Spehro, just a followup to my last post...

Given the situation you describe, I'd pull my children out of the
activity immediately and encourage their involvement in the Scouts, the
science club at school, stagecraft groups including community player
organizations and just about anything except organized children's
athletic activities.

I suppose I am a bit of a nerd, but it worked both for me and my
children. The turning point was my involvement in baseball. I was a
suppose what you today would call a power hitter, since I was pretty
strong as a result of my after-school work in a hardware store... When
anything approaching a valid pitch was thrown against me, I could
consistently knock it out of the school yard fence which was
traditionally a home run, but since I was not one of the 'Elite'
citizens of the town, the rules were changed so that if you hit the
ball over the school yard fence, it was an automatic OUT. Dhuh!

You've got to understand the politics of the situation (which I suspect
that you can already guess). Lets just say that I originated from 'the
wrong side of the tracks' while most of the competition where the sons
of school board members or equally connected. In childrens athletics
ability and performance is not the deciding factor, how well your
father or mother is connectes is.

My reaction was to say 'f**k you' to highschool baseball, never mind
the petty squables that took place in Little League and Babe Ruth
baseball which had worse corruption problems.

Probably was a good thing that I said 'f**k you' to organized athletic
activities and devoted my after work energies to more productive
things. As a reslut now, if I pooled by resources I could probably buy
and sell the entire petty and provincial town in which I was raised if
I wanted to, which I don't.

Perhaps I should thank the coach that originated the rule that "if you
hit the ball over the school yard fence, you're out), because it is
very unlikely that I would be in the position that I enjoy today at the
age of 67 had I not told this guy and his rules to 'go f**k themselves'
and never became involved in organized sports again!

Today I hate organized sports of any kind, and tend to dismiss all of
them as being simply another form of masturbation -- entirely pointless
activities. Better to hand your kid over the the Marines, let him take
his own chances, develop character, and learn to be a man! Assuming
that he survices, he will be a better person for it.

Kindest regards, Harry C.