Overbearing parents in athletics

THERE IS NEVER a shortage of news in this absurd world that we live in, but out of everything that has happened during the past week or two, one story continues to fascinate me — that of Mitch Cozad, the backup punter for the University of Northern Colorado who stabbed the first-string kicker in the back of his leg in an attempt to “win” the starting spot.

Here’s what somebody should have told Cozad: nobody, not even your own team, gives a damn about who the starting punter for Northern Colorado should be.

Actually, I take that back. There was, it seems, one person who cared — his mama.

A few of the players from Mitch Cozad’s former high school team have described his mother, Suzanne Cozad, as one of those parents — the type who film every dull minute of each practice and each game, convinced that their child is the greatest player in the world and is one day going to be raking in millions of dollars in the pros.

I’m sometimes amazed by how many people are out of touch with reality.

What is it that drives these parents to become overly obsessed with youth sports? Are they really hanging on to the slim chance that their child is eventually going to become one of the very few who make it all the way?

I suppose, perhaps, that a few of them are honestly (and naively) banking on their child’s skills for monetary gain.

I would argue, however, that a good number of these parents view the sporting careers of their children as a chance to make up for their own shortcomings.

If their child can land a spot on the all-star team, then that is somehow a reflection of the parent’s amazing athletic prowess…right?

I played sports for most of my life, and if there was one thing that I observed over the years, it was this: there are very few things in the world more pathetic than witnessing an obviously non-athletic parent desperately pushing their child to limits that they themselves could never reach.

Certainly I’m not alone in admitting that I find it impossible to change the channel during the Little League World Series; or, as I prefer to call it, the World Series of fathers living through their sons.

Yes, the little guys are excellent baseball players, but that has nothing to do with my fascination with this event.

Instead, my entertainment comes from watching the hordes of overweight middle-aged men who pull their (remaining) hairs out and shed a tear of agony because their son swung at the high fastball and missed.

While there are some kids who can brush off athletic failure and ignore the overreactions of their parents, there are also a good number of kids who process and remember every single dirty look that a parent may have given them after a bad play.

The overwhelming feeling of having let down their family has the potential to strike a child at his or her core.

This can then develop into disenchantment with athletics, as well as general feelings of failure, which can begin to affect other areas of a child’s life.

What happens when that parental pressure stays with a child well into adulthood?

Look no further than Mitch Cozad. The lifelong need that he felt to never disappoint his mother eventually led him to the drastic of measure of actually stabbing his competitor in the leg.

I hope Mrs. Cozad caught it on film.

Comment on this story in the Opinion forum >>