Grace Under Fire: What My Son Taught Me About Composure
Grace Under Fire: What My Son Taught Me About Composure
When my 12-year-old son faced heckling parents while umpiring a Little League game, he showed me that real composure isn’t about control—it’s about grace, even when others lose theirs.
Grace Under Fire: What My Son Taught Me About Composure
Some lessons in sports come quietly, wrapped in moments you wish hadn’t happened.
On Thursday night, my son had his first real problem as an umpire. A group of parents from the opposing town didn’t agree with his calls and started chirping at him through the fence. The final play was close, a tag at the plate, and when he called the runner out, one father yelled at him directly. You can see it here.
He’s twelve years old. A kid doing his best, learning responsibility, courage, and fairness. And a grown man decided that was the right time to yell at him.
No one stepped in to tell the parent to stop. No coach spoke up for him. As much as I wanted to, I didn’t yell either. I filmed the incident, sent it to the head of the umpire crew, and calmly explained what happened. I learned that lesson the hard way a few years ago when I lost my cool over a coach who was bullying another kid umpire. This time, I wanted to show my son that composure wins out, even when your instinct screams for justice.
After the game, I asked how he felt about it. He shrugged and said,
“They must not be too smart. Did they think yelling was going to make me want to give them more calls?”
I couldn’t help but smile. That kind of clarity, that ability to see through the noise, is what I want him to carry into everything he does.
But this experience also revealed something broken in youth sports. These kids need advocacy. Every game should start with a coaches’ meeting where a parent liaison is clearly identified, someone the umpires can go to when adults forget how to act. Because it’s not if this happens again, it’s when.
We can’t control how other people behave, but we can decide how we respond. My son showed grace under fire, and that’s a kind of victory no scoreboard captures.
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