The following was copied from an Athenians post on facebook. It was shared by a friend on facebook but I know the person who posted it. It just happened and there is a lot of food for thought here. I copied it to share it with the message board as it is, sadly reflecting on sports as a whole and perhaps on our society as well:


So I had a nice 4 hour drive home from Indianapolis. The first two hours most of my family slept which gave me the time to think about what I had witnessed today. I am a soccer fan, a soccer coach, and a soccer dad; I have seen some crazy things over the past few years. I've seen a father storm a field and punch a ref. (Not me or one of my team parents) I've seen fist fights between parents. Today I witnessed some of the most disrespectful behavior on the field. Games get physical, teenage boys playing those games, get very physical. But today I watched players get punched and pushed to the ground. When those fouls are called the players talked back to the refs and even flip off the ref as he turned his back. Another player after scoring a goal turn a celebration into a flip off to our team parents. A kid even blew his nose on one of our players as he passed by and left the field. All of this from one team, the tournament host team.
We had the "pleasure" of playing this team twice today; we won the first and loss the second game. But this post is more than wins and losses, but HOW we win and lose. There is not a single player on that field today that will represent their country in this game or play it professionally; they play for competition, to better themselves, the challenge, the fun......the development of their Character. What I saw today was some of the worst character and class from a group of kids. The sad thing is this team had more skill, more natural ability and more resources than our team. They would win 9 out of 10 games against us. So as I drove home I asked myself why act this way when you're the better team? I asked my boys (when they finally woke up) this question as we stopped for a bite to eat. I got the answers I thought I would get from teenagers, they're idiots, jerks, and they suck. But as Todd and I walked out to the car he said "Dad, maybe their parents aren't asking them that question".
As parents we expect coaches to make them better players, expect teachers to educate them, expect doctors to heal them; but their Character is in our hands. We must make sure they understand the importance for their actions, choices, their development as young adults.
Sports are such a great opportunity for kids to learn these great lessons but if we focus only on the wins and losses and not HOW they handle the wins and the losses, then what's the point.
I love sports and I want my boys to love what they do, but not at the expense of their Character. Play Hard, Play to Win, Have Fun, It is a Game!

Yep. By the way, did anyone notice the extended posing by Kris Jenkins after the horn sounded last night? One Shining Moment ruined.

Oh come on. The guy hit THE SHOT every kid who's ever played on their driveway dreams of. I saw his pose. It was not directed to any part of the UNC contingent. Totally okay in my book.

It's not even a question that it was OK. I would have expected a guy to hit the game-winning shot for the national championship to do far more than hold is arms up with a 3-point shot signal. His celebration was extremely low-key, in my opinion.

Nothing wrong with his reaction to that shot, nothing directed to the other team or fans. In regards to the situation mentioned, I know this person and have heard what they were talking about. As an official, they can stop that crap in a heart beat, and coaches should be. But in the case a coach isn't, I'll shut that down in a heart beat as the referee.

A spontaneous celebration doesn't bother me at all and I'm sure I would be right there, too. Maybe I didn't see what I thought due to TV angles and replays but it appeared he was walking it around the court a la Ric Flair which struck me as a bit much, that's all. It's a team game, team effort, celebrate as a team.

Anyway, he is now immortal in NCAA terms. Christian Laettner, Lorenzo Charles, Fred Brown, Kris Jenkins, Chris Webber, Bill Walton, all iconic individual stories. I certainly don't begrudge him that and I'll enjoy watching that play forever.

Those kids are lucky somebody didn't pull out their cell phone and record their idiocy and expose it to the world.