Is This Creepy, Or Am I Just Paranoid Becasue Of What I Did For A Living?

Last weekend, my son played soccer in a tournament in Tooele County at the Desert Peaks rec center out there.  It was called the, Under the Lights tournament.  Played late at night to avoid the heat.

And that worked out pretty well.  It was much cooler when the game started at nine o'clock at night on Thursday than it was when they had to play on Saturday at four o'clock in the afternoon!

But something kind of creepy happened on Thursday night.

The Utah Youth Soccer Association rules mandate that all fans and players of a team must be on the same side of the field.  This is to keep fights from breaking out, and it's a good rule.  The first night, we played on a field with a big hill on the south side, and that was our teams side.  You can see the hill in the picture above.  And I chose to watch up at the top of it with some of our other fans, instead of at field level, just to get a better view.  Well, just after half time, our coach, Frank who is about as level headed a guy as I have ever had the pleasure to know (he doesn't get upset easily) turns around and says to some guy, probably about 30 years old, sitting on the hill down from me, "If you're a fan of the other team, you need to go to the other side of the field.  You can't sit there and keep cheering for the other team."

I'm up higher, I hadn't heard anything the guy had said, but he was sitting right behind our team, off to my right.  You're not allowed to sit on the same half of the field with your team, either.  Fans have to be on the opposite side of the half line than the team.  Another good rule.  Allows the ref's to know that on one side of the half line is only team members and coaches.

I didn't hear what this guy said to Frank, but I got up to go over there anyway, figuring there might be a problem. But the next thing Frank says is, "Well, you can't sit behind the team, you have to move to the other side of mid field."  So the guy does, but he keeps talking.

He's running his mouth so I finally walk over, very quietly and stand right behind him, uphill from him and listen in for a minute or so.  What I hear is, "I'm just here to watch some soccer!  I can sit any where I want!  It's a public park!" 

That is true.  It's a public park.  But I finally have heard enough to figure out whats going on.  I think.

It's ten thirty on a Thursday night, and you're a grown man, maybe 30 years old.  And you're sitting in a park watching teenage boys in shorts, who you don't even know, get sweaty.  Are you following me, or am I just a paranoid, ex-cop?  Thought so.

When I finally speak to him, from right behind him, and he didn't hear me coming, he about jumped out of his skin.

I said to him, "You can't disrespect our coach like that.  The rules say you have to be on the other side if you're rooting for the other team.  So you need to move."

His response?  "I played soccer for 25 years!  I'm just hear to watch the games!"

"Well", I said, "So you're telling me that a full grown man has nothing better to do at ten thirty on a Thursday night, than hang out in a Public Park and watch a bunch of teenage boys he doesn't know play soccer?  Cause that makes me a little nervous.  So I'm going to go back up to the top of the hill, and keep an eye on you."  And I went back to where I had been standing.

He left a few minutes later, making sure to go WAY out of my way when he did.  So, I'm guessing he wasn't as dedicated to, "The Beautiful Game" as he was to teenage boys.  And that's creepy.

After the game, the coaches wife said, "My first thought was the guy was a pedophile!"  I told her what I said to him to make him leave.  She got a good laugh out of that.

I usually only wear a gun when Danny's team plays in West Valley and Magna, or Ogden.  Now?  Maybe I'll make it regular piece of my game day wardrobe.  That whole experience creeped me out.

I might be wrong.  The guy might just have been a soccer fan.  After all, I used to love watching Murray Girls Softball when my daughter was playing.  So every time my son would bring a new girl, friend (notice, I didn't say, Girlfriend.  I mean a friend who happens to be a girl...) home from school, I always asked if she was a softball player.  Because if they hit it off, I would have and excuse to go watch some games!  It was a great way to spend a spring evening.  No luck.  He doesn't know any softball players.

And I don't want to go hang out at the softball field when I have no connection to any of the girls playing the game, even though it's a great game to watch.  I'm sure their parents would be keeping an eye on me, too!  As well they should be.

But in this instance?  I don't think I was wrong.