Dear parents and fans: These are kids!

Sign at Cherry Bomb Brawlers v SJRD

This past weekend, my SJRD kids (and every single one of them is *my* kid) played an awesome bout.  As mentioned before, they lost, but they had a blast playing.  At the end of the bout, the teams tackled each other with hugs in an awesome display of derby love.  But there was something else.  During the bout, one of my players came to me looking very hurt after one jam.  Someone in the crowd had laughed at her when she fell.  This was an experienced player, someone who has been playing the game for 4 years, and someone who is no stranger to sports and the fans (she plays several other sports as well).  Yet she was hurt in this particular instance.  If someone as strong and as powerful as this player can be hurt by one comment, how much damage is being done to those even more vulnerable?

Kids matter.  We in junior derby know this.  We love our kids, and we do everything we can to make sure they can play this game that we (and they) love safely.  We give them pads to protect their elbows and knees, helmets and mouth guards to protect their brains. We teach them to fall so they will be able to get back up when the hardest of hitters comes along and sends them flying into the chairs at the edge of the track.  But there is a problem.  Something which has been getting a lot of attention since the 2013 season started in earnest.  The fans are hurting the kids.

Not physically, sure, there aren't flying beer cans or squid being thrown on the track or anything like that, but the kids are being hurt none the less.  Words hurt.  Laughing and telling them they suck when a kid falls while doing his or her damndest to play the game to the best of their ability hurts.  Screaming at the refs, or yelling at a player who has made a mistake can sometimes do more damage than the hardest hitting blocker out there.  And it's happening.  It has happened at every junior bout I have been at this season except one, and I have received reports of it happening at many others as well.

One need only look at the conversation in one of my posts to see that this topic has become something of an issue, with accusations flying back and forth between leagues and parents.  But accusations aren't going to stop it.  There needs to be a change in the culture of fans at junior derby.

While yes, we are teaching them to play derby at a very competitive level, we need to remember that these *are* kids.  We should be working together to support them all, and to cheer the accomplishments of each and every skater on the track.  Sure, it's great when your team wins, but it's just as great when someone on the other team pulls a great juke, or lays down a huge hit.  Sure it sucks when your jammer falls, or steps back in at just the wrong moment, giving up a power jam, but you know what?  Telling her she sucks is not going to improve her performance.

We need to see more signs like the one pictured above.  We need to see inserts in programs, announcements during games, security dealing with unruly fans, and we need to see an agreement on a parenting code of conduct from every single NW junior league.

These are our kids.  We need to work together to make sure our kids aren't being hurt.