Youth in Sports
“Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen” (Jordan 1). Youth sports have become very dangerous in the past few years. The thing that is making sports so much rougher is the will to win and children will do anything to win. Concussions and spinal injuries are ruining young children’s lives. All preteens should be prohibited from sports due to the susceptibility spine and brain injuries.
More than 40 million children participated in organized sports in the United States, a cultural phenomenon known as much for its excesses as its successes (Pennington 1). In New Jersey a group of parents, fed up with the clashing schedules every spring for traveling baseball and traveling soccer teams, persuaded the local baseball officials to sponsor a fall-only soccer team, so that their children could play each sport at a high level at different times of year (IBID). At La Jolla Country Day School in San Diego, officials were dismayed about pressures on athletes as young as eleven years old to specialize in one sport decided to require the school’s athletes to play at least two sports (IBID). In Connecticut, the high school sports board prohibited athletes from playing on traveling teams in the same season they play the sport in high school (IBID). Children should not have been able to play sports because they were not doing it for their own fun. The children were only playing sports because their parents wanted and made them play for scholarships. “The shame of it is you see how hardened these 14-year-olds are by the time they get to high school,” said Bruce Ward, director of physical education and athletics in San Diego’s public school. “They’re talented, terrific players, but I don’t see the joy. They look tired. They’ve played so much year-round, they are like little professionals” (IBID 2). The Stars of Massachusetts, an elite all-girl traveling soccer team of thirteen and fourteen-year-olds, practiced in Acton and at the end of
More than 40 million children participated in organized sports in the United States, a cultural phenomenon known as much for its excesses as its successes (Pennington 1). In New Jersey a group of parents, fed up with the clashing schedules every spring for traveling baseball and traveling soccer teams, persuaded the local baseball officials to sponsor a fall-only soccer team, so that their children could play each sport at a high level at different times of year (IBID). At La Jolla Country Day School in San Diego, officials were dismayed about pressures on athletes as young as eleven years old to specialize in one sport decided to require the school’s athletes to play at least two sports (IBID). In Connecticut, the high school sports board prohibited athletes from playing on traveling teams in the same season they play the sport in high school (IBID). Children should not have been able to play sports because they were not doing it for their own fun. The children were only playing sports because their parents wanted and made them play for scholarships. “The shame of it is you see how hardened these 14-year-olds are by the time they get to high school,” said Bruce Ward, director of physical education and athletics in San Diego’s public school. “They’re talented, terrific players, but I don’t see the joy. They look tired. They’ve played so much year-round, they are like little professionals” (IBID 2). The Stars of Massachusetts, an elite all-girl traveling soccer team of thirteen and fourteen-year-olds, practiced in Acton and at the end of
Cited: Web. 04 Jan. 2013.