SPMT 304 Movie Paper The movie Kicking and Screaming is a family sports comedy starring Will Ferrell, and Phil Duvall. In this movie Will Ferrell plays the role of a soccer Dad (Phil Weston) who is an average father who runs his own vitamin store. Phil ends up stepping up to become coach of his sons soccer team after the coach quits and no other parents volunteer. As the movie progresses Phil’s coaching style undergoes a transformation from being centered on learning and having fun, to being solely focused on winning the championship. Although this movie initially appears to be nothing more than a rather pointless comedy, it actually touches on many issues and controversies going on today in sports. Through the parents actions, and the way the kids react to different styles of coaching, the issues of sports for children, and race and ethnicity in sport are clearly displayed throughout the movie. From the very start of this movie clearly displays parents, especially fathers who push their sons very aggressively to succeed in sports. In fact the opening line of this movie is Phil Weston stating: “I was born a baby, a blank slate. I thought I was in control of my own destiny, and then I met my dad.” Following the quote, a baby version of Phil is handed a mini soccer ball from his father (Buck) and he tells him “You better be good at this stuff.” Just from this opening scene the viewer can clearly see the pressure to succeed in sports placed upon children from their parents. Coakly states that “sports are highly visable activites and become sites where mothers and fathers can prove their moral worth as parents. (91)”. As Buck was implied to be talented at sports it is imperative to him that he is able to produce a son that is also talented. It is likely that Buck will feel a great sense or moral worth if he is able to succeed in this task, yet feel failure if he is not able to. For children this does not appear to be changing soon as Coakly states “As long as parental moral worth is linked to the achievements of their children… parents will be deeply involved in and concerned about youth sports.” Unfortunately handing Phil the soccer ball, and placing pressure on him as an infant, might not be so farfetched in today’s society after all. Along with the ownership parents take with their kids in sport, often comes the intensity, and yelling from the parents. Throughout the movie, as the parents become more invested into the team they begin getting more intense and start to yell at their children. According to Coakley “When coaches and paretns constantly shout directions during games, it is unlikely that children will feel comfortable… making it nearly impossible for children to emotionally bond with and claim ownership of a sport. (102). We can see during this movie that the more intense the parents get the less and less the children even care about the game. This is evident during a practice when Phil tells one of the players “I saw a bunch of nonsense out there! What was going through your head out there last week?!” This is definitely not constructive criticism, and upon hearing this you can see a look of defeat in the player and it appears like he wants to give up on playing altogether.
Another issue that is highlighted in this movie is the ongoing debate of play versus sport. It is argued that compared to the baby boomer generation, there has been an extreme shift in the amount of time children spend playing an organized sports versus just playing. Coakly cites that when he played sports “I spent at least 15 hours in informal, player-controlled sports for every hour I played or practiced organized sport” (93). Compared to the way children are involved in sports today, the way children play sports have gone through a 180-degree shift. This is evident during a scene in one of the first practices that Phil holds for his son’s soccer team. As someone who has never coached soccer Phil essentially just rolls out a few balls to the kids and lets them figure out what to do. At first the kids appear to be dumbfounded, as if they have no idea what to do in this unstructured environment. However the practice quickly turns into utter chaos, as Phil compares them to “Whirling Dervishes” after they tackle him. Coakly states that “ Play is the foundation for motivation in physical activates… When play is absent in sport experiences, dropout rates are high.” (98) Throughout the movie, Phil’s coaching style undergoes a drastic change, espcailly once he brings on Mike Ditka as his assistant. There is scene when after the team loses, Coach Ditka appears enraged and says : “I don't care about appreciation, I just want to win a soccer game” It is clear how much focused coaches place on winning from this outburst. Phil’s coaching style becomes so hardcore that he appears to be a lunatic because he wants to win so badly. It gets to the point where it is clear that the kids are not enjoying their experience at all because Phil has such a desire to win. One of the problems with children’s sports today according to Coakly is that: “Youth sports have lost their child centered focus, meaning there is too little emphasis on the child’s experience and too much emphasis on winning. (96).” At the end of the day winning a youth sports championship means next to nothing, especially compared to the experience that children get out of playing sports. Many parents today fail to see this, and in the movie this is exhibited when Phil fails to play his own son in order to win games. An additional problem in youth sports is the under qualification of coaches involved in youth sports. According to Coakley “Most important, say the experts, is that all coaches must compete a coaching education course and be regularly recertified. (95)” It is very clear in this movie that Phil does not have a background to be coaching youth sports and he definitely never took a class. He was basically thrown into the role as coach out of necessity and clearly during this movie he shows why he is not qualified for the job. According to the Youth Sports National Report Card, the United States only received a C in coaching. This study believed that our youth sports system “failed to adequately train and evaluate youth sport coaches. (96)” Having under qualified coaches only hurt the children participating in youth sports and does not give them the experience that they deserve to have. One of the most embarrassing parts of youth sports today has become the actions that some parents take throughout the course of a sports contest. Coakley says that: “Parents are increasingly assertive and disruptive as they advocate the interests of their children… A few have even attacked and even killed others over sport-related disputes.” (90) This shocking trend of violence with parents in sports is displayed a couple of times throughout the movie. First Phil kicks his son in the shins in order to motivate him to play better. Even to hardcore coach Mike Ditka this appears to be extreme as he says in shock: “Did you just kick your son?!” In this case a parent even places violence onto their own child because they have gone so crazy. There is another, more extreme case later on, where after a bad call Phil loses it on the referee. He runs onto the field yelling at the referee, and after he is ejected he throws a chair onto the field that inadvertently hits a player. The saddest part is it seemed like this scene was supposed to seem extreme, however after the state of youth sports today, this is something that you could easily see during a youth sports game. Another aspect of this movie is interesting to me because it ties in an issue of sports for children and race and ethnicity in sports. In order to bring a boost to their team, Phil and Coach Ditka recruit two Italian kids to their team. Coakley says that “Racial ideology influnces the ways that many people connect skin color with athletic performance.” That is why before these two kids become the superstars of not only the team, but the whole league, we already assume they are good because they are Italian. The Italians also exhibit an amazing style of soccer that the American kids clearly do not. In many European countries (Coakely uses France as an example (94) there is a greater emphasis on play over the controlled aspects of sport. The way the Italian kids play seems to be a much more free flowing, fancy style compared even to the best team in the league who plays more of a structured style. “French coaches explained, informal games are a place where children develop a personal “feel” for the game (94). The play versus sport debate is still going on, however I think this part of the movie displays that the two different approaches definitely produce different types of athletes. Coakley comes to the conclusion that the three main reasons the youth sports experience is lacking is because “they’ve lost a child-centered focus, neglected the evaluation and training of coaches, and reflect too much orientations of overzealous parents who have unrealistic expectations” (103). During this movie these three elements are clearly displayed in a multitude of different ways and show the problems with youth sports today. I do not think this movie was made in order to do so, however you cannot ignore the similarities between the book and the movie. In fact I think this movie is almost a model of the issues facing youth sports in todays society. As a society we can clearly improve the state of youth sports, and this movie gives us a clear view of this idea.

Works Cited
Coakley, J. (2015). Sport in society: Issues and controversies (11th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill Education.
Dylan, J. (Director). (2005). Kicking and Screaming [Motion picture]. Universal.