No team player wins or loses a game all by himself or herself. There's nothing wrong with Mandy, even if she was having an off night. She was on the team, and I presume she wouldn't have been there if the coach didn't think she could do the job. If the coach thought she was was not up to it (and assuming he had a strong emotional investment in winning, whether the kids were having fun or not), he should have pulled her then and put somebody else in. Sounds to me like the coach and/or his wife was trying to find an excuse for losing the game and needed someone to blame it on. Pathetic!!

When parents (and coaches) get so involved in winning and losing that the kids wind up getting dumped on, I think that's kind of sick. Many a great sandlot baseball game or soccer game occurs when it's organized and played by the kids themselves, without a parent in sight. Whatever happened to the idea that sports are supposed to be fun? When cut-throat attitudes and tactics trickle down to kids' sports, sumpin's pretty damned wrong.

Don Firth