Innocence lost

LAS VEGAS — Excitement suddenly turned to fear for the 49ers youth football team as players ran off the field holding their stomachs and began vomiting violently on the sideline.

Parents and coaches helped the eight boys, ages 12 to 14, into cars and headed to the hospital, ending the practice for a championship game a few days later.

No one knew it at the time, but the sick 49ers had been poisoned, casualties in an epidemic of parental rage sweeping through youth sports.

Coaches are being threatened, referees assaulted and kids hurt more than ever by the parents of some of the estimated 30 million young players in organized sports.

From parents brawling at a T-ball game in Florida while 4- and 5-year-old children watched to a father being beaten to death at a hockey game in Massachusetts, anger is growing.

Leagues are responding by banning rowdy parents from the stands, holding silent games and trying to teach coaches and parents how to behave.

When that fails, authorities are putting the worst offenders in jail.

"From road rage to airplane rage to cell phone rage, children in sports aren't immune to all of this. Now we have sideline rage," said Fred Engh, head of the National Alliance for Youth Sports.

Violence against umpires and referees has prompted many states to get tougher. The Illinois Legislature recently passed a bill mandating penalties for people who assault sports officials, while 15 other states have similar laws.

Experts from across the country will meet in Chicago on June 8-9 for a summit on how to control violence in youth sports. They hope to create national guidelines for parents.

In the meantime, the number of cases continues to rise.

"It's a reflection of when the parents grew up in recent years with violence in their childhood being the norm," said Richard Lapchick, who runs Northeastern University's Center for the Study of Sports and Society. "It would be unrealistic to think all of them have matured enough so that this violence didn't carry over."

Bad calls can lead to attacks and near riots. Sometimes, though, parents become dangerous by using misguided logic to try to help their children.

• In San Fernando, Calif., a father was sentenced last year to 45 days in jail for beating and berating a coach who took his 11-year-old son out of a baseball game.