So my son and his U12 team from Maryland played in the Annandale Premier Cup this past weekend. The competition was nice to watch, the fields were great and the Refs were great! Great weekend.......until my sons team played a team from PA. The game was tough but it ended in a 1-1 draw. As both teams were leaving their respective post game meetings, I was standing there, waiting for my son as 4 players from this U12 PA team walked by. I was just about to say great game, as I do at every game, to both teams when all of a sudden I hear this one kid saying to the other 3 "They need to go back to Mexico, they jumped the fence before to get here, they can do it again to leave". My mouth just dropped. My sons team is, obviously from the comment, all latinos. The part of all this that surprised me was that this PA team had latinos and African Americans on the team as well. I am so glad my son did not hear what these boys said because he would have been crushed. If these boys can walk around with eachother, speaking so freely like this, then it must be tollerated or taught at home, thats my opinion. Sorry for the long rant.
Sorry to hear this. Was anything said to the other team's coach or manager? My son was on a team, at the same age, where the exact same thing happened--except that his teammate who made a racist/anti-Hispanic comment made it to the referee, so obviously it got noticed. The coach was pretty pissed, made the kid apologize, and let his parents know. There were Hispanic and African-American kids on this team (my son has moved on for other reasons) as well. I think--not sure, but I would assume--that this should have been reported to the field marshall or a tournament official. It's unfortunate; but I edited out the name of the team because I know from experience that one kid doesn't speak for the whole team.
Thanks for editing my post, I was not thinking about the team as a whole when I wrote it. It was a sad situation.
Sorry to hear about your experience. Annandale is near my hometown and I'm sorry to hear it went down like that. I reffed youth games in that area for years and you have games where teams white teams play latino teams, and I'm not talking predominantly white/latino teams. I'm talking all white, all latino teams. Just to be clear it's not some racial thing that they are like that, it's more geography. But anyway, more often than not it devolves into something racial. My two cents, it's the lowest common denominator to make racist comments. It's easy. People just can't admit that someone is better than them, so it comes down to some intrinsic differences. As a ref, during the game, you only have a limited scope of what you're aware of. You see signs of inappropriate things, but there's nothing really to go on unless some kid stupidly yells it loud enough for everyone to hear. Sadly, they're smart enough not to do that. I was talking to a school principal this past week, and he said something very profound. We were talking about students' lack of accountability to which he responded that, "We (the schools) are a microcosm of society." True enough. In your experience, the soccer field also becomes a microcosm of society. Dunabia didn't lose (or win) because the other team was better, but that the other team shouldn't be here anyway.
FWIW, my son plays for Annandale and this was "our" tournament. The games he was involved in all went just fine. His team has a mix of white, Hispanic, and African (as in from Africa) players. In their short time together, they've never encountered any sort of openly voiced racial animosity.
My guess is "out of the parents mouth" I have heard many parents bad mouth players and even their kids own team - seen those kids pick up on that and start bad mouthing the team and even some quitting because they start believing the crap that their parent(s) who probably have little knowledge of the sport say. Why parents can't just shut up and enjoy their kids growing up and playing soccer - or any sport for that matter is beyond me. They are kids once - you can't get the time back so make the best out of it for f-sake and don't poison the player. Sorry to hear this happened.
Last Winter we there were two parents yelling racial comments regarding a American-Mexican ref during an indoor game. That did not go over well with the other (many) American-Mexicans present - mostly parents. Eventually the police had to come before things got physical - but for some reason the ref was the only one forcibly removed from the facility.
Write a letter to their coach look em up on the net. Call if your a calm person. Suggest he have a good "lie detecter " mom on board to look every kid over when being asked. Those kids need help. This does not belong in the beautiful game.
Some "latinos" called my son and his teammates "nachos" in a tournament a year or two ago... something to the effect of "you're a bunch of little nachos" etc etc. Maybe not blatantly racist, but it sure is close considering the "ethnicity" of the comment.
Got a question how can the whole team be all Latino? So their no good players in your area but Latino players? Is the coach latino? Maybe he only wants Latino players and no other nationalities. If that is true their is a possibility that the Latino coach is himself a racist. Think about it.
One club I coached at was the Brooklyn Italians. It was started by italians. But very few players on the club when I coached were Italians. There were all nationalities what you need to play were skill, vision and quickness. Those attributes come in all nationalities not just one. Their were plenty of ethnic clubs here made up of all one nationality. If you were great and were not what everyone else was you could not play for them. I would consider the club and team racisits. Plus it was hard for them to win championships against great competition.
Ok, I'm going to interject a moment of humour here. My oldest son's high school team was probably 85-90% hispanic. So, in one particular game one of our key players got kind of heated and made a really bad foul for which he was yellow carded, which he disagreed with and started to say something to the ref. Everyone started yelling for him to calm down, that he doesn't want another yellow card. So one of his teamates (also a hispanic kid) yells out, very loudly "Yeah Jose, you don't want another yellow card ... be good so your mom can get her green card!" ... everyone started cracking up at that point
I have seen teams from Hyattsville as well as Calverton area that are mostly to all Latino as well since those areas have a lot of Latino residents. I don't see the issue
I have been around ethnic clubs most of my life. Most get the players of their own ethnicity and don't want any other players.
it's been my experience that (at least for kids) local clubs normally reflect the demographics of the area. It is only when the club becomes bigger or popular that it begins to draw players from outside the immediate area.
Look if there are better players that they can get of a different nationaility and they are not getting them. There is usually a reason for it and it could be the coach is prejudiced against them. Even if you have just 2 players that are not hispanic then your probably taking the best. If they are all hispanic and they are not all great and you know of other players who are better and they are not getting the call. Something is wrong with that coach.
Around here, there are a TON of clubs. Not all of them have a lot of 'reach'--they might only recruit from a small area. If the club is based in a Hispanic neighborhood, then there you go. Also, a lot of teams are recruited through word-of-mouth and personal networks. Maybe the coach asked the guys he plays with about their sons, nephews, what have you.