Coaches need to keep cool

Are youth sports fun anymore?

Growing up, I played everything: I competed in Little League and town league basketball, played football in the back yard, hockey on a nearby pond and I even gave soccer a try for a year. I loved playing sports when I was kid, and to this day, I remember a few coaches along the way I really admired. I was on a Little League team that in three seasons went 6-54. Yes, we won six games in three years, but you’d never know it, because the coaches always treated us with dignity at the end of each game. And because it was fun.

These days, youth sports have gotten so big, so competitive, that it seems no longer fun. You read stories all the time about parents attacking coaches, coaches attacking referees, fans attacking fans and players attacking each other — in the handshake line, no less. It’s pathetic and borderline nauseating.

And now, it’s happened here. According to a story in today’s Newport Daily News, a Portsmouth Babe Ruth Baseball coach was taken off the field in handcuffs after he was spouting off profanities in front of players and fans and threatening the opposing coach.

I wasn’t at the game, and I don’t know what happened, but said coach was given more than enough rope to hang himself, according to the story. Despite warnings to cease his tirade, he continued and ultimately was shoved in the back of a cruiser in front of his players. Not exactly setting a great example.

The story said the coach will no longer be associated with Portsmouth Babe Ruth, and kudos to the league for taking such action. Again, I’m not sure what could have caused this major meltdown, but was it worth it?

Next time, perhaps coaches in similar situations should take a deep breath and think about what’s really important. They're setting the examples, and at all costs, under any circumstances, they need to keep their cool.

Don't be Greedy

The best player on the Providence College men's basketball team no longer is part of the men's basketball program, and won't be back at the school this fall. PC announced Tuesday that sophomore forward Jamine Peterson was dismissed from the team for violating team rules. Eventually, we'll find out what those team rules were, because that vague phrase covers just about anything.

Guy gets arrested for assaulting senior citizens at the mall while wearing a clown suit? Violation of team rules. That violation, though, probably wouldn't result in a player's dismissal from the team and the school. So "Greedy" must have done something much worse.

Early reports indicate that it was an incident involving a 15-year-old AAU basketball team from Boston that was on campus recently. So, this is purely speculation, I would have to guess that Peterson supplied the players with drugs or alcohol, and got caught. Maybe it's not that bad, maybe it's worse. We just don't know at this point, and apparently no one is interested in talking about it.

PC coach Keno Davis said in a press release that Peterson "had a productive season in 2009-10. However, regardless of his athletic accomplishments, it is essential to the integrity of the program that every student-athlete meets the high standards and expectations we have at Providence College."

Sad to say, I'm not surprised Peterson was involved in an incident that got him thrown off the team. I don't know him personally, but simply based on what I saw while covering the Friars last season, "Greedy" struck me as thuggish.

On the court, his nickname fit. He was selfish and carried himself like the team's unquestioned superstar while averaging 19 points and 10 rebounds a game. Off the court, he came out of the locker room dressed like a rapper and seemed to have an attitude that he was doing the media a favor by talking to us.

I was never a "Greedy" fan. The first time I saw him play, it was obvious he can jump out of the gym, as the clip above illustrates. His outside jump shot improved leaps and bounds in 2009-10, but he seemed to think he had developed a Ray Allen-like stroke, which is nowhere near the case. He went from a dreadful outside shooter to a serviceable one. But that didn't stop him from taking 148 3-pointers, second most on the team. He made 34.5 percent of those attempts.

Davis deserves credit for having the integrity to boot his best player after such an incident instead of downplaying and/or covering it up, like so many coaches of big-time college programs would have done. The Friars very well could struggle again next season, and they likely will miss Peterson's contributions. But the program will be better in the long run for getting rid of him.