I don't know why I think yesterday's game was unbelievable but I do. I should know better than to expect more from yesterday's opposing team but I do. I go into these games almost with an Polly-Anna-ish expectation that maybe this time will be different. I go in with a pit in my stomach but a little tiny, little glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe, this time parents and players can keep their shit together and have a good game.
Yesterday, Zach and his team played the number one team in their hockey league, who also happens to be the number one team in the nation at the U16AA level of hockey. They have crushed nearly every team they have played this year. Their talent is deep and strong. And they know it. They may be the top team in the nation but they are ranked dead last with me because both the players and parents are arrogant and nasty.
I understand that being number one in the league and the nation can be quite exhilarating and it is an accomplishment of which a team should be proud. But arrogant? I've never been one to accept arrogance from anyone. Arrogance and entitlement are two words that piss me off. And this hockey league from the players to the parents to the coaches chap my hide.
In the nine years our kids have played hockey I have never run across another hockey team/organization that brings out such negativity in me. I have learned, now, that I just need to walk away. Yesterday was no different. But yesterday, when I walked away I was disgusted with not only their players and parents but our parents as well...myself included.
I waited too long to walk away. I waited half a period too long, my patience was sapped and I snapped, just a little but I snapped just the same. I walked away shaking my head and calling the other team and their parents a bunch of shits...and they were. But so were we.
What right do I have to call another team a bunch of shits? I don't. I have no right to call them anything but opponents. I should have reigned in my tongue but I didn't. I let myself stoop to a level I try hard to avoid. I know myself well enough to know I need to walk away when I see bad behavior. I did call some of our parents out when the were calling for our boys to go after certain kids on the other team. I did shake my head in silent mortification as our parents cheered wildly when their kids took penalty after penalty. But I did exactly what I should never have done...stooped to their level. UGH...I was a shining example of what not to do.
I have to say, though, I was not the only shining example of what not to do. Their players were rude, nasty and over the top arrogant. They know they're number one. They know they have mercy-ed many teams this season, ending games early with a 10 point lead. They know some of them are headed onto bigger and better things next season. It is with all of that in mind that they should be humbly proud but they're not. They are, for the most part, an obnoxious bunch of jerks. They had just scored their eighth goal to our one goal when the player who scored skated by our team's bench with his fist in the air, telling our players he was was "it" and they were shit. He got a penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct...in fact he got many penalties for bad behavior and I was happy to see him park his arrogant ass in the sin bin for a while. At goal number nine, the player who scored skated down the ice in front of our players and "Tebow-ed." It was a class-less game played by class-less players, coached by class-less coaches and cheered for by class-less parents. Everyone's behavior was far less than stellar.
I hope to not face this team again this year. I hope the kids who are headed on to "bigger and better" things get a little sense knocked into them in the years ahead so they don't go through life believing they are entitled to behave like arrogant jerks. I hope, at some point, their unbelievable behavior is toned down several notches and they can see that being a great player in a sport also requires humility and not outright arrogance.
