BLACKFORD: Westside column for March 8

If I seem tired this week, it’s because I did not sleep very much last weekend. We are getting close to the end of my daughters’ basketball seasons, but we still have two tournaments to go. And last weekend was spent going back and forth on Interstate 69 so many times I think I could now drive it blindfolded.

But we’ll come back to that. There is an idea out there that kids would enjoy sports a lot more if parents would go away. Basically, the thought is that all parents do is add pressure and unrealistic expectations. But I have to say that when I was a kid, I looked forward to the pressure. If I hit a home run in a sanctioned game, nobody could say I didn’t earn it.

On the other hand, it is sometimes very, very hard to watch how parents behave during youth games. Coaches go after referees. Parents from opposing teams have fist fights. Fans yell at players. Coaches yell at each other. It’s just embarrassing.

I learned a tough lesson when I was a teenager. My younger brother’s team was playing in a basketball tournament. I was running the scoreboard. The official scorer, who was a parent from the other team, didn’t understand a substitution and told me to hit the buzzer, which I did. But the other team has just inbounded the ball and was trying for a fast break.

So the parents on the other team all started calling me names and accused me of cheating. The official scorer could have stopped that by taking responsibility, but he didn’t. In fact, he started blaming me, too. So I, a 16-year-old volunteering to run the scoreboard, had grown men and women cursing at me. Some people just lack class.

But even when it doesn’t reach that level, it can still get kind of ugly. Parents spend a lot of time, effort and money on their kids and their teams, and they like to see some of that pay off. So yes, sometimes parents take this stuff too seriously.

Anyway, back to last weekend. CeCe’s third grade team played in a tournament at Petersburg. It was pretty clear from the outset that there were two teams who were a little bit better than the others, CeCe’s team another team from the Evansville area. They played in the same pool, so they met on Saturday in a game that determined seeding for the Sunday single elimination bracket.

The other team built a 10-point lead, only to see our team come all the way back to win. CeCe hit the go-ahead basket, so it was a pretty good day for her. But it was becoming pretty clear that a rivalry was growing in the stands.

CeCe says her team and the other one kind of enjoy playing each other. She says the girls don’t yell or trash talk. The teams have now played three times this year, and each game has been very close. That actually seems to be helping the girls, because they no longer look as nervous.

On Sunday afternoon, I went to the Mater Dei girls’ basketball team’s victory celebration. The team had won a state championship the day before. During the assemble, principal Chris Tanner praised the team’s fans for always staying so positive and supportive. Not all teams have that kind of support.

By the time I got back to Petersburg for CeCe’s championship game, I’d I made up my mind that no matter what, I was not going to get upset, win or lose. I’m really glad I did that, because a couple of parents from the other team clearly were not thinking the same way.

I should point out that I know some of the parents from the other team. They are good people. I like them. All I am talking about is a bad apple or two.

The game came down to the end. One of the players on our team took a really bad shot in the final seconds, but it went in. We won by three.

The players were all good sports. So were most of the fans. But by the time we left the gym, one of the mothers from our team was in tears. That’s not cool.

On the way home, CeCe asked Carrie and I why a few parents from the other team got more upset than the players. We did not really have an answer for her. But I do know this: I am not going to be one of those people. I have a lot of years still to go with youth sports.

Sports do so many good things for kids — increased confidence, physical fitness, teamwork and on and on — that parents can ruin by being too pushy.

I know some parents are just going to always be classless. I know things will be said in the stands that will make me angry. But I am going to take care of my kids, make sure they benefit from playing sports and enjoy watching them do it.

And I’m not going to help anybody — no matter how classless they may be — ruin that for us.