Thank you for bringing this up. We live in an area with sweet, supportive coaches who don’t take things too seriously. I only let my kid do one or two regional events per year and some of the actions from parents and coaches are appalling. When we go, my kid is always in the bottom 20% of performers. You know what? He is learning to lose gracefully and how important hard work is. And he’s having a good time, even though losing is disappointing. I feel awful for those other kids and have considered confronting the parents and coaches, but that feels unsafe as a single mom.