We have, once again, another fine example of a parent gone out of control in Stockton, California. This story, accompanied with full color video, has captured the nation’s attention. But, we know that this is just one of a multitude of incidences of violence by parents in youth sports. For those of you who may have missed this story, here’s an encapsulation:

An assistant coach of a youth football team, after observing a late hit on his son, attacked the offending player, running into the kid and shoving him to the ground. The kid suffered minor injuries, but the damaging effects of this parent’s attack are reverberating throughout the youth sports world.

It’s not news when kids play a game, have fun, and go home. It’s only news when there is violence, or abuse or kids being damaged in some way. The reality is that these violent parents are a very small percentage of youth sport parents. The overwhelming majority are supportive and helpful. But, wait a minute; this father was a volunteer coach, who was helping to make football available to the youth of his town. Is he a violent man? No, according to police he doesn’t have a record. What went wrong? Well, according to the man’s lawyer, this game was fraught with late hits by the opposing team; one resulting in his other son’s spleen rupturing. So, by the time this parent/coach saw another late hit on his other son, I guess he couldn’t take it anymore. But, he didn’t attack the referee (who did, in fact, make the call on the late hit), or the coach of the offending player; he attacked a kid, and that cannot be tolerated.