Anonymous
Years ago
Scoring: Parents and Pressure
Recently I was at Morphett Vale and witnessed a game between Southern and South in U18 div 3.
It was a very tight game (ending up with a one point win to Southern), with a couple of techs, heated ego's and painful parents.
There were a few mishpas with the scorers on the bench with stopping the clock with a few seconds remaining in the last minute or so.
The situation was also not helped by other parents screaming and berating at the parents scoring to "get it right" or "I could have done better", then with parents and grandparents coming up to berate the refs after the game, telling them "what they could have done better".
It is in these situations that most parents discover that they are not quite equipped to handling the score clock and go home embarrassed, humiliated and probably wont turn up when they are rostered to score next time.
I know some clubs have some sort of voluntary training regarding scoring, but my question is should it be mandatory for every parent at the start of the season to go through a scoring and or basic umpiring course?
I think the scoring course would be a good idea, it would alleviate a lot of pressure during games and create more volunteers for ABL games, carnivals and any National Championships held in SA.
EV.
