...I was sitting in the middle of several player families for the Friday night game against FSU and there was a Hokie "fan" one row down that started off amicable enough. He was chatting up the family folks around him and was pretty vocal toward the officials, but when the game started to get away from our girls, he started screaming at them to "throw the ball" and other things. These girls were following their coaches and struggling to hang on to the game, but as FSU got the best of them with their speed, he got more frenzied. The moms around us told the crowd to stop yelling at the players, but this guy would not let up. Finally, the mother of a player (different from the one he was yelling at - that player's mom was actually sitting right below him) stood up, turned around, and looked him right in the eye while telling him sternly to "Stop yelling at the players." She wasn't irate, but she meant it and the player's mom was right between them. He may not have know they were Moms, but it was clear to everyone around us that he needed to shut up. Instead, the guy goes after her yelling "freedom of speech", "they're professional players" and "I'm a donor" to defend his nonsense. The whole section kept repeating "don't yell at the players" and he kept doubling down. Finally, another Mom got up, walked down and stood right next to him. She looked him in the eye and said "Are you yelling at our players?" He started spouting off to her about why he has a right to yell at them and luckily the police moved in. No one was about to hurt anyone, but none of us needed a "fan" like that behind home plate with the game on the line. The police asked him if he really wanted to ruin everyone else's experience and he started to push back, but finally got up and walked out with them. This behavior drives me crazy and it's from adults and alumni who should behave better. My son went to HS with the Glennon boys and we had to move at football games because the fans around us were brutal with what they would yell at Sean. His Mom got to the point that she couldn't even be in the stadium during his games and waited on campus until it was over to support him. I moved my seats after his senior year to be near students because, while the students may say things distasteful about our opponents, they rarely berate our own players. Can't say the same for our older "fans" and those people (you know who you are) just need to cut it out. I was proud of the softball Moms for sticking up for their players and was so frustrated by the "paid professional" justification that I heard from that guy and often see on TSL about our basketball players. These players can get money for name, image and likeness use. That doesn't give anyone the right to yell at them about how they are playing. Even if you were paying them directly for their performance, you can't yell at an employee because you want them to do something different. You can't berate your waiter without being asked to leave a restaurant and you can't yell at these kids just because you gave some money to the university. These players are still learning a game they love. They need our support and we need to have their backs when things don't go their way. Our coaches are not throwing games, they want these wins as much as the rest of us. They know more about what their players are prepared to handle and they will make mistakes. Just give everyone a little grace and let these kids play the game they love with all our support. No player should ever change their game strategy based on someone yelling at them from the stands. This week, we have a fresh start to do something great this season. Softball America predicts we will host. That says a lot about the quality of play this year and no one is happy about where we've stumbled. The good news is we have had the opportunity to learn from that and can move on to be even better, if we just believe in ourselves. Please be supportive and give these coaches, players, families and true fans a great experience when we all return to TSP.