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When former Major League Baseball pitcher Tommy John opted to replace a ligament in his pitching elbow in 1974, the procedure was considered extremely risky. Doctors warned the pitcher that his chances of recovery were 1 in 100. Fortunately for Tommy John he was able to recover from the injury and pitched for an additional thirteen seasons. In the decades following John's landmark arm reconstruction surgery, the procedure now referred to as "Tommy John Surgery" is commonly performed on professional pitchers. However, medical experts are now concerned that the still risky procedure will become as normal to youth athletes as filling a cavity. According, to Medscape, over one-third of all Tommy John Surgeries performed in 2005 were on high school athletes. This alarming stat supports the argument made by nearly all of my baseball coaches growing up; throwing breaking balls will mangle the arms of young pitchers. Unfortunately, today's coaches in large part do not warn their pitchers of the risk of throwing breaking balls and their failure to offer the precaution will only increase these alarming numbers.
A key battleground in the fight for gender equity over the past decade is the softball diamond. Few school and athletics administrators foresaw this development. When Title IX was enacted in 1972, most administrators believed that the law would be used mainly to give girls and women equal opportunities to participate in athletics at the expense of male athletes. Male athletic participation, in fact, was not adversely affected at the high school level, while female participation simply exploded as administrators put their focus on offering a greater range of opportunities. Administrators' understanding of the need for equitable facilities, however, was not as quick to take root, and so Title IX case law has increasingly focused on this area.
In determining whether an institution is in compliance with Title IX, the law requires the court to specifically look at the quality, availability, exclusivity of use, maintenance and preparation of practice and game facilities, as well as locker rooms. In a lot of high school sports, such as soccer and basketball, boys' and girls' teams share the same competition and practice facilities, so the only facility-related equity issues involve availability and scheduling. Baseball and softball, however, are a different matter. The two sports, while similar, require different fields of play, and as in the suit filed against the Sweetwater Union High School District by the Castle Park softball players, it is not uncommon for schools to provide their boys' baseball team with state-of-the-art facilities while their girls' team plays on lower-quality softball diamonds.
John T. Wolohan
April 29, 2009
© 2009 Athletic Business Magazine
The news of parents losing control at youth sporting events seems to never end. In Bethesda, Md., officials of a soccer league have banished all the parents from one team from the sidelines of the first two games. The reason? Some parents apparently harassed a referee over a call at a match between 13-year-old girls last season. The parents have to watch - some with binoculars -- from no closer than 100 yards away.
As a youth soccer coach in San Francisco for the past seven years, I have seen and heard about some scary behavior from parent spectators. Once when I was refereeing a match between six-year-olds, a mom from the other team ignored my repeated requests for her to stay off the field per league rules. She kept following around her little tyke, and afterwards, she and her husband confronted me angrily about "being so serious" at a kids' game. I chose not to engage, but the encounter left me rattled because it easily could have led to an ugly shouting match, and quite possibly violence.
Indeed, I got off easier than another parent ref in our league. A dad flew off the sidelines to attack him when the ref put his hand on the shoulder of the man's son to make a point during a game between second-graders. The dad was banned from attending his son's games for the rest of the season, and the incident helped prompt a crackdown by the youth soccer league against aggressive parental behavior. As part of the league's efforts, parents were required to attend special group seminars on how to behave at their kids' games.
Jim Carlton
April 28, 2009
The Wall Street Journal
April is National Youth Sports Safety month and with an increasing number of younger athletes participating in sporting events, injury prevention is becoming very important. It is imperative that parents and coaches emphasize ways to prevent injuries to their children and athletes.
Below are some helpful tips to reduce injury for children:
Wear The Right Gear: Players should wear appropriate and properly fitting protective equipment such as pads (neck, shoulder, elbow, chest, knee, and shin), helmets, mouthpieces, face guards, protective cups, and/or eyewear. Young athletes should not assume that protective gear will protect them from performing more dangerous or risky activities.
April 24, 2009
Copyright The Journal-News
The glamour, prestige and friendships that come from being in team sports bring a valued avenue of accomplishment and acceptance for children. The need to start young in learning athletic skills has pushed competitive team sports programs such as soccer, hockey, baseball, basketball, volleyball, midget football and wrestling into the elementary school years.
It is a sensitive time as neophytes to sports are given opportunities to play, develop skills and have fun in a context of games against other teams. Keeping score makes the games enjoyable.
I appreciate the dedication, attitudes and sacrifices of coaches. They give a lot of time and energy to their coaching. At the younger ages, many of these coaches are volunteers. Most have their sons or daughters participating on their team.
As I’ve observed the coaches and watched the games, I feel especially appreciative when:
- Coaches take an interest in children, recognize their personalities and work with them on developing their skills.
- The language of the coach is respectful and considerate. Coaches with tempers set a poor example.
Val Farmer
The Forum
04/24/2009
In an open 2,000-square foot, second story Pine Ave. office dotted with computers, sports banners, couches, even a nine-foot basketball hoop, a Long Beach native named Steve Hansen spends two weeks a month working on his creation that well could turn out to be the latest Internet phenomenon.
The other two weeks he's at his office in New York where he labors on the same intriguing venture in which he's in partnership with Major League Baseball Advanced Media-mlb.com - the powerful Hollywood talent company, Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and such renowned athletes as LeBron James, Derek Jeter, Peyton Manning, Ryan Howard and Jennie Finch.
It's called Weplay, as in Weplay.com., and Hansen, a 1974 Wilson High graduate who grew up in Naples and attended Rogers Middle School, envisions that one day the only youth sports community website that connects players, parents, coaches and even professional athletes will become as imperative a part of the online social scene as MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, etc.
Doug Krikorian
04/23/2009
©2008 Los Angeles Newspaper group
Thirty million kids play in youth league sports in this country.
When 30 million people do any one thing, that one thing soon becomes big business. In the past 15 years, there has been an explosion of club teams, private coaching, strength and conditioning gyms, sport-specific camps, and any other pay-to-play endeavor to capture this market. Winter indoor leagues for warm weather sports. Off-season leagues. Year-round this, year-round that.
It is all designed to help kids become high school stars and -- the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow -- help them get college scholarships.
Thirty million kids play, but for a healthy slice of that number, it becomes work.
This is the story of one of them.
For years, the father told his kid's story as a cautionary tale about youth sports burnout.
The kid was a natural. The minute she picked up a field hockey stick, she loved the game, and it loved her back. She ran the field with colts' legs and ponytail flying.
Mark Di Ionno
Star-Ledger
April 28, 2009
A generation ago we spent far more time playing outside than watching tv. While my parents look back that their childhood summers and remember playing in the neighboorhood, my children will likely look back and remember what was on TV at 3PM.
Vince Lombardi once said “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the
only thing”. It may be true in the professional leagues; it is not the right statement
for youth sports. Kids are supposed to begin to learn about
the sport they are playing and have fun with it, especially for kids on an under eight year
old soccer team. Michael Kinahan of the U8 girls team in Scituate took things
too far. "Chase every ball and dig in corners like a
Michael Vick pit bull", he wrote in an email. "I believe winning is fun and losing is for
losers" and “Second place trophies are nothing to be proud of as they
serve only as a reminder that you missed your goal." Via masslive.com
by Todd Hambleton
Sun Media
April 20, 2009
Where'd all the baseball home-openers go?
None to the east in Montreal, and none to the west in Ottawa anymore . . . so we'll settle for a spring home-opener on Cornwall Island.
There's something exciting about the start of a new season in the spring, and on Saturday night it wasn't really about "settling'' for lacrosse, but more about enjoying a sport in an excellent facility.
And, the home team, the junior B Celtics, got a win, over expansion Kahnawake, in what was the first of what will be dozens of lacrosse junior and senior, A and B home games this spring and summer.
I'll have to settle for writing about lacrosse this year. The two little guys are taking a year off from lacrosse -- they'll try football and baseball instead. (Lacrosse and soccer are out.)
But it came up in intermission conversation (between Slushies) on Saturday: we're probably going to miss playing and coaching the fastest game on two feet -- perhaps we already do. And we're probably going to get back into it down the road sometime.
Because it's just a great game.
READ MORE...
The slumping economy's effects are being felt all over, but for most local Little League programs, it's play ball as usual.
League organizers in the Rochester area said their numbers are holding steady, but they said some parents are being forced to choose how many sports their kids will play. Participation in Little League has dropped nationally and statewide in the past few years, but Little League officials are attributing those declines to factors other than the economy.
For some parents, though, cutting back on youth sports is not an option. Ken Metzger of Greece said he spends more than $4,000 per year for his three sons to play baseball, football and basketball, and he and his wife, Julie, wouldn't have it any other way.
"We realize how important youth sports are in our lives and their lives," said Metzger, whose sons play travel baseball, which costs more than Little League. "So we miss a trip to Myrtle Beach, and we'll get another year out of our gas grill, which we were going to replace. Not once did we talk about cutting back on youth sports. It's just not worth it."
Alan Morrell
April 18, 2009
Copyright ©2009 Rochester Democrat & Chronicle
To me, there is really nothing better than a night at the ballpark--any ballpark.
I enjoy the atmosphere of a high school football game or the unbridled enthusiasm of a little league baseball park.
In the past few weeks, children of all ages, from those playing T-ball and coach pitch to those playing "more serious" games, have strapped on their cleats and ill-fitting caps,and once again brought area parks back to life.
In my years in the newspaper business, I have had the chance to cover many a little league opening day and game. And, without fail, it is the little things that make those events so special.
It is the mothers trying to tuck in a young boy's shirt before he heads out on the field only to have him rip it out on the first chance he gets. Or the yell from a father to get dirty only to have his wife sitting next to him grimace at the thought of having to wash that clay out that night.
Very rarely is the action at the plate the most enjoyable part of watching little league. It is the right fielder, who hasn't had a ball him to him in four weeks, losing interest and watching as ants build a new mound.
Tim Reeves
April 9, 2009
Clanton Advertiser
by Staff Editorial
Media General Communications Holdings
April 9, 2009
With Little League starting and other sports in full swing, we look forward to a full slate of athletic competition in the coming months.
The sound of bats hitting balls can be heard throughout Culpeper and the surrounding area these days, with high school baseball and softball teams enjoying successful seasons and local Little Leaguers making their way to the diamond.
While the Eastern View baseball and softball teams are both off to tremendous starts and battling for district championships, future high school players also have begun their seasons with a fantastic celebration.
Culpeper Little League recently marked its 35th anniversary with opening day festivities for baseball and softball, which proved to be an enjoyable experience despite rain. The Rappahannock Athletic Association also celebrated opening day last weekend. It marked the 30th year of youth baseball in Amissville.
But baseball and softball players aren't the only competitors out and about now that the weather is warming up (at least some days). Lacrosse, tennis track and field hockey are also in full swing.
And don't forget those youth soccer players who populate the fields at the county rec complex. They might learn a thing or two by stopping to watch the EVHS girls soccer team. The Cyclones are off to a 5-1 start and have won three of their four district contests.
WAURIKA -- (Note: Area youngsters are about to hit the diamonds for summer baseball and softball. Good time to repeat this piece about what kids' say they hope to get out of the experience.)
One of the neat things about young kids is that they'll usually tell you what they want and what's important to them.
Granted, some things youngsters think are vital to their lives are things adults know from experience are unnecessary, counter-productive and/or dangerous. But when the topic is what children hope to get from organized sports, if adults will listen, the kids will tell us.
Three years ago, Baylor University's Health, Human Performance and Recreation Department released results from a survey of 6,000 youngsters in the lowest levels of youth sports, kids 6 to 8 years of age, who were involved in baseball, softball, football and soccer.
Asked why they play sports, the overwhelming response from the young'uns was: f-u-n. In fact, 62 percent of the children surveyed said "To have fun" was their main reason for participating.
Jeff Kaley
April 17, 2009
Waurika News-Democrat
Little League Baseball it's where I look for players and people.
For Nolan Ryan, Little League baseball was his first stop on his way to the majors, a successful business career and being a better person some may say the latter was why Little League baseball was engineered.
Youth baseball leagues were formed in the United States as early as the 18880's. In 1938 Carl E. Stotz started a league in Williamsport, Pennsylvania for children and devised rules and field dimensions for what would become little league baseball.
In 1946 there were 12 similar leagues, three years later there was 300 leagues throughout the country. In 1951 the league had spread worldwide. Little league baseball is now the worlds largest organized youth sports program with some 20,000 teams in more than 80 countries. Williamsport ahs remained central. The Little League World Series - a truly international event - is played there every year and has hit national airways through television. In 2004 the Little League World Series drew 349,379 fans with millions more watching on TV.
In a world when change seems to be happening every second its nice to know that Little League Baseball has remained pleasantly constant. For example the Little League World Series Champion is invited to the White House, and it's founding goal remains this: To teach children the fundamental principles of sportsmanship, fair play, and teamwork.
Johnny Smith
April 22, 2009
Middlesboro Daily News
Fair Play Sports has catered to youth sports while being mindful of tighter budgets for more than a year. "We are the only sporting goods store that allows parents to trade-up," said owner Cathy Benoit of the Fairpoint Drive retail shop. "As kids outgrow their gear or change their minds, parents could bring in their used equipment for credit on new gear."
Now parents will be able to trade in used bats, baseball gloves or cleats for family entertainment, too, she said.
Kimberly Blair
April 21, 2009
Copyright ©2008
MOBILE, Ala. -- A 35-year-old youth baseball coach was arrested this afternoon and charged with trafficking cocaine and carrying a pistol without a permit, police said.
Marklon Rayford Wade II is in the Mobile County Metro Jail without bond. Mobile police spokesman Officer Christopher Levy said Wade was arrested in west Mobile shortly after noon with more than a kilogram of cocaine in his possession. Levy said the police Intelligence Unit and the FBI Violent Crimes Task Force took part in the arrest.
Mark R. Kent
April 16, 2009
©2009 al.com
Jeremy Tyler has decided to forgo his senior year of high school and turn pro.
Yes, high school.
This isn't some sign of the sporting apocalypse or a teenager with an overvalued sense of worth. It's a daring, trailblazing yet well-thought-out move that challenges the bizarre way America develops amateur basketball players.
Tyler is an agile 6-11, 260-pound San Diego native, the nation's top player in the junior class who already committed to the University of Louisville. He's as close to a can't-miss NBA prospect as there is; a tantalizing mix of size, speed and smarts. Scouts project him to be the No. 1 pick in the 2011 draft, when he's eligible under the NBA's age requirements.
Dan Wetzel
April 22, 2009
Yahoo! Sports
In recent decades soccer has become a growing youth sport, while other traditional youth sports such as baseball has seen a decline in interest. The sport's popularity has even helped coin a new term "soccer moms", who have become a much sought after demographic in political and advertising campaigns. While the US Youth Soccer Organization originated in 1974, it has recently reached record numbers of members. The organization now registers over 3.2 million players annually. To celebrate the growth of youth soccer, the organization has created a national workshop largely funded by Adidas. The annual workshop serves as a must-attend event for all those involved with the sport. The workshop deals with improving many of the issues faced in youth sports including injuries, participation levels, and creating a healthy playing environment. This year's workshop was held last month in San Jose.
The other night, I had a discussion with a former coaching colleague about whether the overwhelming popularity of travel baseball will someday replace Little League and other community sports leagues.
Little League baseball, perhaps the oldest and most tradition-rich youth sports league in the world, recently changed its postseason rules to accompany travel baseball players, fearing that if it didn't, even more would migrate permanently to the organization's newest competitor.
Over the years, Little League baseball has often been imitated, but never equaled. There is only one Little League, one Williamsport, and one magical summer weekend when even the non-sports fan can't help but tune in to watch innocent pre-pubescent boys play on national television.
But with the ever-increasing popularity of travel sports, can local community leagues like Little League survive?
JON BUZBY
Apr 12, 2009
Copyright © 2009 GateHouse Media, Inc.
Lately we've been seeing Reese Witherspoon throwing the softball around, both preparing for a movie and playing with her kids. Even if you don't have kids of your own, coaching a youth team can be a great way to get in shape and feel good at the same time.
Even though you're not actually on the team, you'll run around plenty when trying to keep a team of teens or kids in check. You might want to try coaching a sport you played in high school, but you can also sign up to help coach a game you've only played recreationally. Many local teams can always use coaches, even if they aren't super experts.
04/21/2009
©Copyright 1976-2009 / Sweet! FitSugar
From the perspectives of politicians and marketing executives, "soccer moms" exercise enormous influence in 21st-century America. Corporations lust after the buying power of this vast female demographic, while candidates covet the votes of these active, engaged women.
But soccer moms exert precious little muscle in perhaps the most obvious venue of all: the sideline. Recent research shows the scarcity of female coaches, already well documented at the college level, is just as evident in youth sports. Despite the tremendous surge of female athletes empowered by Title IX, few women are taking the next step of becoming a coach -- preventing their development as leaders at a time when women should be progressing up the sports ladder.
RACHEL BLOUNT
April 21, 2009
Star Tribune
As the 13-year-old girls chased the soccer ball around the verdant field Sunday, one set of parents watched from the sidelines in comfy collapsible chairs, sipping coffee. The others were banished to a nearby hill, straining to see the action with binoculars.
The parents rooting for Bethesda's Legacy travel team at the Maryland SoccerPlex in Boyds were being punished for behavior at the end of last season, when a referee was berated for a call. Saying their actions were "nothing less than egregious," the Washington Area Girls Soccer League took the unusual step of banning them from the sidelines for two games, and a referee made sure they stayed back.
The soccer league, home to many of the area's best soccer players with 600 teams and more than 15,000 participants, has a strict disciplinary system, in which players and coaches receive yellow or red cards for rough or unsportsmanlike conduct. Some have to explain themselves at disciplinary hearings. There are also sportsmanship liaisons on each team, who are supposed to keep fellow parents in check.
Aggressive or otherwise inappropriate behavior by individual parents at soccer games or other youth sporting events happens with regularity these days. But this case was unusual because the whole team's parents were punished.
Kathie Diapoulis, league president, said the parents had gone too far. The league's disciplinary board has had better luck barring individual parents from attending games in the past three years rather than fining them, because the parents would pay the money and continue the bad behavior.
Annie Gowen
April 21, 2009
Washington Post
It’s about this time every year when parents begin to look at summer camp options and ask: “What should I look for in a good sports camp?”
My focus here is going to be on the average athlete, who plays sports strictly for fun and recreation. The very serious athlete — who probably plays the same sport year-round — has already made summer camp plans.
The camp should be one that your child really wants to attend. Talk to your child’s friends’ parents about their plans. Friends like to go to camp with friends.
There’s no sense paying to send your child to an overnight camp if he is scared to sleep away from home or rarely has. That’s a middle-of-the-night pick-up waiting to happen.
You want your child to learn and improve in his or her sport, and the best way for that to happen is to have him or her participate with kids of similar ability. I stopped paying for my son to go to the local baseball camp with all his friends when it got to a point where it was strictly social for him, not a learning experience.
Don’t get me wrong. The social part is important, but he can get that for free on the neighborhood playground. While there might be some lunch, rest, pool or social time at the camp, it should be less than 20 percent of the week.
JON BUZBY
Apr 19, 2009
Copyright © 2009 GateHouse Media, Inc
New York Times reporter Warren St. John began following Luma Mufleh's youth soccer team in 2006. A couple of years prior, he'd written his first book about noisy, histrionic University of Alabama football fanatics. This time he was chasing something much different.
Mufleh has an unassuming presence. While coaching, she paces the sideline with a quiet style. A baseball cap on her head, her voice low, she remains keenly aware of her boys on the field. In 2004, Mufleh distributed fliers around Clarkston, announcing soccer tryouts in Arabic, English, French and Vietnamese. The boys that responded became the first of the Fugees, a boys soccer team for refugees relocated from a cross-section of war-torn countries. St. John has penned the Fugees' story in Outcasts United: A Refugee Team, An American Town, a book that begins in places such as Monrovia, Liberia and Amman, Jordan, but eventually finds a way here, to Georgia.
Some of the boys on the Fugees have witnessed brutal violence. Many have lost family members. Others have spent years in squalid refugee camps. Despite arriving in Clarkston from such vastly different places, they share the experience of being a refugee, of being outsiders stuck in a new place. Outcasts United chronicles how that solidarity has brought them together on the soccer field and, thanks to the program painstakingly organized by Mufleh, become the most allied of teams.
Wyatt Williams
04.15.09
On Wednesday, April 22 at noon, The Retriever Weekly will host sports journalist and author Mark Hyman, who will speak in Math/Psych 102 about his new book, Until it Hurts:America's Obsession with Youth Sports and How it Harms Our Kids.
Hyman, who writes about the business of sports for BusinessWeek magazine and has been a sports reporter at newspapers all over the country, has already received national attention for this, his second book. Most recently, Hyman wrote the Players column for the April 13 issue of Sports Illustrated, in which he touches on the subject matter of Until it Hurts.
The Retriever Weekly recently exchanged e-mails with Hyman, asking him about his new book and the process he went through to complete it:
The Retriever Weekly: How did you decide on the topic for Until It Hurts? Is this something you've always been curious about?
Mark Hyman: I cover the business of sports for BusinessWeek, and I've been writing for some time about the business of youth sports. I'm very interested in the ways that adults have shaped youth sports. Over time, I came to the conclusion that youth sports have been re-engineered in ways that suit the interests and tastes of adults, sometimes at the expense of kids. I wanted to write about how that happened and how that has shaped the culture of youth sports.
Alexander Pyles
April 14, 2009
Copyright: The Retriever Weekly
...The program also was designed to cross social and ethnic barriers and gang boundaries to let students see what they have in common, said Rob Castañeda, founder of the non-profit Beyond the Ball, which uses a variety of programs to bring together youths with diverse backgrounds.
"We're seeing kids growing up who would be enemies just because of where they live. They form relationships in the sports realm that wouldn't have been there otherwise," said Castañeda whose program organizes basketball games at Little Village Lawndale High School
Studies in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom suggest a direct relationship between youth sports and reduced youth crime rates. A Canadian survey of such studies, released last year, lists "several rationales as to why youth sport reduces youth crime," including keeping kids busy while developing self-esteem, teamwork, athletic and decision-making skills.
Jon Davis
April 15, 2009
Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune
A Rhode Island measure to regulate the actions of parents at youth sporting events has been met with strong opposition. The measure issued by Rhode Island State Senator John Tassoni would create a volunteer run council of concerned parents with the power to fine unruly parents. The proposal has faced legal challenges as since the bill was introduced in early March. The American Civil Liberties Union has challenged the legality of the proposed council and played an instrumental role in delaying a vote on the measure. The ACLU is concerned about the standard being set by the state of Rhode Island to issue fines and penalties freely.
As the temperature rises, so does the risk associated with strenuous activity. Recent statistics have alarmed the Mayo Clinic to such an extent that they have begun to focus significantly more attention on the issue of dehydration and youth sports. According to their report, knowledgeable adults often underestimate the impact heat has on children. Children produce significantly less sweat and generate more heat than adults do, increasing their risk of dehydration. The report focuses closely on who is particularly at risk and what steps can be taken to diminish the possibility of becoming dehydrated.
Soccer, meet sobriety. As 30,000 fans were introduced to the Seattle Sounders FC, Major League Soccer's newest franchise, during its March 19 home debut against the New York Red Bulls at Quest Field, about 60 attendees stopped by a booth hosted by alcohol-management alliance TEAM Coalition to film public-service announcements about responsible drinking. It marked the first time "Responsibility Has Its Rewards" PSAs were filmed in conjunction with an MLS club.
Fans read a script from a teleprompter and received a copy of their message electronically, with the hope that their take would be selected to be included in a PSA broadcast or video board announcement. A partnership between federal and state highway safety authorities, concessionaires, stadium service providers, the brewing industry and broadcasters, the "Responsibility Has Its Rewards" campaign promotes traffic safety, positive fan behavior, responsible alcohol consumption and designated driver programs at collegiate and professional sports venues and entertainment facilities. Newly minted Seattle soccer enthusiasts put their spin on a familiar designated-driver theme: Sounders Fans Don't Let Fans Drive Drunk.
April 8, 2009
© 2009 Athletic Business Magazine
When I played city league baseball as a child, I cared about what I was doing very much and wanted to win badly.
But as an adult, I can't tell you in what place any of my teams finished, or even on which days of the week, exactly, we used to play.
I do remember my teammates -- most of them, anyway -- and having fun and running around, long before my knees started going bad. We were kids back then, playing just as much for the exercise as anything else.
In today's youth sports world, however, that might not be enough. Parents are starting kids off younger and younger, and once started, they are often more serious about success and "reaching the next level."
This week, I got involved in a debate with a former youth league coach over what happens when baseball games are rained out, rescheduled for Wednesdays in conflict with some players' mid-week church services, and the parents of those kids send them to church instead of to the game. The coach wasn't happy about having to accommodate those families.
In my opinion, we're crossing more and more lines every day, and youth sports is now being played as much for the adults' benefit as the kids. Parents have enjoyed cheering on their children for generations, but as a former youth player, referee and hopefully a future coach, I think we are emphasizing the games themselves over the sports experience.
April 8, 2009
JESS NICHOLAS
Copyright © 1997- 2007 The Advertiser Co.
It's taken a while for this So-Cal sports gal to find a place in her heart for Chico's sports community. I was stoked to watch the Pleasant Valley High School AAU Springtime basketball showcase tournament, but sadly, my time was wasted.
With more than 120 teams comprised of kids from fourth grade to 12th grade visiting from different areas of Northern California, I was excited to watch them all.
I'm usually glued to the action on the court, but my eyes seemed to focus on parents in the stands telling the girls to be more aggressive and to try to take the other team down.
So, these ninth-grade girls from Santa Rosa did just that.
Elbows flying, arms flailing and coaches screaming out of control - but they still couldn't dominate on the scoreboard, as the team lost 35-10.
Pushing and shoving was the objective of the game, as scoring baskets didn't seem like much of a priority for the "Nothin' but net" Santa Rosa team.
I was truly disgusted with these girls.
4/8/09
Natalia Ferruggia
© Copyright 2009 The Orion
Reprinted from Until It Hurts: America's Obsession with Youth Sports and How It Harms Our Kids, by Mark Hyman. Copyright © 2009 by Mark Hyman. By permission of Beacon Press, www.beacon.org.
* * *
Even 27 years after playing his last Little League game, Patrick Grady still can't forgive coaches and league officials for what they took from him.
At the time, Grady was 12 years old and playing Little League baseball in Westchester County, New York. By his account he was one of the league's star pitchers, striking out most of the batters he faced and winning almost all the games he pitched. His coaches were impressed. They pitched him constantly. During his two Little League seasons Grady estimates that he was his team's pitcher in two-thirds of its games. There are Little League rules to prevent such abuse. But as Grady recalls, his coaches disregarded them, and league officials didn't object.
Even when Grady's arm began to show alarming signs of overuse, grownups failed to step in. First his elbow ached. Then he began to lose feeling in his pinkie and ring fingers. Through it all he kept pitching. During an all-star game featuring the most talented players from the local league, Grady was the pitcher and alerted his coach to a terrible pain. When rain delayed the game for a while, the coach led Grady off the diamond to the snack bar. There, Grady insists, the coach stuck his star pitcher's arm in the freezer next to the ice pops, so that with his arm at 30-degree temperature, "I'd be numb enough to pitch the last four innings."
Mark Hyman
April 7, 2009
si.com
Soccer in Europe is like baseball or football in the United States; it’s a ritual and a pastime. However, soccer is rarely acknowledged in the United States as a major sport. Yet, when European star David Beckham came to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy, soccer was thrown into the spotlight.
Although many Americans refuse to admit soccer’s validity as a “real man sport,” its popularity continues to rise throughout the country.
The United States has its own professional soccer league which has a total of 15 teams. Due to the rise in popularity, a new team was added to the league in 2009. The Seattle Sounders Football Club is the newest addition to Major League Soccer (MLS) with a very talented roster. They are owned by high profile celebrity Drew Carey and have had a good start to their franchise.
The team defeated the New York Red Bulls in their first game. Their goaltender, Casey Keller, is arguably the best goalkeeper the U.S. has ever produced and produced a shutout in the first game.
Compared to Europe, the teams here are not as skilled or talented. However, the European players are slowly integrating into the MLS. The additions and growth are enhancing the playing level of the U.S. teams.
Allison Horne
April 1, 2009
©2009 G. Broaddus
Point pondered while logging plenty of frequent-driver miles in the rusted-out, power-steeringlessm '91 blue Chevy with a white hood to determine that the service station that's adjacent to the Wal-Mart in the area that used to be called "Lakehurst" on Waukegan's far southwest side is selling the least-expensive gas around here.
The point up for discussion has to do with a sight seen all over the place these days, but NOT seen in very many places during the summer:
Kids playing soccer.
And an inquiring mind wants to know why? Or why not?
If you turn your way-back machine way, way back -- in other words, if you're old enough -- you might be able to recall that when youth soccer was first emerging as an organized activity, one of the big fears was that kids wouldn't sign up to play the "new" sport because of scheduling conflicts with long-established youth baseball/softball programs.
April 7, 2009
© Copyright 2009 Digital Chicago, Inc.
Patience is key when dealing with youth sports.
Having patience has everything to do with dealing with youth sports.
I can give reasons why we must have patience in our everyday life, whether it's driving from one place to another or waiting for a solution to a problem. But, for the sake of the Youth Sports Corner, I'll keep it within the realm of youth sports.
Youngsters need to see patience provided by coaches and players at a young age.
There are elementary kids who play in a participatory sport and sometimes they show more patience than a coach or a parent.
© Copyright 2009 The Log Cabin Democrat
Mike Allen
Rarely has a book left me feeling so conflicted. Part confession, part cautionary tale, Mark Hyman's little book carries a big message about the "hostile takeover" of youth sports by adults. "Until It Hurts" is a must read, but it's not an easy read. We're likely to see ourselves, but unlikely to like what we see.
Parents, understandably, are loath to admit that their vision of youth sports, no matter how well intentioned, has gone terribly awry in many cases. "With each passing season youth sports seems to stray further and further from its core mission of providing healthy, safe, and character-building recreation for children. Rather, sports for kids has evolved (and devolved) into a playground for those who invited themselves to the games and, like irritating dinner guests, refuse to leave the party - parents, coaches, and other interested adults," writes Hyman. "It's not the presence of adults that is distorting youth sports. Rather, the issue is our well-documented impulse to turn sports for children into a de facto professional league."
By Brion O'Connor
April 5, 2009
Boston Globe
The problem is prevalent, its prevention oft-overlooked.
Youth sports leagues and other group activities are particularly vulnerable to individuals keen on doing harm with one of two things — your child or your money.
Prevention, at least enough to dissuade would-be perpetrators, is a matter of common sense and fortitude.
Yet the frequency with which the problem occurs is alarming. The battery of examples is illustrative of how vast it has become:
04/05/2009
By David Migoya
Copyright 2009 The Denver Post
SureWest Communications has started a television show dedicated to youth and high schools sports in the Sacramento region, the company announced Monday.
The 30-minute program airs 7 p.m. Wednesdays and is replayed several times throughout the week on i2TV Channel 702 on SureWest digital TV, and online at surewestsports.com. The show is managed by SureWest and hosted by Mike Finnerty, editor-in-chief and president of Front Page Sports, a community sports Web site.
The show will feature scores and highlights from local youth and high school games.
SureWest (Nasdaq: SURW) is a Roseville-based telecommunications provider serving parts of the Sacramento region and the Kansas City area.
April 6, 2009
Melanie Turner
Sacramento Business Journal
STOP the pimping. Big-time college basketball and football are professional to the point of predation as universities and the media make billions off "amateurs" who cannot get paid. It is time to drop the hypocrisy and pay the players.
The latest reason has been provided by the University of Kentucky. It hired basketball coach John Calipari away from Memphis, paying him $31.65 million over eight years. His total compensation involves a web of millions of dollars in agreements the university has struck with shoe, athletic-apparel, and soda companies as well as marketeers of broadcast rights.
The athletic department says (as UConn Final Four basketball coach Jim Calhoun recently asserted in his famous tirade defending his $1.6 million salary) this is no problem because it is self-sustaining, sucking nothing away from educational resources. University of Kentucky President Lee Todd behaved less as a CEO of higher learning than as a stupefied gnome counting his treasure.
"If you have a coach who's charismatic, who can really help the marketing image of the university, he will generate more money for us than the differential pay that we've had to go up to in order to get him," Todd said.
So Calipari gets millions because universities bank on millions more from companies that make billions more still from unpaid amateurs who model gear on TV and ring up baskets on scoreboards that flash more ads and sponsorships than Times Square. Many of these amateurs are African Americans playing their way out of poverty, only to stay in relative poverty as they caddy the Caliparis into their country club memberships.
Derrick Z. Jackson
April 4, 2009
The Boston Globe
Years ago a six year old boy with Down’s syndrome begged his mom to play baseball. Calls were made from one end of the county to the other only to find no such team sport existed for these Special kids. That all changed with the last phone call. In spring 2004, Dos Pueblos Little League eagerly opened their arms and heart to the challenge. The DPLL Board of Directors welcomed all boys and girls with physical and developmental “challenges” to join with “typical” children on the ball fields of Little League.
Readers may not know who James Naismith is, but everyone knows basketball. Naismith created it in 1891 in response to a request to devise a game that would create an “athletic distraction” for a disorderly and disruptive class at Massachusetts’s Springfield College, a YMCA training school. The sport was implemented as method to address and improve social conduct.
Soccer, an ancient sport, reportedly began in China. Evidence suggests that Chinese military used to play the game during their free time, kicking the ball into a small net. The game was also played by the ancient Greeks and Romans. Scotland and Britain share the credit as co-founders of the modern version of the game.
Before the onset of electronic gaming, baseball was historically known as America’s favorite pastime. The game, which shows early beginnings as a game played by British and Irish immigrants, then known as “rounders,” was invented by Alexander Cartwright in 1845. Cartwright’s New York Knickerbocker Base Ball Club was the first organized ball team in the history of baseball.
William G. Morgan, an instructor at the YMCA in Holyoke, Mass., invented a game called “Mintonette” in 1895 for a class of businessmen. During a demonstration game, someone remarked that they were “volleying” the ball back and forth over the net and that might be a better name for the game. On July 7, 1896, at Springfield College, the first game of Volleyball was played.
Parents of successful children often reflect on the impact of athletic activities. These and other sports such as football, swimming, racing help youth develop life skills that enable them to work as a team, solve problems and develop strategies to meet the challenges of life.
31 Mar 2009
TheWesternEdition.com Copyright ©
The National Youth Sports Safety Foundation has proclaimed April as National Youth Sports Safety Month to promote safe behaviors in athletics.
Over 3.5 million children under the age of 14 incur sports injuries annually, according to SAFE Kids USA. Most of these injuries occur during practice rather than during games. Consequently, it is essential that young athletes practice safety on a regular basis before, during and after the game.
To help kids stay safe, Rick Kay, co-founder of Cleatskins, suggests the following tips for parents and kids to help reduce injuries:
-Warm up properly before playing to prepare the body for physical activities
-Make sure to use the proper equipment for each specific sport
-Teach athletes the correct way to fall or slide to prevent injuries
-As young athletes grow, invest in new protective gear grow to ensure the proper fit
-Keep your cleats in good condition to prevent injury on the field
-Don’t walk in your cleats off the field without a cleat cover or removing your cleats to protect from slips and falls
March 31, 2009
Copyright ©2008- 2009 XKSanDiego.com
X-ray bone analysis by the sports ministry in China’s southern Guangdong province found 3,000 out of 15,000 youth athletes had misrepresent their ages, according to state-run Xinhua news agency (in Chinese here).
The Guangdong ministry conducted examinations of all top eight athletes in every sports event at last year’s provincial youth championships, as well as athletes who have signed up for this year’s youth sports games. The 3,000 turned out to be older than the age they had reported. Of those, 2,000 who exceeded the maximum age limit for their event events will not be allowed to participate in any event next year. The rest will have to switch into different age categories to compete in this year’s events, Chinese media report.
Ye Xiquan, deputy sports chief of Guangdong province, some athletes were six to seven years older than the age they’ve claimed, and the strength events had the most age faking cases. “We want to make sure that those who faked their ages will take no advantage,” he said.
March 12, 2009
China Journal
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