Dear All-Star parent:

First of all, congratulations on your son or daughter being named to an All-Star summer league baseball or softball team.

It’s an important accomplishment in their young athletic lives and hopefully not the last one they’ll achieve. Some of you are All-Star veterans whose son or daughter has been playing at this level for three or four years.

Double congratulations to you.

As a former All-Star parent and someone who has covered youth league sports for the past 35 years, let me offer some advice to both the newbies and the veterans of what I call the All-Star Experience.

‰First and foremost, enjoy the experience.

It can be the best time of your life if you’ll let it. Your son or daughter will wear the All-Star uniform proudly and do their best to make you proud. My All-Star Experiences were enjoyable and some of my favorite family memories. We had a blast. If I could relive some of those moments, I would.

Let this All-Star Experience be times you’ll cherish for a lifetime, too.

‰Don’t be an armchair coach.

It’s easy to get caught up in who’s starting and who’s not and why that has happened. Nothing will ruin the All-Star Experience quicker than a parent who thinks he knows more than the coach. While you may well know more than the coach, he or she is still the coach and is devoting time to lead the team. Don’t forget that. Your two cents isn’t worth two cents. And if it’s your loud mouth that’s causing the rift with the team, it will ruin the All-Star Experience for you and your child.

If you want to coach, get involved with the league and start earning your stripes. Most of the time, coaches that win the league are rewarded with All-Star assignments.

All-Star coaches will ask your opinion if they want it. Otherwise, keep it to yourself – and that means at the dinner table, too. Remember, your son or daughter is listening to everything you have to say about the situation.

If you’re saying the coach doesn’t know what he’s doing, guess what that impressionable All-Star is thinking?

‰Relax, you’re going to lose.

No matter how good your team may be, the All-Star Experience is likely going to end with defeat. It’s inevitable. Think about it. In youth league history in our area, only one team has ever made it to the World Series of a particular All-Star tournament – Ashland’s 1994 13-year-old Babe Ruth All-Stars. And guess what? The first game of their experience started with a defeat and then it ended with a defeat on the biggest stage of all.

Don’t let the loss, whenever it happens, spoil the All-Star Experience. And when

that loss happens, for goodness sake, don’t blame it on the umpires (even if they miss a call). Blaming every loss on umpiring teaches impressionable children a couple of things: 1) We never lose, we only get cheated. 2) It doesn’t matter what the authority figure thinks: We’re always right, they’re always wrong. Is that the message you want to be sending?

‰Enjoy the moment.

Trust me, this time will pass by too quickly. Don’t let it be a time when your son or daughter remembers how ugly you acted because of a silly game. Win or lose, enjoy the All-Star Experience. Savor it inning by inning and pitch by pitch because it’ll be gone before you know it.

Good luck to you and your All-Star.

MARK MAYNARD can be reached at mmaynard@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2648.