"Your father should be fired!"

Sportsmanship in Bethesda, reported here in The Washington Post.

The kids were acting just fine - kids often do. This time, the parents were the ones cordoned off to a special corner of the stands for a time-out.

To mix my sports analogies, the "sin bin" for the rowdy helicopter moms and dads was 100 yards from the field, enforced like a restraining order by field managers with cell phones.

In the words of the League president and one of the calmer, more rational parents:

"This isn't World Cup soccer...this is seventh grade."

What next - bags of urine and car batteries hurled onto the field?

The Legacy team lost, 2-0. Their parents filed glumly off the hill, their timeout completed. They put their sweaty daughters in SUVs and minivans and quickly left the parking lot.

Many of the vehicles had stickers with the league's motto: "Lasting Friendships Through Soccer."