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Look! How international and cosmopolitan we are -- we play fútbol! We have our own stars now with fabulously transcontinental-
sounding names, Landon and Jozy. We've proved our point: We've learned to say "pitch" instead of field, and that's good enough for us.
Why is it that Americans expect to win in every sport we compete in except for soccer? How is it that a nation so obsessed with games seems abnormally lacking in ambition when it comes to the most popular one on the globe? We devote reality TV shows to scoring everything from cooking to surviving in the wilderness with a canteen and a sharp stick. Yet we treat a loss in the World Cup round of 16 to Ghana as only mildly disappointing. Failure in this instance is acceptable.
In comparison, France was so collectively upset by its World Cup implosion that President Nicholas Sarkozy launched an investigation, and officials have called the team a "stain" on the national character. Coach Fabio Capello is under such heat for England's exit in the round of 16 that bookmakers are taking odds on how promptly he will be fired.
As for we in the States, well, we never expected to win the whole thing.
We're just happy with the ratings. We're glad that our national team
made American children put down their brain-dissolving console games for
a few minutes and lured their parents away from baseball, or their
summertime fruity drinks with the little umbrellas in the backyard.
Read more at washingtonpost.com
Parents join kids as leaders in close-knit community league.
by Alan Morrell
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
April 6, 2010
EAST ROCHESTER -- Youth soccer is a real family affair in East Rochester.
The president of East Rochester Youth Soccer is Duchessa Cavaliere of South Lincoln Road. Her husband, Duca Cavaliere, will be coaching soccer for the first time this year. Their 9-year-old son, Ericco, and 7-year-old-daughter, Maria, both play for the league.
The league's registration coordinator is Michelle Griffith of Landsdowne Lane in Pittsford. Her husband, John, will be starting his third year as a coach. Their children -- 9-year-old Sarah, 7-year-old Hannah and 5-year-old Leah -- all are players.
Another team has a husband coaching and his wife serving as the league's sponsor coordinator.
by Staff
Around the Rings
February 8, 2010
The first edition of the Africa Youth Games host contract between the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) and the Local Organising committee represented by the Morrocco National Olympic Committee and the Ministry of Sports was singed on Wednesday 3 February at Atlas Hotel in casablanca, Morrocco.
The games are targeting young Africans athletes (boys and girls) aged between 15 and 17 years. The Games will be held from May 9th to 15th 2010 in Rabat.
14 sports desciplines will be on the programme: Athletics, Basketball (3 vs 3), Boxing, Fencing, Football, Gymnastics, Judo, Rowing, Swimming, Table Tennis; Taekwondo, Tennis and Wrestling. Exceptionnally, 2 sports: Swimming and Gymnastics will be hosted in Casablanca.
Lambert's rough play vs. BYU draws unwanted attention to tournament
AP - Nov. 6, 2009
PROVO, Utah - A University of New Mexico soccer player has become an Internet celebrity for the wrong reasons.
Junior defender Elizabeth Lambert was suspended Friday for her infractions the day before during a 1-0 loss to BYU in a Mountain West Conference semifinal. Lambert is seen in video from the game throwing elbows, colliding with several players and then yanking the ponytail of a BYU player who went crashing to the ground.
"My actions were uncalled for," Lambert said in a statement released by New Mexico. "I let my emotions get the best of me in a heated situation."
BY KEVIN LITTEN
October 9, 2009
REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
TORRINGTON -- The Parks and Recreation Commission has approved a new stipend schedule that helps fund youth sports, but the money is now subject to City Council approval after the commission moved to cut all stipends earlier this year.
Parks and Recreation Commission Chairwoman Patricia Fairchild said the commission met to review the stipend schedule with youth sports leagues representatives to rework the schedule based on need, and the sports leagues presented the commission with financial data at that meeting.
The stipends help reduce the costs the volunteer-run sports leagues charge city children to play in after-school and summer baseball, soccer, football and basketball leagues. The leagues have no direct affiliation with the city, but many use city-maintained fields and facilities.
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
by Fred Bowen
The Washington Post
May 25, 2009
I recently read a new book called "Until It Hurts: America's Obsession With Youth Sports and How It Harms Our Kids," written by Baltimore sportswriter Mark Hyman. It is not a kids' book, but it's about kids' sports. Hyman argues that some adults -- parents included -- take youth sports too seriously, and that can spoil the fun for kids.
Here are some of the things I learned from the book that kids and their parents should know.
Overuse injuries from kids playing their sports too much at an early age are way up. They include sore ankles and knees from playing soccer or basketball year-round and sore elbows from pitching too much.
Lyle Micheli, a sports doctor in Boston, estimates that in the early 1990s, 20 percent of the injuries to kids he treated were from overuse. Now, he estimates, 75 percent are from overuse. Micheli says overuse injuries could be cut to almost zero if coaches and parents would simply let kids: (1) play a variety of sports; (2) take it easier; and (3) rest a day or two from sports every week.
Hyman tells the story of Whitney Phelps, an older sister of Michael Phelps, the Olympic gold-medal swimmer. Whitney was a great swimmer, maybe as good as her famous brother, but she never made the Olympics. She swam too much too soon, and she got hurt.
So if you are a kid who plays soccer or baseball in the spring and fall, maybe you should try another sport for summer camp.
by Sue Shellenbarger
Wall Street Journal
May 19, 2009
We've posted before on injuries in youth sports. As summer teams start up, you'll be hearing more about one kind of injury in particular: Knee damage in girls.
Two professional groups, one of surgeons and the other of athletic trainers, are fielding an educational campaign on the prevalence of knee injuries among girls. Tears to the ACL, or the anterior cruciate ligament in the knee, are eight times more likely in girls than in boys, research shows. Doctors hypothesize that physiological differences between girls and boys, such as weaker hamstring muscles that reduce the stability of the knee joint, or estrogen that leads to weaker ligaments, are factors.
The educational campaign comes amid rising questions about the pressures on young athletes. Mark Hyman, author of a book on the topic, says he regrets having supported his son in pitching so long and hard in high-school baseball that he injured his arm, forcing surgery and a permanent setback. And recent research on 5,000 promising football players shows high-school and college injuries haunt pro players for years.
by Monica Ho Ehlers
The Examiner
May 17, 2009
Whether it's basketball, soccer or softball, playing youth sports requires a lot of practice. But how much is too much? It seems the "mellower" average team practices and plays a combination of about three times a week. Then there are teams who practice and play about five to six times a week.
What's interesting is that the teams that practice more are no more talented or skilled than the ones who don't practice and play as often. Or at least, they don't win as often as you'd think.
Kids whose teams practice or play more than three times a week should question if there is enough recovery time for players. Like adults, children need to rest their muscles if they've exercised rigorously.
It's that time of year for student-athletes in eighth grade to decide which fall sport they want to play next year.
I had a parent write and ask my opinion about her son, who is slated to start on the varsity soccer team next year. He has asked to instead play football, citing soccer burn-out and having always wanting to try football.
For some athletes, choosing a fall high school sport is an easy decision. They love the fall sport they play, are confident they can make the team and can't wait for the season to get here.
For others, it's not so easy.
For the soccer player who has always been the star in the recreation league but is now going to a school that has a rich soccer tradition, making the team is not automatic.
He or she may question whether he or she will even play, and just as importantly, worry what he or she will do if cut.
JON BUZBY
May 03, 2009
Norwich Bulletin
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
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.
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
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
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