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By Emma Brown
The Washington Post
October 25, 2009
A new report says that $2 billion in cuts to school-based sports and physical education programs are contributing to a range of problems afflicting the nation's youth, including obesity, violence and academic failure.
The report by Up2Us, a New York City-based coalition of groups lobbying to save such programs, was released last week as more than 150 researchers, coaches and leaders of nonprofit groups gathered in Washington for a conference on the fate of youth sports in an age of budget cuts.
"Youth sports is in serious decline in this country," said Brian Greenwood, co-author of the study and an assistant professor at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. "We can't afford that potential negative impact. If a kid doesn't have somewhere to go, something to do to occupy their time, unfortunately what they do more often than not is they end up in trouble."
The $2 billion figure cited in the report was extrapolated from 23 school district budgets. Most Washington area schools have not lost many sports programs yet. Last year, players, coaches and parents rallied to reverse some districts' proposals to slash sports and collect participation fees.
A disturbing trend harming the health and safety of children who play organized sports serves as an important warning to parents and coaches.
According to data reported by the National Center for Sports Safety, 3.5 million children under the age of 15 are injured each year in youth sports leagues. Kids play sports. Kids get hurt. What is troubling, however, is that half of these injuries are caused by "overuse," when kids practice too much, play too much and worse are told by the adults in charge to keep playing despite pain, injury or discomfort.
One of those adults is Mark Hyman, a reporter who covers the business of sports for Business Week and author of the new book, "Until it Hurts: America's Obsession with Youth Sports and How it Hurts Our Kids." While volunteering as a little league coach, Hyman told his son to keep pitching despite a painful elbow. The boy ended up needing radical surgery that repairs the worst injuries among professional athletes
Bill Stanczykiewicz
July 20, 2009
Copyright ©2008 Courier-Journal
You know that one guy. The one yelling from behind the backstop. "Hey ump, you're missing a good game here!" Or worse.
It's usually a parent on the other team, right? Maybe it's even a parent on your own kid's team.
It might even be you.
Just this summer in Colorado Springs, two girls were charged with fighting and an adult arrested for third-degree assault after a conflict at the Four Diamond Sports Complex.
The disagreement started when a softball player was hit by a pitch and charged the mound during a game between Cheyenne Mountain and Wasson High School club teams. The umpire ejected the girl and stopped the game, but tempers flared in the parking lot. Police reports say up to 30 people were involved, some with bats.
Kristen Browning-Blas
July 20, 2009
The Denver Post
by Kyle Finck
Daily News
July 14, 2009
"We're in the first inning of what could be an extra-inning ball game." - House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis, referring to the fight against steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs in youth sports.
Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa, Gary Sheffield and Manny Ramirez are all members of a special club. Unfortunately, they all belong to the "Future Hall Of Famers tarnished by performance-enhancing drugs" club. Thanks to unrelenting journalists, congressional probes, and former players, the public is beginning to know the truth behind the rampant use of performance-enhancing drugs during what many call "The Steroid Era" in baseball.
Major League Baseball is not the only party affected by this disgraceful controversy. For decades, youth all across America had looked up to these players in their dream of becoming big league ballplayers. Kids and adults who had grown up saying, "I want to do everything my favorite player does," were now saying, "If my favorite player is taking steroids, then it's okay if I do."
I watched ESPN's ESPY Awards Sunday night and heard a common refrain among many of the award winners.
They thanked their parents.
Few athletes can say they reached the pinnacle of their sport without the support of their moms and dads, or in some cases, a single parent. A lot of that gratitude stems from some basics: providing rides to practice, showing up and cheering at games and buying that pair of cleats or running shoes.
Yet some of those kids thank their parents because they pushed them to be the best.
Chelle Stack competed in the 1988 Olympics, but not before her mother convinced her to keep going even though she felt like quitting months before the biggest competition of her life.
"You hear, 'Her parents made her do it,' " Stack said. "Well I hope they did. I can't make adult decisions when I'm 13 years old. That's what our parents are there to do.
Ernest Hooper
July 24, 2009
© 2009 · All Rights Reserved · St. Petersburg Times ·
The Florida High School Athletic Association, as expected Wednesday, rolled back a plan to cut back schedules for every sport but football and competitive cheerleading. The vote was 15-0, compared to the 9-6 vote in April that established the plan as a way to save money in the face of plummeting property tax revenues for the state's schools.
The FHSAA was sued on behalf of girls who argued their Title IX rights were violated because by not touching football, the cuts overwhelmingly affected girls' participation compared with boys'. The FHSAA may well still be ready to argue in court on Friday in Jacksonville that football is a coed sport (the most recenty numbers I've seen are 40,000 boys and eight girls, up from the previous count of three.) But Nancy Hogshead-Makar, the lawyer/ex-Olympic swimmer/mother of twin daughters handling the Title IX lawsuit, says she will continue to seek an injunction against the just-rejected plan so the FHSAA can't try it again. She'll probably get it, if not Friday, then soon enough.
Coincidentally, the FHSAA's change of heart comes the day a group called the College Sports Council put out a release touting a study claiming scholarship discrimination by NCAA programs -- against men.
Bob Cook
July 16, 2009
© 2008-2009 Copyright True/Slant
As high school and college football practices begin in the summer heat, it has become especially important to monitor health and the effects of heat stroke, according to a report on catastrophic injuries in sports released Tuesday.
Increases in football-related deaths because of heat stroke is one of the most concerning issues raised in the 25th version of the report, issued by the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research based at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Dr. Frederick O. Mueller, who wrote the report, examined "catastrophic injuries" -- defined as fatalities, non-fatalities with permanent severe functional disability, or serious injuries with no permanent functional disability -- in high school and college sports.
Rachel Ullrich
June 26, 2009
© Copyright 2009, The News & Observer Publishing Company
Superintendent Sheldon Berman said he was "outraged" that Pleasure Ridge Park football players were told at a practice last August that they would have to continue running until one of them quit the team.
But releasing the findings of what he called the most extensive investigation in the history of Jefferson County Public Schools, Berman said Wednesday that neither then-head coach Jason Stinson nor his assistants violated state rules or district policy at the Aug. 20 practice where sophomore lineman Max Gilpin collapsed from heat exhaustion and later died.
Antoinette Konz and Andrew Wolfson
The Courier-Journal
July 1, 2009
Q: My grandson has several energy drinks a day. Is this bad for his health?
A: It certainly could be. Energy drinks come in a variety of formulations but most contain lots of caffeine and sugar - and possibly herbal stimulants and a supplementary amino acid known as taurine. However, it can be difficult to determine what's in them or how much.
Having an occasional energy drink isn't necessarily bad, especially those that contain about the same amount of caffeine as a cup or two of coffee and a similar amount of sugar as a can of soda. But many energy drinks contain much higher amounts of caffeine and other substances.
Alina Popa, M.D.
6-29-09
Copyright © 2009 Daily Herald Inc.
The continued popularity of energy drinks, especially among young athletes, has health experts warning of the consequences.
An average cup of brewed coffee has 95 milligrams of caffeine, but cold drinks such as Rockstar can offer twice as much. Caffeine taken in moderate amounts is not harmful, but excessive doses can lead to someone feeling over-stimulated and jittery, said Lisa Wojahn, clinic dietician at MeritCare in Fargo. And for athletes, another big factor is often overlooked.
"It affects sleep patterns and that can compromise an athlete's recovery for their training session," she said. "If they're drinking mostly energy drinks, they don't get the nutrients they need. When the stimulants wear off, they don't have any energy left to go on.
Jennifer Johnson
July 3, 2009
Copyright © 2009 The Daily News
At Thursday's NBA draft, some of America's budding basketball superstars will learn where they will launch their careers. Four months later, when the season begins, many will learn something else: They don't know how to play basketball.
One system that prepares young American players for the pros, the Amateur Athletic Union, is, by most accounts, broken. Without a rigid minor-league system like baseball's or the extra seasoning football players get in college, America's basketball gems increasingly get their training from teams affiliated with the Amateur Athletic Union, a vast national youth-basketball circuit that has groomed many of the sport's top stars.
Kevin Clark
June 25, 2009
Wall Street Journal
KINGS COUNTY - Thousands of children participate in some sort of organized sport, whether it is school-related or on an independent team.
Kids as young as four are now playing organized soccer and baseball. However, with the pressure to succeed put on children so early, there are many people who wonder if the benefits of youth sports participation outweigh the negative aspects.
Consider these myths and revelations:
June 23, 2009
Kings County Record
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
Ryan S. Pugh
The Clarion News
June 18, 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.
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
by Monte Poole
June 16, 2009
Oakland Tribune
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?
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.
BOSTON -- Recruiters for the recreational program MetroLacrosse wander school halls each winter, looking for children willing to learn a sport that is rarely played in this city's poorest neighborhoods.
Signing up boys takes little more than hanging a picture of a lacrosse player in the gym, said Tracey Britton, the group's director of youth and rookie programs. But persuading girls takes weeks of wooing: encouraging them to sign up with friends, holding girls-only clinics, and winning over teachers they trust.
Katie Thomas
June 14, 2009
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