Emotional Injuries

Much has been written lately about the emotional damage coaches can do to youth athletes.

Being the mother of an athlete is a challenging yet rewarding role. So momsTEAM has designated May as Sports Moms Month and is celebrating by asking some of our favorite sports moms to share their wisdom by responding to a series of questions.

So far this month we have heard from a fascinating range of sports moms, from a mom of an Olympic athlete to moms who were themselves Olympic athletes, from a mom of two former minor league baseball players to a Minnesota hockey mom and author.

Today, we hear from Canadian youth sports reform advocate and sports mom, Elaine Raakman:

Recently, I learned that one of the players on my hockey team was Tweeting negative statements about another player. He claims he though that only the other player could see it. We discussed the situation with him, told him it was unacceptable, and asked him to remove the Tweets and apologize to the team. He started out by saying to his teammates,  "I was told I need to apologize for Tweeting," and then promptly quit. Wow, talk about lack of sincerity or honesty.  The incident offered several "teachable moments", which we will take advantage of as we work through this issue.