If the making of laws and sausages are the two things no person should see, then the frequently atrocious behavior exhibited by parents of youth athletes has to be a close third.

Parents: A pain in the neck (and elsewhere)

Unfortunately - since dealing with youth athletes is, you know, my job - I get to see this nonsense on an all-to-regular basis.

Volcanic anger, misplaced priorities, living vicariously through their kids, general pettiness that would make a political campaign blush - it is amazing the kind of example some parents set.

(And let's not lay a blanket description over all moms and dads. Most are quite sane. Many, however, have lost perspective and the ability to create rational, coherent thoughts when it comes to their child.)

The examples are plentiful. The Butte mother (possibly grandmother) screaming obscenities at a referee from the Flathead gym balcony during wrestling divisionals. The several Libby parents crying out accusations of a conspiracy between officials at a boys basketball game in Bigfork. The unsigned letters and anonymous phone messages left at the paper claiming bias or criticizing the choice of a profile as being unworthy.

The sheer audacity of suggesting a high school kid is unfit for recognition in the local newspaper transcends jealousy and enters the realm of mean-spirited.

To be sure, poor parental behavior is not confined to the Flathead. Every week there is a new incident that lowers the bar - most frighteningly when violence becomes part of the story.

Referees and umpires are attacked so frequently that some states have enacted special laws to protect them. Coaches have been shot and beaten with bats and punched and kicked.

And for what? What provokes parents to not only abandon any pretense of sportsmanship but civility as well? Is it just unchecked anger or is there a belief that there is something to be gained from such outbursts?

Perhaps a new TV series will shed some light on it. Bravo is debuting a show called "Sports Kids Moms & Dads" on June 1. The series "follows five families' daily struggles and conflicts as their child athletes strive to excel in the highly stressful, competitive, 'win at all costs' world of sports," according to bravotv.com

If this show's two predecessors - dealing with showbiz and showdog parents - are any indication, "Sports Kids" will not be a flattering portrayal of what some will drive their kids to do.

Sports parents behaving poorly is not a new phenomenon - "Friday Night Lights" and "Remember the Titans" leap to mind as examples - but it certainly seems to be spiraling downward.

And if you are one of these bad apples, it's time to take some accountability for your actions and start acting like well-mannered adults. The glory your child may achieve while playing sports does not flow back to you, so stop carrying on like some personal injustice has visited you every time Junior is called out on strikes or didn't get mentioned in a story.

The games - and remember, these ARE games - will be much more enjoyable for everyone.

This week's top 10 (down to three after seven items stood in line all week to see the new "Star Wars" and caught colds):

. 3. The next big thing. Always ready to latch on to the latest hot trend and pretend I've been riding that bandwagon since sixth grade, I watched a bit of college lacrosse Saturday, thanks to ESPNU being free this weekend on DirecTV.

Over the last few months I've heard and read about the growing popularity of lacrosse, and now I see why. It's fast and physical with a reasonable amount of scoring. A better understanding of the rules would probably help, but I was entertained all the same.

Indoor lacrosse (what I watched Saturday was outdoor) has a professional league, and plays on the same size surface as hockey, and the play itself is very much like hockey, with fighting and everything.

Amazingly, the National Lacrosse League has been around (under various names) since 1986, yet only now is the sport starting to catch on. Could it have something to do with the hockey lockout?

. 2. Close call. How scary was that stumble by Afleet Alex at the top of the stretch run? It only lasted a second or two, but I still had thoughts of a badly injured horse needing to be put down.

And if Afleet Alex had gone down, Scrappy T likely would have been disqualified and your winner would have been … Giacomo.

. 1. Local girl makes good. Former Flathead Bravette Chelsey Lorenz and her current team, Central Arizona College, won the National Junior College Athletic Association Division I softball national championship Saturday in Clermont, Fla. Statistics from the tournament weren't available last night, but Lorenz was a big part of the Vaqueros' success this year.

Andrew Hinkelman is a sports writer for The Daily Inter Lake. He can be reached at hink@dailyinterlake.com