Brawls at school football games, fights between players and coaches, parents versus coaches and parents versus parents. What’s going on? Is it even safe to play baseball, soccer or football for your school?

We all have probably already heard about the big fight at the East High and School of the Arts football game where many students from both schools and others were involved.

The fight was apparently about who represents and lives on the east side and on the west side of town, and it makes many think about the nature of violence in school sports. It was a childish reason to fight, but most fights in school are about gangs and topics like that.

Last year we had an incident where a player and a coach got into a fight on the school Varsity baseball team. The player was kicked off the team and even though the coach tried his best not to fight back, he was suspended for three games which the team ended up losing.

Is it even safe anymore to play a sport? All these violent acts have parents thinking twice before allowing their child to play a high school sport.

According to the website; http://shatteredpeace.com/violence_in_youth_sports.htm, 80% of students believe inappropriate behavior is destroying youth sports. Sports Illustrated for Kids says 57% of students say there is too much violence in youth sports, 74% say they have seen out-of-control adults at games, and 27% say they seen parents yelling at coaches. Also, 84% of students witnessed parents acting violently.

I have witnessed violence in my time playing sports. When I was twelve years old, my baseball coach was in an argument with the game umpire. The argument turned ugly and they ended fighting in front of a crowd of about fifty people. It was a championship game, so my team ended up getting disqualified and we lost the championship.

These violent acts are affecting the kids as well. They aren’t getting the opportunities they should have to show their talent and try to achieve the dream of becoming a professional athlete because their coach or parent are receiving all the attention with their childlike actions.

These immature behaivors need to stop because believe it or not, the acts can affect high school dropout rates, childhood obesity and more violence in a kid’s childhood.

It can affect high school dropouts because a student can feel he/she isn’t going to become a professional athlete and may drop out of school. Obesity can occur because kids will stop playing sports and the violence will keep on growing if it is being shown to kids and teens.

Sports should be a fun activity for students in high school.  students and parents need to understand is that many coaches like Coach Cronberger, Coach O'Neill and Coach Vandermallie from School of the Arts put in extra time and dedication in order to get their athletes prepared for the upcoming season. Those coaches often practice on Saturdays during Spring Break or even at six o' clock at the morning. If the coach decides to bring your child in the game inthe third inning or in the third quarter, you should respect that he feels he/she is doing the best thing for the team. These coaches aren't doing it because they feel that your child isn't good or because they hate your child.

Students need to have fun when they play and not take it too seriously. After all it isn't the Super Bowl; it isn't the World Series or the World Cup. It's a school sport that was designed to give the students an opportunity to exzibit their ablities in the sport they like and learn about teamwork and responsibility.

So please remember-- it's only a game.