My personal experience as a kid and as a parent of kids playing youth sports has been hit and miss. There are a lot of good coaches out there with their heads on straight. Lots of good parents too. Probably most of them are good. But there are also jerks, and the higher you go in youth sports -- the more competitive the landscape -- the more likely you are to encounter jerk coaches or parents.
The Little League World Series is about as high as kids that age can go. It’s crazy competitive. So it wouldn’t be shocking to find some jerks at that level, even if most of them are now well enough versed in how it is covered to not be super obvious about it.
Which makes this coach, Dave Belisle of the Cumberland, Rhode Island team, so damn refreshing and even inspirational. I want a guy like this coaching or teaching my kids in anything they do. This is so pitch perfect. In a crappy, crappy week of news, this is most welcome indeed.
UPDATE: Sorry: been having trouble with the embed code. You can see the video here.