I went to a local high school girls’ basketball game recently, ready to watch some friendly rivalry between two cross-city teams. Watching the athletes warming up, I wondered how they’d gone to school all day long and then had the energy to play basketball.

The stands were filled with family and friends, and I thought the game would be pretty exciting because the teams were evenly matched.

The athletes were great – some of the fans were the problem.

This isn’t my first encounter with over-the-top fans. I went to a Pee-Wee football game once to see if the league was a good fit for my youngest son. While we were watching the game, an elderly man in the stands kept yelling “Spill some blood! Spill some blood!”

Right then and there, I decided Pee-Wee football was not for us.

Most parents enroll their children in organized sports because they want them to be physically active, make friends and learn to play on a team. Then there’s others who believe their child is better than everyone else and they push and bully their child and the coaches.

They’re the ones who scream at their child from the sidelines and blame the coach and every other child on the team for any and all losses. They’re in the minority, thank goodness.

But I’m realistic and understand the enthusiasm of football fans, especially with the Super Bowl coming up. Entire cities wear their team’s colors, fly their pennants from their car antennas and wear that team’s jerseys every game day. 

Years ago, we had season tickets to the LSU football games. Charles McClendon was LSU’s coach at the time, and, like most college football coaches, people either loved him or hated him.

There was one man who sat a few rows down from us at the games, and every other play he’d yell “You couldn’t beat Bunkie,” a small Louisiana town of less than 4,000 people.

I expect college football fans to react with passion and volatility – people take their college sports, especially football, seriously. How else can you explain how grown people will walk around with a foam block of cheese on their head?

Football fans love a winner and hate a loser, and LSU fans are no different. A few months ago, rumors were flying around Baton Rouge that LSU was going to get rid of long-time head coach Les Miles.

His record over the past 11 seasons with the Tigers is 112-32, and I thought the fans admired him and were happy with his coaching.

But I found out differently – it seems Miles has trouble beating Nick Saban who was the former LSU head coach and current head football coach at the University of Alabama. Saban left LSU for “greener pastures,” and beating him is a matter of pride for the Tigers.

Did it matter that Miles had beaten Ohio State for a national title? Did it matter that Miles has four times as many wins as losses? Nope. It only mattered that he hadn’t beaten Saban enough times.

But I’m not in Tiger Stadium. I’m at a high school basketball game and most parents are cheering great plays, three-point shots and when a player returns to the bench.

But a few parents are yelling at teen photographers for blocking their view. They’re yelling at the officials, they’re yelling at the coaches and yelling at the players.

If we ever wonder why young people today know how to behave at public events and scratch our heads because others have trouble, we don’t have to look far for the answers.

They learned from their parents.

 This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.