Eltham has a terrible reputation for this. I have heard (third hand) some abuse/threats from people involved at both a domestic and Rep level on coaches, refs and administration that you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy. The association continues to turn a blind eye constantly.

They are not alone though. Knox, Dandenong, Mckinnon are other examples.

BV need to stand up and either sanction the associations or pull their afilliation. Zero tolerance in my opinion.

Some of the worse offenders in thr club ive just left WERE on the committee or exerted influence over those on the committee. Some clubs are just a pooor environment and culture and wont change. Alot of it is about the socioeconomics of the re region the club is based in.

to make sure we don't confuse things. it is the eastern districts junior basketball association (EDJBA), Eltham plays in it alongside bulleen, Warrandyte, Collingwood, Blackburn/Nunawading, doncaster and a range of domestic clubs.

it is a different setup to most other associations. it is the largest domestic competition outside of the vjbl in the country

I've actually witnessed parents telling supervisors its their right to question the referee's from the sidelines and that they shouldn't be doing it if they cant handle criticism or get it right, mind you it was U12's and the refs were probably 16 or 17.
I walked away absolutely dumbfounded. No wonder associations can't keep referee's interested, as said above, would they like their kids copping a mouth full at Coles?
The BV spectator code of conduct is crystal clear about behavior and its time the clubs did more to weed out feral parents and have zero tolerance to this problem.
Yes there is a problem in the EDJBA.

Ive approached my clubs officials about this problem and asked what they are doing to control and educate parents on the behavior code and they looked blankly at me.
They don't want to know about anything beyond what team their kid is in or what team they get to coach.

Nothing worse than parents screaming at the kids from the sideline in a maniacal angry state because they just got out rebounded etc. TBH its a massive issue in all sports kids drop out at the first rebellious age to escape the crazy sideline parent syndrome. Parents need to leave white line fever to the kids.

I've seen first hand how badly parent can hold back talent by being to involved - actually telling a child to be a ball hog makes your child Scott No-Friends people. You love you child, the team want to beat him up.

When your child drops out or under achieves, have a little think about ENCOURAGING your actions truly are or were. There's a huge difference between pressure to diamond and behavior to implode.

Poor behavior is either taught or tolerated.
As parents, coaches, players, spectators and administrators we all need to take responsibility for our actions.
Ask yourselves this: what are we teaching others by our actions? what are we tolerating by our actions?

Do something about it, just like racism, poor sportsmanship and bad behavior is equally damaging to young minds.

Or parents taking their kids stats from the sidelines then comparing their stats with their kid with other kids in the team. OR worse still bribing kids for getting better stats with cash rewards. LOL then they wonder why no one wants to play with their kids or work with them later in life!

Parents with stop watches clocking their kids court time, then the mad stare at the coach across the court, Checking stats, booing.

@Hanging Round you are a TROLL, stay under that rock please!

I know this is an old thread but thought I would just add a line or 2. I would not say it is not badly behaved parents but a badly behaved sport. My kids play in the edjba as well as myself being a coach. I have been a loud parent on the odd occasion but for extraordinary reasons. Having your child hip and shouldered on a face break layup on so many occasions and no fouls called makes anyone angry. It is just dangerous. Having your son punched in the eye with the foul makes one angry. Having your son kidney punched with no foul makes one angry. Having your sons knee being stood on while on the ground make with no foul makes one angry. Having the centre ref colluding with the game refs to foul count a specific team makes one angry. Having refs target a specific player to get the fouled off because they know the opposing coach makes one angry. I have many many more but you get the point. Most of the time the poor or compromised refs cause the problems. Occasionally there is a crazy parent and abusing refs is not on but calling them to account when they are putting kids in danger or are trying to manipulate the game then something must be said. At the end of the day it is a kids sport and they play for fun. Apparently many refs do not see it that way. Our solution. We have stopped player and now play soccer.

It is so funny when one has a conversation with one's self.

I think you both raise some valid points. I too have noticed an increase in what can only be described as deliberate violence in children's basketball. What I've noticed (have an u/8's boy and u/12 girl), is that unsportsmanlike fouls do not get called, even when one has clearly occurred, the refs are letting more rough play go, which then escalates.
Apart from the refs not addressing the issue though, is the coaches and parents. We had a boy in the u8's last week tackling kids, the ref called fouls, but his coach did not take him off, even after 3 of our players had been helped off the court (for 3 seperate crazy fouls), his coach did nothing.

And then there's the parents, If a child of mine was acting like some of these kids, I'd be grounding them until they learned how to play in the spirit of the game and with good sportsmanship. I would be embarrassed, certainly not applauding them as some seem to do. Bizarre.

It is squarely on the associations to provide support for the refs full stop. I have reffed for 10 yrs now (in my early 40's) and the level of disrepct, abuse etc is a huge issue. whilst the standard of reffing can vary, coaches, parents and players have the most responsibility of this full stop. picking out specific plays etc and trying to blame the refs for abuse etc is ridiculous.

Amazing attitude here, I use singular because if you're going to agree with yourself in a pseudo 2 person conversation try using a different punctuation and grammar style...

Rookie error.

But the bottom lie is there is a massive issue with treatment of officials. To the parent who took this kid to soccer good luck to you, soccer is a sport rife with poor sportsmanship so it suits you perfect.

Good riddance.

Trust me, soccer is no where near as bad as basketball at the junior level. We have played both sports simultaneously for some years and basketball is a much rougher and aggressive sport. My son has never had an injury from soccer but bball, the list is long. While there are some good bball refs they are few and far between. What most fail to realize is they have a duty of care to the players. I have also never seen an unsportsman foul being called. A ref is never going to get every call right but when they blatantly ignore some of the most aggressive, we have a problem. In all the years we have have played bball I have never seen a player sent off. Any form of aggression in soccer will see the player leave the field. Basketball at the U12-18's really needs to have a look at itself.

Good riddance!! Hmmm... you must be contributing to the reason why we went. Honestly.

How can you compare soccer to basketball from a rules perspective.

Basketball is a far more skillful sport therefore more technical.

Soccer is all about the fake, milking a free and theatrics...

I am not talking about skill. That is something completely different. What I am talking about is the level of violence and the following adjudication in what is supposed to be a non contact sport. Junior basketball lets you get away with some quite ugly things. As I said, the same happens in soccer and you are given the red card and see you later notice.

LOL Soccer, a game where if someone brushes past you you then fall over screaming in pain to milk a free... Please.

Such a bad sport for toughness and sportsmanship.

My kids have been playing Basketball for 10 or 12 years now and none of them have had an injury that I would say was caused by 'violence'. Plenty of regular sporting injuries but non I would consider the refs could have prevented. It's a physical sport and if you are playing in the paint you will expect some contact. If you/your kid is uncomfortable with it, don't allow it to stop them enjoying the sport. Get them to practice shooting threes and join the legion of olayers that stand and spectate from outside the arc waiting for the ball to be kicked out after the hard work has been done.

The problem is refs cannot really prevent an immediate injury but they can act on it to try and stamp out the cause. Our experience is they just give a simple foul when in some cases stronger action is needed. Our finals game in an U15's (B grade)edjba game was ugly to say the least. The refs did not pull up kids on rough play so it just escalated. These were adult refs as well. I must say the 3 finals games were all poorly ref'd but we have become used to that. We have been playing since U9's and have noticed the ugly side of the game has become more prevalent. It is not common but it is there. We have also found that as the speed of the game increases, some refs struggle to keep up with the game which causes problems. Not sure what the answer is there?

This thread is bizarre!! I've been involved with junior basketball for 30 odd years and the amount of acts of "aggression that is uncontrolled and dangerous" I've seen.....well there really haven't been too many.
"level of violence" ???
Please

I obviously need to get out more. Whereabouts in "da hood" is all this violence going down?

It's ironic that in a thread about badly behaved parents, we have a large number of adults (likely parents) blaming everyone else for this behaviour.

Referees, generally are teenagers, players are children but rough play and mistakes by referees are an excuse for said behaviour.

Same as what happens in every stadium every weekend, likely the reason the thread was started.

Referees make mistakes. Players make mistakes. Any parent who can't except that should drop their child off and sit in the car.

Adults need to behave like adults. This thread is embarrassing and unfortunately a true reflection of the behaviour that makes this sport such a negative horrible environment for so many.

#511, spot on, best post of the entire thread.

Just on these so called "acts of violence", of which I've rarely ever seen for every "rough child" there's a coach and at least one parent, why don't you clean up your kids behavior too rather than blame the poor refs...

Some parents need banning from the stadium full stop.

Well if we clean up the kids behaviour we do not need refs. You cannot cherry pick who will play sport so in order to combat that you need refs that will do a reasonable job. In fact they are paid to do a job as bball ref'ing is a paid profession. What I have found in the many years I have been involved is that once you have become a striped shirt ref you are left to your own devices after that. I think at least every so many games you should be evaluated on a random inspection. It does not happen often but I have seen (and coached against) refs that do collude to change the course of the match. I experienced one not 3 weeks ago where I caught them talking to try and give more fouls to a particular team. Like I said it does not happen often but it does happen. When they do this it does tend to fire up players and parents alike. Saying educating parents and kids should be done but is simplistic. It is like saying if we educate people more about the road rules no one will break them. It is just not going to happen.

#591 Referees are there to enforce the rule. Travels, Double Dribbles, stepping out of bounds and even most fouls have nothing to do with players behaviour.

Your other comments are disrespectful and unfair and an example of the typical attitude of always blaming someone else.

#591. Amazing attitude. The fact you try to catch them out shows your mentality.

Yes the refs are paid but its a token amount and they are certainly not paid to be abused.
Equally from personal experience the majority of the time i see parents going off its because they dont understand the rules or their kid just go beaten.

I am not blaming anyone else. If my team does such a thing they will be off for the rest of the game and the game after but I know many a coach that will not do that. My point is that refs do collude on occasion and I have made formal complaints only to be told just live with it. The refs sometimes do get a hard time for little to no reason but there are those occasions where they are doing the wrong thing. Everyone needs to take some responsibility because atm there are the odd very ugly games. At the end of the day, it is kids sport (mainly) and they are meant to be having fun.

The coaches and parents need to take their fair share of the responsibility for rough play.

For every criticism you have of officials for allowing rough play you're also throwing the coaches and parents under the bus too.

I am not throwing everyone under the bus for the rough play usually results in a victim who is trying to just play the game. That child/parent has no control over the other player/parent hence we need the ref to step in and do what they are supposed to do. Do not forget collusion/bias of refs. It is amazing what some will go to just for a cheap medal.

Again with the unfounded collusion claim.

Take it up with your Association. You're claiming referees are cheating, which is disgusting and unless proven have no place in a public forum.

I am not giving names or games where this occurred as it is only a point for discussion so unless we live in China I am well within my rights to voice my experience. If I hear a centre ref tell the game ref to up the foul count on a particular team, how else am I supposed to interpret that?? I have been to the club regarding ref conduct in the past only to be told that if they start chasing refs the game will have no refs and hence no game. I am not sure of the logic in that as the integrity of the "ref" must be paramount.