer being around mediocre to bad teams at basketball. He's quite good, and his team wasn't. Well all of that struggle and strife not only has made Charlie much much better, but finally the team is too.
Charlie is so good in fact he starts on his seventh grade club team, he starts on the eighth grade club team, and he plays on the high school team. He actually plays the entire game for seventh and eighth, and only sees a few minutes of high school, but even in high school he drops threes and drives the lane successfully.
So, here we are this afternoon. Our third game of the tournament. We've played this same team twice. They beat us once. We beat them once. But the coaches have been watching the other games at the tournaments and they've seen Charlie play with eighth and the high schoolers. They think he's playing down. He's not. But he's hammering them today. Boom, boom, boom, he splashes several threes from the top of the arc like it's nothing. He drives and throws up layups and real quick the team is up by 20.
Well the other team's coaches start going ballistic. In the middle of the game they're yelling at our coach, they're yelling at the refs, they're even yelling at our parents! Now, I didn't do anything. but they started calling Charlie out. They started saying he was cheating and playing down. So when the other teams coach looks over at me, I look back. And yes, I admit I stared too long. BUT he stared too!
And maybe . . . maybe I had a look of disgust for him and "how pathetic a coach are you for disturbing a game like this" face on. So at half time he comes over and just about bellies up to me. he knew I was Charlie's dad.
"You want something?"
I considered saying "I want you to stop calling out my son in the middle of the game."
I didn't. I just said. "I'm just sitting here coach."
(Again, almost said . . . "I'm just sitting here watching my son beat your ass." But again . . . I didn't)
To the teams credit, many of the parents of the other team thought he was a jerk too. They were yelling at him to cut it out and calm down. So, we win. Charlie and the team destroyed them. And after the game they deliberately keep the teams apart. Like wouldn't even let the kids shake hands apart.
Well we get out to the parking lot and this jerk comes and finds me. His wife is trying to hold him back and now I'm thinking, "okay . . . if I have to fight him, how do I go about it."
But I didn't, I tried to defuse. And genuinely, I tried to defuse. I've been in his situation of being destroyed before. It's not fun. I haven't been as big a jerk as he has been, but still, I get it. I said, "I'm sorry coach, look he's just really good for 7th grade."
He and his wife launch into this tirade about how it's a 6th grade tournament, and how they saw my son playing with older kids. First, it was a 7th grade team. It's a 7th grade tournament. If you don't like that go talk to the admin. Second, it's not against the rules for Charlie to play up as much as he wants.
So, I said, "Look, I'm sorry. I'm sorry my son is so much better than your whole team."
He didn't like that. Now to his wives credit she got in front of him, and then the high schoolers Charlie plays with started running over to help and that made me go ahead and pull back, but still . . . what a jerk.
Did I almost get in a fight? No. That coach did, and I might have had to be a part of it, but no, I wouldn't do that. I hate those parents!
I've been in fights before. Usually, I'm the one who stops other people from fights. I've choked out several people in a drunken rage once before and once after the Army. I was a bouncer in the ARmy and got in several fights. Hell, I got kicked in the face once. For four years I grappled and fought with Rangers once a week every week. So, I would probably hold up, but man-oh-man, he was a jerk coach!
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