[easy-tweet tweet=””He was standing behind the bench in a Black Soul Cycle Shirt…””]We were in Basketball City, New York City with 6 courts of high-intensity action going on.  It was Under Armour’s UAA circuit, sponsored teams, recruited players – competing under the watchful eye of some of the nation’s top college coaches.  Dozens and dozens of college coaches came through every day, in total probably more than 150 college coaches, walked through the door to evaluate the talent.

There were three age groups from 15U to 17U participating and many former stars were in the building.  My youth was rekindled seeing, Patrick Ewing, Jamal Mashburn, Laphonso Ellis and Walt Williams walk in the door.

The most lasting memory from the event was not the numerous amount of high-major players participating or the club coaches exhausting every antic to compete but this parent standing behind the bench of one of the most notable teams in this circuit.  This team has at least five players that are what the evaluators call in mid-major/high major minus category.  They are athletic, they are strong, assertive.  Then there is this man’s son.

I walked over with five minutes left in the game, Sunday afternoon.  I was commentating the next game and I wanted to get organized so I would be ready to go as soon as this particular game ended.

Soul Cycle’s son was in the game and every possession, there’s banter directed at him.  “You got this E…  Show him who’s the man… Keep shooting.”  As if there weren’t enough voices between the head coach, the assistant coaches, this parent continually prompts his child.

The anguish and body language of the parent agonizing over every play that his child executed were worthy of videotaping and replaying as a course of what not to do when your child participates in a competition.

To make matters worse, the once substantial lead that the team enjoyed dwindled away.  At one point in this turn of events, the son made a great anticipation of a pass, stealing the basketball, accelerating down to the uncontested layup -which he missed.  The father tries encouragement, “don’t worry about it…play D…stop your man.”  His man would come down and score, timeout is called.

Coming out of the timeout, his son is substituted for.  The father is irate.  “How can they put him in the game?”  There is trouble on the inbound, turnover – score – tie ball game.  Soul Cycle is cursing loudly behind the bench, roasting “why they put that f*ing kid in the game?”

There is trouble on the inbound, turnover – score – tie ball game.  Overtime.  The players go to the bench to get ready for the extra session…all I can hear is –

Soul Cycle cursing loudly behind the bench, roasting “how could they put that f*ing kid in the game?”

The game ends, his team wins in overtime.  I glance at his son’s statistics.  1-for-10 with four turnovers.

I think about how much pressure that child must feel, not just as a class of 2017 player trying to impress the college coaches watching the game but the peppering of comments by his father working to undermine the coach and give even more for the player to deal with.

After my game ends, I walk outside.  I see the director of the winning team from the game I called.  He runs another top program and I’ve known him for years.  He excuses himself from his prior conversation to talk with me.  We exchange pleasantries and then he mentions that the conversation he was having was with one of his parent’s who was unhappy that his son didn’t start the game.  In fact, the parent went so far to say, that a specific college coach who was there to watch the player – according to the parent, got up and walked away because his son wasn’t in the game.

This is a team that plays 9 players regular minutes and shares the basketball with multiple Division 1 players on the roster.  The coach played the players he felt would win the game and they won.  Shouldn’t there be a moment of happiness or at a minimum – contentedness?

Forbes summarized the recently released SFIA 2017 Topline Fitness Report which showed core participation continued to decline in the five major sports.  In total there have been a 4.67 million people decline in team sports over the past five years.

The reason, I am telling you is because of parents like Soul Cycle that pressurize every situation to the point where the game no longer becomes fun, is the reason kids quit sports.  It’s their only way to escape the pressure and not ruin the relationship they have with their parents.

Let’s never forget, no matter how big or athletic they are on these basketball courts -they are still kids and this is a stage in their life that they should be able to enjoy without the big stakes of life and death on their shoulders.

What was missing this weekend more than anything, was kids being kids, smiling and laughing.  Shame on you Soul Cycle!