
November 7th, 2007
As Petaluma’s youth soccer season begins to wind down and 2,500 players get ready to hang up their cleats for another year, one very controversial game has provided Petaluma soccer parents and their children with a valuable opportunity to contemplate the importance of respect, good sportsmanship and considerate behavior on and off the sports field.
For many Petaluma kids, the soccer field is one of the very first places where these and other important values are introduced and instilled. That is, unless the parents or coaches fail to appreciate their significance.
That appears to be the case in the now-infamous game played by a Petaluma under-16 girls soccer team in Windsor recently in which angry verbal exchanges and profanity by players and parents alike culminated in the Petaluma coach unzipping his pants and bending over in a crude message of intense disrespect to the opposing coach and his team.