I think the hockey dad needs to spend a long time behind bars.

Maybe you have heard of the hockey dad.

He's the guy - Thomas Junta, by name - from Massachusetts who killed his son's hockey coach.

He killed him after a practice session that was supposed to be noncontact.

Junta was watching the practice from the stands and became enraged when he saw body checking going on. Junta thought the practice session was too rough.

I don't know if his kid got knocked down or what, but Junta didn't like what he saw.

I don't really get that because hockey, generally, is a rough sport, but what do I know?

Anyway, Junta goes down on the ice and accosts the guy in charge, Michael Costin.

Both these guys are fathers of kids on the team, mind you.

They argued on the ice and they brawled in a hallway.

Junta left the area, but returned a few minutes later and a second fight broke out. Prosecutors say this time, in full view of several kids on the team, Junta pinned Costin down and banged his head on the floor until he lost consciousness.

Costin died a couple days later.

Frankly, I don't see anything that could possibly mitigate the circumstances of this case.

I mean, really, what can this Junta guy say in his own defense?

What he is saying is that he was trying to defend himself, but that seems like nonsense given that he was able to "escape" once and came back for a second helping.

The other thing that makes me more than a little skeptical about the self-defense theory is that fact that Junta is 6 feet, 1 inch tall and weighs 275.

Costin was 6'-0", 150 pounds.

Obviously, Junta had no problem "defending" himself, now did he?

It will be interesting to see how the case, now on trial in Cambridge, will play out.

Both of the kids are scheduled to testify.

It's almost unbelievable, isn't it?

Well, no, unfortunately it isn't.

Violence among parents and coaches has worsened over the past decade.

There have been numerous incidents where coaches or parents have been punched in the nose or worse over their kids' ball games.

What must these parents be thinking? What kind of example are they setting?

The Alliance For Youth Sports is an organization in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Fred Engh, the group's president, said, 'You have to have the maturity to deal with the emotions of having your child involved in sports, but unfortunately we have some parents on the sidelines screaming and yelling. If you don't have the maturity, then you shouldn't be allowed to participate.'

I tend to agree.

While I have never seen anyone killed over a kid's game, I have seen some pretty ugly fan/parent behavior.

A while back I attended a non-varsity basketball game.

Several fans of the home team were quite vocal. What they were yelling wasn't obscene or vulgar, but it was very negative and pointed.

They were mainly yelling at the referees. But they also were yelling at the other kids on the team. (-- or kids on the other team?)

In this particular game, the home team was killing the visitors. They were up by around 20 points in the fourth quarter.

The referees had called just two fouls on the home team in the second half. Seven fouls were whistled against the visitors, so the home team was shooting free throws.

One of the refs blew the whistle and called what looked to me like a pretty routine blocking foul on one of the home team players.

The home team fans erupted. They shouted that the ref should get a real job. They belittled the ref for not being good enough to do varsity games. They told him to get glasses.

OK, I understand some passion, but really. The home team was up by 20 points in the fourth quarter.

The ref called a simple foul - only the third on the home team in the whole second half.

To listen to these fans, on their feet and yelling, you would have thought it was double overtime and the ref put the star of the visitors on the freethrow line with the score tied and two seconds left in the game.

Frankly, it was kind of embarrassing.

I know, I know, it's "Hoosier Hysteria."

How aptly named is that phenomenon?

We all know what a Hoosier is, and hysteria is defined as a "psychoneurosis marked by emotional excitability and disturbances of the psychic, sensory, vasomotor and visceral functions."

But the hysteria isn't just for basketball. It's all sports where parents come to watch. I realize it's a minority of parents who engage in emotional excess, and it's probably not the end of the world or anything unless you get carried away like the hockey dad.

But it is a strange phenomenon, nonetheless. Think about it. It's as if all the rules of social decorum go out the window at sporting events.

It's a place where adults can throw tantrums like infants, threaten people, hurl insults and epithets and it's considered socially acceptable.

By all means, go out and support your team, but be positive.

Make your kid proud. Make your team proud. Be a role model.

Act like a grownup, for crying out loud. [[In-content Ad]]