

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.
Jon Buzby
June 21, 2009
Copyright © 2009 Gatehouse Media Inc.
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
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
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
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
Dr. Sean Bak
June 18, 2009
Copyright ©2009 the Observer & Eccentric Newspapers and Hometown Weeklies
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
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
