I recently read a few articles on bounties in Pop Warner
Football. Link 1, Link 2, Link 3,
and you could find many more… (Link 3 is the most disheartening!)
I also recently read Play Their Hearts Out: A Coach, His Star
Recruit, and the Youth Basketball Machine by George Dohrmann. I read this after reading Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission
survey results, which stated:
- 45.3% of youth leaguers said that adults had called them names, yelled at them, or insulted them while they were playing in a game.
- 21% said that they had been pressured to play with an injury.
- 17.5% said that an adult had hit, kicked or slapped them during a game
- 8.2% said that they had been pressured to harm others intentionally.
A USA survey poll
in Indianapolis, Indiana, found:
- 55% of parents said that they had seen other parents engaging in verbal abuse at youth sporting events.
- 21% said that they had seen a physical altercation between other parents.
A survey
conducted by Sports Illustrated For Kids magazine found:
- 74% of youth athletes reported that they had watched out-of-control adults at their games
- 37% of the athletes had watched parents yelling at children
- 27% had watched parents yelling at coaches or officials
- 25% had watched coaches yelling at officials or children
- 4% had watched violence by adults
In a survey of
adults and players conducted by SportingKid magazine, more than 84% of
respondents reported that they had watched parents acting violently (shouting,
berating, or using abusive language) toward children, coaches or officials
during youth sporting events.
DO YOU REALIZE THAT EVEN WORSE CASE ABOVE, just under 5 of
10 youth sports players have experienced verbal abuse. Sad part is most of these abuse episodes are not
reported. I am guilty of not
reporting incidents like these as well.
A day I will never forget is February 21, 2002. It was a Friday and I was at a tennis
tournament. I saw a nice 14-year-old
boy come off the court, winning in straight sets 6-0, 6-1. I was near a secluded hallway away from most people (trying to find a lost ball). There was just
one other person besides the winning boy coming off the court in that hallway. What I saw was the man (the boy’s father), grab the boys
shirt, push the boy to the wall with his forearm across his throat and he said
(and I am close to quoting):
"You little Sh#@, I do not spend over $20,000 a year for
you to come out here and lose a game to a no name F&@k. Get your head out you’re a$^ or your
through! You got it!”
He let the boy down from his grasp against the wall and they
walked past me. The boy had
tears. Years later I saw that same
parent say “your day is coming” to an official after his son lost an officiated
match.
That is one of many things I regret in life. I should have told the
authorities. I did not.
Sports, whether running an ultra, golf, tennis,
baseball, football, soccer or croquet, etc… it's usually the competition (us
against them, me against you or even me against me) which drives
participants. Often, the battle
goes beyond the participant and it becomes coaches, peers or parents.
Over the past three decades, I had the opportunities to best
and the worse coach, player, and parent.
I did not succeed in being the best or worse in any of these, although
I had my chances. Some were good and some were bad, but I learned quite a bit about kids.
Fact is I do not blame any one part; I blame normal human behaviors’. Whether it is little league sports,
played in small rural towns, or professional sports, played in the limelight of
New York City, there are inherent benefits to being the champions, the best of
the best. Obviously, personal
pride of achievement and praise of your peers is the first undeniable benefit
resulting from being the best. Championship youth sports teams or athletes often
suddenly be inundated with sponsors offering to buy uniforms and equipment,
some being the same which flatly refused to consider financial help when
approached at the beginning of the season.
I have heard of ultra-runners who, after an impressive time
or win is given shoes, clothes, supplies, etc... Before the
won, they had little opportunity for anything free unless the picked it off the
table at the expo… It is ingrained starting at a very young age, you win, you get something, you lose, you get nothing... I support no trophies for youth sports under the age of 12...
I think society has become one where everything is a
game. A game of "who dies with
the most toys or wins" has inflicted our society like a cancer, which shows
no signs of receding, destroying financial empires, governments and leaving us
without a moral compass.
Isn't this getting a little too involved, too deep for sport?
I mean, what could sports possibly change in a world gone ethically awry?
Possibly everything.
It goes back to the youth. Our youth are exposed to the seriousness of sports before
anything else in their life. Think about it. Kids play, or at least play at,
baseball, football, soccer, marbles, kickball and etc. long before they take
educational school serious. They emulate the players they see on television,
not their teachers, and that's not to belittle a teacher's importance, it's
just fact.
Fortunately, Kids are too young to comprehend the evils
committed on Wall Street, ponzi schemes, foreclosures, corrupt politicians,
performance enhancing drugs, or spying on a team's practice, but they are old
enough and smart enough to learn how to play a game "Fair." They need the proper coaches, parents
and community to support the enjoyment of a game. Not the “win or you’re a loser” attitude.
So, as I stated, I recently read Play Their Hearts Out: A
Coach, His Star Recruit, and the Youth Basketball Machine by George Dohrmann. I read of the Pop Warner Youth Football
bounties, and Jevons Belcher murder suicide. I can’t help but wonder, how many of societies issues are
caused by youth sports? People
blame the schools, but if almost 5 of 10 youth sports participants experience
verbal abuse, how can that help self esteem?
I believe youth sports requires monitored with as much
scrutiny as our classrooms. But
society is generally focused on winning and one thing we do not micromanage is
youth sports or the military… This needs to stop! I believe a coach and destroy a live in a single
season. Penalties need to be
increase. But that seems more and
more a dream to me…
