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The enduring greeting card image of Father's Day is of a dad brandishing a set of tongs over a smoking barbecue grill.
These days, a more realistic image would be of a dad sporting a baseball cap and whistle, clutching a clipboard filled with lists of names, play diagrams and game statistics. Or, chauffeuring a budding athlete to a faraway practice or game, and staying on to cheer, fill up the water cooler and hand out high fives.
The soaring popularity of youth sports finds many dads juggling work schedules in order to direct practice drills or plot the lineup for next season's youth league sports teams. These unpaid volunteer coaches and dedicated dads are the unheralded heroes of Father's Day.
Wendi Winters
June 21, 2009
Copyright © 2009 | Capital Gazette Communications, Inc.
Summer sports camp can be a very intimidating environment, especially for campers who have never attended. And especially for children on day one.Jon Buzby
June 21, 2009
Copyright © 2009 Gatehouse Media Inc.
Steve DeVries has a message for parents of young athletes -- "relax."DeVries, 60, has a doctorate in sports psychology. He's a professor at Cornell College in sports psychology and sports sociology. He also offers a coaching authorization class.
DeVries is also a former coach who spent 18 years directing the Cornell wrestling program. And he's the father of two sons who were successful youth, high school and college athletes.
DeVries loves athletics and says they play an vital role in our lives. They teach valuable lessons.
Steve DeVries
June 20. 2009
© 2008 Gazette Communications
I am 19 years old. Female. Latina. From East Oakland.
My parents emigrated from Mexico with little education. My father died when I was 2. My brother got caught up in drugs and gangs.
I just finished my freshman year at UC Berkeley.
At Moscone Center in San Francisco this week, 4,500 people are attending the National Conference on Volunteering and Service to talk about ways that people dedicated to serving their communities can change lives.
I am living proof. One changed my life. She's the reason I'm at UC Berkeley. She's not a tutor or a teacher or a legal advocate.
She's a soccer coach.
Zulma Muñoz
June 22, 2009
Where is the cutoff line when it comes to touting a young talent as the next great athlete without that player ever having played above the high school level?
There was a story a couple of weeks ago in a national publication about a high school sophomore baseball player named Bryce Harper. Harper made the cover of the publication and the feature story went on to detail how he hits the ball over 500 feet, has a 96-mile-an-hour fastball, etc... The article went on to detail how baseball scouts believed he would be a top-five pick in this year's draft if he were eligible.
The problem I had with the article is the fact it puts a lot of pressure on a kid who is barely old enough to drive. It just seems irresponsible to me that a player who has never seen a pitch at the Major League level would be given this kind of media attention.
Ryan S. Pugh
June 18, 2009
The Clarion News
Every so often, I run across old Chicopee friends who swap stories about our years in youth sports.
I try to avoid saying that on the whole, those were some of the gosh-awful worst days of my life.
Which is why, as I read Bill Wells' recent series in this newspaper about adults who cross the line and spoil kids' sports, I found myself of two minds.
On the one hand, I agree with him, wholeheartedly. What bothers Bill also bothers me, and I am glad he shed light on these issues.
On the other, I am convinced that as a rule, youth sports have never been handled more safely, fairly and sensibly than they are today.
Ron Chimelis
June 17, 2009
masslive.com
Much was made of Old vs. Young in this year's Stanley Cup Finals. The older Red Wings against the younger Penguins with the assertion that the older players were wearing down and the youngsters were thriving through the grueling Stanley Cup playoffs. This concept is not unique to hockey or sports in general -- it is a commonly held view that youth equals less injury and easier recovery from physically taxing activities. This is something to which I, as a mid-thirty-something weekend warrior, can personally attest to. As a sports physician though, I can also attest to the fact that younger people are far from immune to damage, in particular to what we call overuse injuries.
Dr. Sean Bak
June 18, 2009
Copyright ©2009 the Observer & Eccentric Newspapers and Hometown Weeklies
At a recent baseball game, the 12-year-old second baseman on my son's team had a ground ball take a nasty hop, hitting him just next to his right eye. He was down on the field for several minutes and was later diagnosed at the hospital with a concussion.
Thankfully, acute baseball injuries like this are on the decline, according to a new report. However, several leading physicians say overuse injuries of young players caused by too much baseball show no signs of slowing down.
Dan Peterson
LiveScience
12 June 2009
HIGH ON THE list of most obnoxious persons on earth is the mother or father who berates and cheats and manipulates, all in the name of peddling the most beautiful and talented child in the universe.
Theirs, of course.
Stage parents are regulars on competitive youth circuits, from pageants to academics to sport. We've seen them, tempers off the chain, second-guessing coaches and officials, arguing and fighting with other adults and growling at children. It's a nasty disease, uncomfortable to witness.
Well, this particular stage parent is vying to become the Father of all Stage Parents.
His name is Ron Harper, he lives in Las Vegas, and he has decided his son is too cool for high school. Why get an elemental education and experience the joys of being a boy when manhood and potential millions are beckoning?
By Monte Poole
OAKLAND TRIBUNE
06/16/2009
Little Johnny Smith winds up to fire a high, hard one toward home plate. Tommy Jones takes the borderline pitch, which umpire Specs Callaghan calls ball four, forcing in another run. Tommy's manager goes crazy, berating Specs loudly and with exaggerated gestures, as fans in the stands pick up the infection and begin their own profanity-laced tirade against the arbiter. The tirade turns even uglier, and pretty soon Specs is wondering whether he's going to survive to ump another game.
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