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Youth sports have changed dramatically in the past 25 years. Outside of select urban and rural pockets there has been a sharp decrease of unsupervised sandlot play. It has been replaced by travel and recreation teams, federation sports, and pay-to-play elite clubs. For both boys and girls, youth sports now have a ‘professionalized’ look and feel. The economic impact of this new model is in the billions but its cultural impact is gauged differently. Now, youth sports are anything but child’s play.
Deeply ingrained in American life, athletic games form a common thread between generations. Strenuous exercise, life-lessons and important relationships gleaned from the fun of healthy competition are helpful to a young person’s positive development. A microcosm of the national mood, sport is pervasive and it will speak to us if we are listening.
Once, parents were rarely involved in the games of children and early teens - they just didn’t have the time. For millennia, games and play were the ‘unsupervised classrooms’ that taught young people life-lessons in problem solving, compromise, team-building, accepting defeat, winning with grace, doing the ‘right thing’ without being told, choosing weaker players, critical thinking and dealing with bullies. The fun was actually putting the games together with friends. We later learned it was never about the game at all, it was always about the relationships.
Today, many parks are empty of children unless a coach is on the field. As organized youth sports replace unsupervised play, we need to recognize the cultural importance of these life-lessons once gleaned from unsupervised play. Shaped by this new ‘professionalized’ model, the life-lessons and behavior of youth players are now almost entirely informed by adults at youth sporting events.
Traveling to games and juggling family schedules, seeing higher competition and the still higher expense of time and money, it’s easy to forget about the fun and life-lessons. Suddenly important, these games create performance expectations on young players, coaches and officials. Ironically the pressures taking the fun out of youth sports have nothing to do with sports but originate with the adults; parents and coaches.
The pressure has manifested itself in public spectacles and emotional hurt. Since adults are solely responsible for organizing youth sports, only adults who value the culture of youth sport and its impact on the broader culture can remedy this situation. This requires that parents take the time to become knowledgeable and certified, and take positions of authority in youth sports.
The New York State Education Department (NYSED) requires certification of all New York State school sponsored high school and modified school coaches (grades 7-12).
Youth coaches on the other hand, of players in grades K-12 on all non-school sponsored teams, do not need any NYS certification, yet there are millions more children and thousands of coaches on non-school sponsored teams.
If the norm is organized sports, then adults are critically needed to maintain order during games. These adults are the certified game officials. They are typically paid for their work but due (1) skyrocketing sport participation and (2) officials retiring due to on field turmoil, there is a well-documented shortage of experienced game officials. This places inexperienced officials into pressure-packed games prematurely and exacerbates the conflict during games. Turmoil from non-participants is cited as the primary reason experienced game officials retire early from their sport at a time when the number of players is growing rapidly.1
In the 1970’s there were four or five primary organized youth sports for boys while there were few opportunities for girls. Today the number of sports benefiting both genders has skyrocketed. Youth soccer has grown so ubiquitous that mom’s and dad’s whose children played soccer were identified by political marketers in the last three national elections.
Unbelievably, by the time children are 13 years old, 7 out of 10 of all youths nationwide drop out of organized sport. This occurs at precisely the first time in their lives when young people are making important choices affecting their own identity and personal health.2
From a public health perspective alone, the data available on youth obesity and increased sedentary behaviors requires that adults do everything possible to encourage an increase in youthful physical activity.
Reasons for the dramatic drop-off in organized sports at age 13 include increased competition or other bona fide outside activities. Yet we also know the youth sports environment drives millions of children away. Among the chief reasons are conduct by coaches, other players and verbal assaults by parents during games.
The growing anti-social conduct in youth sport includes; adult-induced cheating, illegal performance enhancing substances, parent-coach conflicts, on-field trash talking, parent-parent conflicts, referee assaults, fan misconduct and other criminal behavior. Related violence resulted in at least two manslaughter charges in 2005 alone.
Where unsportsmanlike conduct was once the worst offense, today we are on new ground. Sports leaders (professional leagues, game officials, academia, youth administrators, coaches, educators) are trying to get their arms around the problem.
With the current focus on organized youth sports as the sole physical recreational opportunity for children, its impact on childhood development is at a critical stage. This will become a central feature of research by the SUNY Youth Sports Institute.
This situation sets the stage for potential liability issues for those facilities who permit youth sporting events to be held at, on or in their facilities. The SUNY Youth Sports Institute is working with experts in the field researching the topic of whether exposure is increased due to the combined atmosphere encouraged by a lack of certified youth coaches coupled with emotionally involved non-participants.
