Youth Sports: Work vs. Play and the Impact of Club Sports

Today's blog was written by Allison Griffith, a sophomore at the University of Notre Dame.  Allison is an English and Pre-professional studies major and a student in the Social Foundations of Coaching course taught by Play Like a Champion Founder Professor Clark Power and Kristin Sheehan.  Allison is also the manager on the Notre Dame Women's Basketball Team.  

Johnny is an eleven-year-old boy who has grown up playing basketball, soccer, and football for his grade school. Johnny’s sport experience thus far equates to playing with his classmates, who are now some of his best buds. He has always been talented at all three sports and enjoys playing them all, but he has recently grown to be a definite stand out on the soccer field. Together with his teammates, Johnny has even led the Perry Panthers to a few championships.

Seeing that Johnny could be a special player, Johnny’s parents learn of Elite, a club soccer program an hour from their home, which works with the most talented soccer players in the area and exposes them to other competitive clubs across the state at weekend tournaments. Johnny makes the team, and thus begins Johnny’s transition from “school athlete” to “club athlete.” Elite holds two practices a week, in addition to speed and agility training on Fridays and foot skills on Mondays. Weekends are spent at tournaments across the state filled with back-to-back games, usually 4-6 per weekend. The huge time commitment forces Johnny to quit football and basketball, his other two sports.

Johnny’s situation is all too familiar in the world of youth sports, and demonstrates the conflict of work versus play, and how this is both amplified and complicated by the popular trend of quitting school-sponsored sports and joining AAU or Club teams. At increasingly younger ages, kids are being convinced to move from playing for their school teams to playing for elite clubs that consist of rigorous, demanding schedules for both the athlete and his or her family.

What are the implications of this transition? What will happen to Johnny as he leaves his school teams to compete for Elite? It is a common situation that young athletes, particularly at the 4^th or 5^th grade level, are forced to choose between multiple sports due to the demanding schedules of one club team. Johnny was forced to quit playing football and basketball, sports that he also loved. He plays soccer 6 days of the week, sometimes all 7, and his parents spend the majority of their evenings (and practically all of their weekends) shuttling him to practices, conditioning, and games. How does this end?

Well for a few of the young club athletes, and some would even argue many, they will end up becoming solid high school athletes and maybe even be offered college scholarships. Even at the youth level, there are exposure tournaments that college scouts attend. I would argue that an athlete is definitely able to have a great high school career or even receive a scholarship without having played a club sport, but there is definitely something to be said for the higher level of competition and level of play of youth club sports that may increase the chances.

However, realistically, most of these young club athletes will not even go on to have great high-school careers. In fact, many, having had five or more years of playing a club sport, begin to grow sick of it and even end up hating the sport. Many quit playing the sport entirely before they even begin their freshman year.

The point I am trying to make, however, is not that club sports should be eliminated entirely. Done correctly, as I believe my experience was, you could maintain a healthy relationship with a sport on a club team. And it is true that an athlete can be just as apt to quit a sport having only played on school-sponsored teams. Instead, I am interested in answering, what is the point of youth sports at the grade school/middle school level? What is the meaning of sports at this age?

I believe a large part of this answer comes in discussing the difference between work and play.

Kids need to play. Besides psychological/developmental benefits, some of the best childhood memories are formed around play. Play, as Giamatti describes it, is “leisure, that is so important…because it is a form of freedom and is about making free choices” (22).  It is a space that kids can create to assert their agency, not because they are told, but because they want to. In contrast, Giamatti describes work as such: “Work is partner to duty, and brother to obligation. Work is the burden we assume, not the one we choose” (19). For kids who eventually quit his or her sport after years of rigorous club seasons, did the sport become a “burden” he or she “assumed”?

At the youth level, I would argue that many AAU and club teams promote the idea of sports as work. Think how scheduled Johnny’s life has become: he wakes up, goes to school, goes to practice, sleeps. And repeat. Add in games, conditioning, early morning foot skills, and he barely has time for anything else. Physically, Johnny often feels burnt out, and the amount he is playing puts him at a larger risk for injury. His coach seems to be more focused on results then fostering life lessons and camaraderie. He begins to miss his school buddies and winning school championships.

On the flip side, though there are exceptions to every case, I think that school-sponsored teams do a better job at keeping the importance of play in youth sports. There is something special about being able to wear your school jersey. There is something special about playing in your own school gym, changing in your own school locker-room, seeing friends and classmates at your games. With coaching, I have found that in my own experience, my youth coaches tended to integrate our practices with fun drills and positive life lessons. While winning is important, it was more about creating memories with your best friends. School-sponsored teams at the youth level ideally keep the player’s relationship with the sport a healthy one by maintaining that you are a student-athlete, and school priorities come first. Thus, the sport becomes an outlet for physical escape and a privilege, not a duty or an obligation. 

And here is where I would like to thank my parents for encouraging me to play for my school all the way through. The memories I have playing in my school gym and goofing off with my teammates and classmates are unmatched. Although I did play AAU basketball and club soccer here and there, it was kept at a healthy amount that never once made me dislike my sport. I think this is a very large part of why I played 3 Varsity sports all 4 years of high school, whereas I found most of my club friends quitting early in their high-school years.

Why should parents want their children to play sports? Hopefully it is with the intention of allowing them to do something they love, to learn lessons of discipline and hard work, to foster strategies to overcome adversity, to create lifelong memories with friends, and then to ideally win a few games while they’re at it.

Parents of kids- take notice and make sure you are not over-scheduling your children. Make sure their relationship with sports, at the youth level, is a healthy one. One that promotes play, not work. Coaches of kids- winning is fun, but having fun is also fun. Mold your mindset around the idea that these kids are kids, and they are playing. While talent and X’s and O’s are important, it is not and should not be the emphasis at this level.  

I still remember the motto of my school’s soccer team growing up which we cheered before every game and wore on the back of our warm ups:

“Play hard. Have fun. Win.”

In that order.

Causes for Concern

Today's blog was guest-written by Pete Piscitello.  Pete is the Executive Director of the CYO of Johnson and Wyandotte Counties in Kansas.  They CYO-JWA is doing a new series on trouble spots in youth sports, and we hope you will find his comments interesting.  

Dear Sport Community,

As parents, we all have decisions to make when it comes to what activities our children are involved in. For the majority of Americans this includes a form of sport. The common belief is that youth sports are great for keeping kids active, encouraging social interaction and developing character. It's an easy sell since children love games and they love to run around, making youth sports an easy hit. There's also a sport for every season. Mom and Dad can keep the kids busy year round and enjoy watching their son or daughter play on the weekends. For decades it seems the cycle repeated itself: sign-up for local league, drop the kids off at practice once or twice each week, game on Saturday, rinse and repeat. The kids would reach high school and if they had the talent, continue to play. It was easy to discern we were doing right by our kids because there was not much harm in sports.

If this sounds like a story from the good old days, you should know the good old days weren't that long ago. That was my own experience in youth sports and I graduated high school in 2003.  The times have changed.

A brief history of youth sports in our country may help to provide some context when considering current issues. For  the first half of the twentieth century, youth sport was a realm dominated by lower class families and immigrants in large American cities. City tournaments were about as high profile as competition got outside of schools. Scholastic sports also gained popularity with elementary, middle and high school sports spreading. The YMCA began to offer organized programs, but suffered during the Great Depression. 

It was not until after World War II that middle and upper class families got more involved and things became competitive outside the schools. Perhaps the best known national competition, the Little League World Series was first held in 1947 (though ESPN was not around to provide national coverage). Other sports soon followed. By the 1960’s families engaged in “pay to play”, which marks the beginning of the modern era of youth sports. This mirrors the path of our own CYO, which began in earnest in 1946 under the guidance of Tom Dorney as the first full-time director of CYO. It's interesting that our local CYO was going against the grain at that time by focusing on sports that based in the schools. Many elementary school leagues closed down when confronted by “pay to play” competition and fears over the safety of sports. Regardless, by the early 1970’s our program took off and it began to resemble what you see today.

For much of the period we’re calling the modern era, youth sports were played pretty much as described above. Families began to see more and more options for their children (particularly for girls) but participation levels continued to rise and kids switched sports by the season. Leagues were usually confined to a single season, games were played within the community, and practices were limited during the week so that kids could focus on schoolwork.

As far back as the 1960’s there was a subset of the population who began to see sports as an avenue to gain admission and receive scholarships to college. That idea became more prominent during the 70’s and 80’s, but seemed to reach a different level in the 1990’s. That bred more competition among parents and children to find the best instruction or the best team to showcase talent for recruiters. Not coincidentally, it’s also during the last decade of the 20th century that the proliferation of what we now call “club” or “travel” sports began to take-off. According to The Atlantic article referenced earlier, “in 1995 the Amateur Athletic Union sponsored about 100 national championships for youth athletes; about a decade later that number had grown to over 250.” The AAU, as it is commonly known, may be the most popular long-standing example of this new frontier, but it wasn’t alone. After the explosion of youth soccer in America during the 1980’s, the club soccer model used for years in Europe and South America became more popular stateside. "Premier” teams became a common goal for ambitious youngsters. With all the elite athletes in a community on one team, those teams now had to travel to find competition. This spurred a dramatic growth in the business of weekend tournaments as a sort of local tourism industry. It seems the 1990’s brought to the forefront what we had known since the 60’s: people will pay a great deal to take part in sports. In our efforts to “get ahead”, adults had created a world where sports were no longer just a kids game. These games were big business and everyone wanted a piece.

All this brings us to our youth sports culture today. In the past decade, community based “recreation” leagues have taken a backseat to expensive club programs. School based sports are a thing of the past in many communities. For example, a standout soccer player between the ages of 15-18 is likely to never play for his or her high school team. A basketball player may play high school ball, but in most places they consider that inferior to their AAU program. That’s where the college coaches recruit anyway. But it does not just start in high school, because these things trickle down. Now the competition is fierce just to get on the high school team or their club counterpart. This has led some parents to start training their kids year-round in a specific sport as young as 3-5 years old. That child can’t tie her shoelaces, but we have already decided for her what activity she’s going to spend 40+ hours each week perfecting for the next decade…

This isn’t to suggest that today’s sports culture is all bad, far from it. For one, there are many more opportunities for participation today than there once was (even if those opportunities have a price tag). There are also some great coaches helping boys and girls grow up and build virtue, just like they always have. Yet the good stuff doesn’t need fixed, it’s the concerns that need addressed. That’s why we’re going to spend the next several weeks here on the website addressing the causes of concern in youth sports today. More importantly, we're also going to consider how we go about changing things for the better. We’ll discuss the growth of specialization, the excessive pressures placed on young athletes, the “professionalizing” of amateur athletics, rising costs and growing injury concerns. We hope to provide some possible solutions while stimulating discussion in our parishes, schools and homes. Throughout this series, be sure to get on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram channels to share your own experiences and join the discussion.

We all want our kids to have the best childhood possible and we want them to have fun while participating in sports. The vast majority of parents are trying to do the right thing when they make decisions on youth sports. It’s just that making the right decision today is so hard. It should not be that way. Sports should be fun for the kids involved. It should also be fun for the families who get to watch children take part with a big smile on their faces. We hope you’ll join us over the next several weeks as we dive into the concerns, questions and  solutions to assuring a great environment in youth sports!

Deflategate

The controversy surrounding the AFC Championship Game between the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts is now entering the second week--and has achieved cult status with a skit on Saturday Night Live this past weekend.  Much has been made of the air pressure used in the Patriots' footballs, and for good reason.  Reports coming out of the NFL now seem to confirm that the footballs were below regulation pressure, making them easier to handle.  What remains unclear is who was responsible for the deflated balls, or what the punishment will be for the individual and/or the team. 

At this point, I should admit that the I come from a family of Patriots fans, but a teenage desire to differentiate myself from my family drove me away from the Patriots (and served to annoy my family in the process--a double win for any teenager.)  However, I watched the game this week and have been following the ensuing story with an interest in sportsmanship, and only a minor bias against my family's team.  I freely admit, as have many Colts, that the Patriots were the better team on the field last weekend, regardless of the air pressure in the footballs. 

Whether any of the Patriots players or coaches ordered their (and only their) game balls to be deflated so that they would be easier to handle or whether it was done accidentally or by a ball boy trying to help the team, the Patriots benefited from the deflated balls, and there should be some ramifications for this.  The system currently in place calls for, as I understand it, a $25,000 fine and the potential loss of a few draft picks. The fine in place is 0.5% the cost of ONE 30-second Super Bowl commercial. 

The biggest problem with the #Deflategate controversy rests with the inherent fairness of the game of football, and of other games.  Kids across the country (or at least across New England) look up to Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski and the rest of the team.  In my opinion, the Patriots played the Colts with an unfair advantage. They didn't need to, but they did anyway.  Play Like a Champion research shows that children play games because they are fun.  Adults watch games because they are fun.  A big part of the fun for kids and adults of all ages is knowing that the game is fair and governed by mutually agreed upon rules.  When the game stops being fun, children stop playing, and adults eventually stop watching. While the popularity of football won't suffer due to the current controversy (in fact, this controversy has kept the NFL in the news during what is normally a slow week,) for the game to endure, and for games to continue to be enjoyable at every level (youth, high school, college, co-rec, and professional) fair play must reign supreme.

The views in the blog are those of the author, and do not represent the views of the Play Like a Champion Today organization.  And for the record, the author still hasn't decided who to route for in the upcoming Superbowl. 

The Meaning of Sports in Birmingham

Today's blog post was written by Justin Cunningham.  Justin is a senior Finance major at the University of Notre Dame and is a student in the Social Foundations of Coaching, a course taught by Professor Clark Power and Kristin Sheehan of Play Like a Champion Today.  This spring, Justin will be assisting a local high school baseball team.

In the first week of December, football players at the University of Alabama-Birmingham received life altering news. Due to financial difficulty at the University, UAB President Ray Watts and officials in the athletic department decided to shut down the school’s football program. UAB became the first major college program to close its doors in nearly two decade.  (University of the Pacific closed in 1995.) The players did not receive much notice or explanation other than a suggestion that “the numbers didn't look right.” While the news of a Division I football program shutting down is both shocking and upsetting, it also makes me question if we have lost the real meaning of sports.

When I first read the story, I began to think of how unfortunate it was that the UAB football program was not making enough money to continue. I began to wonder how the players of the team felt that they would have to change schools to still play for NFL scouts with the hopes of getting drafted. I thought about how this would affect their chances of reaching the professional level. However, reading the players reactions made me realize that the issue was something completely different. 

Obviously, all of the players were saddened by the news. Junior offensive lineman Cameron Blankenship (#71 pictured below) recounted that “[he] has never seen so many grown men cry in [his] life.” From the freshman to the seniors, the news that they could no longer play for the university they chose to attend and play for did not go over well. Tristan Henderson (#88 pictured below), a senior tight end refused to hold his opinions to himself. Henderson was furious that the decision was made for financial reasons. As a former MP in the Army who did a tour in Iraq, Henderson is one of the older leaders on the team at age 26. He told a story of not knowing how to answer his 3-year-old sons question of what they were doing with the program. He continued by voicing his concerns for the younger players on the team. As a senior, he would not have a future playing at UAB either way. However, he felt for the young players that are only 17 or 18 years old and traveled thousands of miles from home to join the UAB program. Listening to the passion in his objection, you start to realize that is was not about the money for the players. They were still promised their scholarships, but football and UAB meant more to them than free schooling. Blankenship recalled that “the one thing that got to everybody was when he told [them] that he cared more about UAB than [they] did.” It was never about numbers for the players. It was about playing the game and being a part of the team they have come to love.

                                   

This story brings up an important problem in the world of athletics today. The presence of financial benefits and profit in sports has sullied its true meaning. Sports are not about making money. Of course, it is a career in the world today. However, the essence of sports is the joy that athletes take in playing. The essence of sports is about being a part of something bigger and greater than yourself. It’s about coming together as a team and competing, growing, and improving. That is all that these players wanted. As Henderson asserted, “some of these [players] came from 3,000 miles miles away and came right here to be a part of this. To be a part of all of this.” 

It was never about the money for these players. Obviously the scholarships mean a lot to the athletes, but they play football because it’s a game they love. By canceling the UAB football program, players were forced to change schools or surrender something they love. Blankenship explained that “football is [his] life, and it’s been [his] life for a very, very long time.” While he recognized that he owes a lot to UAB for helping him become the man he is, he “couldn’t live with [himself] if [he] didn't play [his] senior year somewhere.” Blankenship, like many of his teammates, must leave his school and home to continue playing the sport he loves. We may have lost what playing a sport truly means to these athletes. 

Parental Support Is Key

Today's blog post was written by Anthony Rabasa.  Anthony is a senior Film, Television, Theater major at the University of Notre Dame, and is a student in the Social Foundations of Coaching course taught by Play Like a Champion founder Professor Clark Power and Program Director Kristin Sheehan.  Anthony is also a defensive lineman on the University's football team. 

It is very easy in today’s sports world to get caught up with winning and reaching goals. I believe that it is important for parents and coaches to know that when a young athlete is competing, the most important thing to them is that they just have fun. Thinking back to my own experience, I remember when I first began playing football. I would look forward to Saturday mornings because I knew it was game day and at the time, playing football was--and continues to be--one of the more fun experiences I have ever had.

When parents get too involved in a young athlete's development on the playing field, I believe it takes a personal toll on the athlete. Parents must let the coaches and athletes work together to improve in certain areas where the athlete needs improvement. My parents never really got involved with my coaches when I was a growing youth athlete, but they were always there to support me in my role. Naturally you want your child to be a superstar and have them always excelling on the playing fields. However, this is not always the case.  Even if the young athlete is not the play-maker or the superstar, he or she is still a valuable contributor to the team simply because they’re on the team. Telling a young athlete that he or she is doing well on the playing field will encourage them to do better.  I have found that this is especially true if the parent continues to tell their children that they are getting better every single day.  Speaking from experience, this really does go a long way.

Photo Credit: Columbus High School Football Team, Miami, FL

 If you were to take a close look into high school football playoffs, which are just wrapping up across the country, you can see a lot of examples of a parental relationships with athletes. My high school, which this year's state runner-up. Many things came to my mind when I began to think about my high school program. I happened to stumble upon an article on my high school home page, and it talked about how parents, and the crowd in general, at the semi-final game were outstanding. My alma mater was down 13 points at halftime, but the crowd remained calm and did not let a second go by without motivating my old team. I believe this is a great example of parents and a community coming together to motivate a team that has come so far and has made the community around them believe that they can win any game. That right there is a key component to winning, and that’s exactly what my team did. 

Florida State Academic Intgrity in Question

Today's blog was written by Jeni Houser.  Jeni is a senior American Studies major at the University of Notre Dame and a student in the Social Foundations of Coaching course taught by Play Like a Champion Today founder Professor Clark Power and Program Director Kristin Sheehan.  Jeni is also a middle blocker on the Notre Dame Volleyball Team. 

Academic dishonesty has been a common theme in sports for the past year now, and it continues to come up in relation to the current football season.  Florida State is not the only college facing accusations this season. My own university, Notre Dame, recently expelled five football players for the entire year because of academic dishonesty. For a few of them, this expulsion marks the end of their college career because they ran out of eligibility.   Now the University of North Carolina is under investigation for years of academic fraud on a massive scale. Florida State has also been in the news recently, and JameisWinston may or may not be the problem this time.

Notre Dame suffered a heartbreaking loss against the defending national champions this fall, but in my opinion, we handled the tough situation with class and dignity and that is why the University is so widely respected. In an article on the current situation at Florida State, however, a professor from Florida State (and an admitted fan) questioned the morals of his university’s academic code.

In his essay, the professor proceeded to tell readers that players and athletics staffers would threaten professors to pass the players so they would be eligible to play in the bowl game and upcoming season. These professors were occasionally scared for their lives when backed into a corner by players who supersede their strength and size. In the Play Like a Coaching manual it would seem that the Florida State Coaching staff is teaching players how to be bad role models, as opposed to teaching them the significance of getting an education and that everything on the field should come with time. Though winning may be the most important aspect to many of why we play and watch sports, nothing is more significant than the dignity that one will walk away with win or lose. I believe that Notre Dame is able to walk away from a win or loss with their heads held high because we are well respected for being the bigger team at the end of the day. 

A Note to Parents

Today's blog was written by Austin Wuthrich. Austin is a student in the Social Foundations of Coaching, a course taught by Play Like a Champion Today Director Professor Clark Power and Kristin Sheehan.  Austin is a senior double major in sociology and computer applications, and is a right-wing on the Notre Dame Hockey team.

Dear Parents,

We know that you love your young athletes. This is a note of advice based on my experience as an athlete.  

Please do not ruin your kid’s relationship with you and with their sport by having unrealistic expectations.  

All parents want the best for their kid.  Parents want their children to achieve their full potential in whatever they are doing in life.  This is natural, and great.  However, there are certain ways to handle these expectations, hopes, and dreams for your kids and one of them is by being supportive and understanding of your child.  

Many parents want their kids to be the super-star, and some make it very clear that their kid is more important than another athlete.  As an athlete, I've found that these parents are difficult because they are always nagging the coaches or other athletes, which can cause a lot of drama that the team does not need.  Another result of this constant nagging is that children can begin to resent their parents if they are always yelling or trying to control the coach behind the scenes.  I've seen it happen too many times--from my days on pee wee hockey teams to elite national teams.

Parents need to have realistic expectations of what their young athlete’s capabilities are.  This idea of a son/daughter becoming the next superstar in their sport is such an exhilarating thought but it can permanently damage the relationship with the child in question.  This is for many reasons, but in my opinion it is mostly because the parent will never be satisfied with their child's performance and forget that they are just kids having fun.  Parents should be having fun watching their kid having fun and should be supportive of what their children are doing.  

Parents, please remember that athletes are often most vulnerable right after a game.  Therefore, the things that parents say to their athlete on the car ride home from a game can be remembered for a long time.  This is why parents must always remember that they are their child's support system and what they say and do can affect a kid’s future (athletic or otherwise) more than anything else.  Please remember that great memories for both parents and their little athletes can be made through their athletics, so make sure all those memories are positive by being supportive and realistic.  Finally, parents, please know that even though your young athletes don't always express their gratitude for this support, we are all very grateful for everything you do to help us along the way.

Austin Wuthrich on the ice.
Photo Credit 247 Sports, CBS.

Sportsmanship on the Gridiron

Today's blog post was written by Tom Malin.  Mr. Malin is the Athletic Director at East Catholic High School in Manchester, CT.  East Catholic is a new Play Like a Champion partner, and the reigning Connecticut Girls High School Soccer Champions.  Throughout the fall season, the East Catholic Eagles have been embracing all aspects of the Play Like a Champion philosophy, and last weekend's football game is just one more example of this successful approach.

It was a cold, frigid Friday night with temperatures hovering in the 20s and a wind chill factor that put the temperatures in the single digits. The East Catholic Eagles (8-3) were playing the Bulkeley Bulldogs (2-9) under the lights at Dillon Stadium in Hartford.

The game was competitive for the first half, with the Eagles leading by the score of 14-8 but the strength and numbers of the East Catholic team enabled the Eagles to pull away with a convincing win on the last game for both teams. 

The great experience for players for both teams was the fact that the game was played with mutual respect and good sportsmanship! The highlight of the evening was after the game was completed, the teams met with their coaches, and then players and coaches from both teams met at the center of the field and heard some inspirational words from the East Catholic coach. Once the inspirational talk ended, players from both teams high fived and chest bumped each other. Each team left the field feeling a little better about themselves and the other team. 

The Athletic Director from Bulkeley High School stated, “the end of the season was difficult with our low numbers, but we finished with players who were the heart of our team and it appears that your players and coaches have the same heart and passion for the game.”  

For the East Catholic Athletic Director, “it was a great example of sportsmanship and respect that the players and coaches had for each other. To be able to have both teams meet in the center of the field and exchange friendship was something to see and witness. It truly showed that sports can be fun and a great avenue to learn values and life lessons.”

The Matheny Manifesto

Today's blog was written by Ryan Watt. Ryan is a senior at Notre Dame and a student in the Social Foundations of Coaching, an undergraduate course taught by Play Like a Champion Founder Professor Clark Power and Kristin Sheehan. 

Recently in my Foundations of Coaching class here at the University of Notre Dame, I was presented with a letter that former major league catcher and current St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny once wrote to the parents of his son's little league baseball team.  It has since come to be known as the Matheny Manifesto. This letter struck me as one of the finest explanations of both a coaching philosophy and the role parents should play youth sports.

In terms of philosophy, Matheny outlines 3 main goals for his baseball team's season:

1. To teach these young men how to play the game of baseball the right way
2. To be a positive impact on them as young men
3. To do all of this with class

You would be hard-pressed to find more valuable goals than these three for a coach, especially at the youth level.  It was quite refreshing to see that no mention of winning or team performance was mentioned within these goals.  In recent years, youth sports have all but become consumed with a 'winning is everything' attitude even at the lowest levels of competition.  It was nice to see that Matheny was instead focusing on growth and development, which is the true value of youth sports.  Coming from a man that has played, coached, and succeeded at the highest levels of his sports this was an especially powerful message.

Matheny really encapsulates his message when he says, "We may not win every game, but we will be the classiest coaches, players, and parents in every game we play."  This is the same message by which Matheny was coached during his youth baseball career. Matheny drives home the value of this approach when he runs down the success of his own childhood team.  Nearly the entire team went on to play collegiate baseball and Matheny along with 3 others reached the professional level.  He (wisely) does not promise this same future success for his own players, but he stresses that classy play does lay the foundation for success. 

In terms of the role of parents, Matheny calls on them to act as a "silent, constant, source of support."  This is an incredibly powerful message in this age of "helicopter parenting" and epidemic levels of overzealous sports parents.  I think we've all experienced at some point the parent coaching from the stands. This constantly shouting of tips and directions or demands for their kids to perform does no one any good.  Matheny encourages this silence because he doesn't feel that any additional pressure should be put on these young athletes.  They will face enough pressure from him and the coaching staff getting them to play the game the right way with class, and respect.  He points out that the athletes also frequently put too much pressure on themselves and each other to perform already.  Matheny wants his players to have an opportunity to develop a love for the game rather than be overwhelmed and pushed away by excessive pressure.

What Matheny does want parents involved in is the continued improvement of his players when they are away from practice and games.  He stresses the importance of repetition in skills such as pitching, hitting, and fielding.  It is important for parents to realize that coaches only have a limited time where they can work with each player.  It's up to parents to facilitate their further growth by taking some time to play with their kids.  It's through this off-field time that parents can shine rather than trying to take over the time that the coaches do have with the players.

Overall, this letter presents an excellent jumping off point for coaches looking to both establish a positive development based philosophy and address the growing issue of parental interference in youth sports.  I think all youth coaches would do well to consider the message Matheny has brought to the table, I know I will as I continue my work in athletics as a coach.

The Inspirational Lauren Hill

Today's blog was written by Kevin Byrne.  Kevin is a senior at the University of Notre Dame majoring in marketing in the Mendoza College of Business.  Kevin is a student in the Social Foundations of Coaching Course taught by Play Like a Champion founder Professor Clark Power and program director Kristin Sheehan.  Kevin is also a middle distance specialist on the Notre Dame Track and Field Team.

Lauren Hill never imagined her college basketball career would have this big of an impact.

On her 18th birthday, Lauren committed to Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati to continue her basketball career.  She received terrible news soon thereafter when she learned that she had a brain disease called Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Gliomas (DIPG) and was given less than two years to live.  Recently, an MRI showed that the tumor on her brain had progressed and that she most likely would not make it until the end of the year. 

Her love of the game and her desire and courage to play one last game has inspired countless people to send their support and praise for Hill’s cause.  On November 2nd, Hill and her Mount St. Joseph teammates opened up their season against Hiram College at Xavier’s Cintas Center.  The 10,250 tickets for the game sold out within 30 minutes.  The game received an NCAA exemption to be moved up to November 2nd from November 15th to accommodate Hill.  Hill’s positive outlook about her terminal diagnosis has already earned her the Pat Summitt Most Courageous Award, which is normally given out to a player or coach at the Final Four in April. 

Celebrities and athletes like Mia Hamm, Richard Sherman, Andy Dalton, and Randy Foye have all shown their support for Lauren Hill.  As an athlete that has lived her life as a champion, she has inspired many people.  Former WNBA player Sheryl Swoops said that Hill is “...the true definition of a fighter, warrior, and competitor.”  A foundation has been set up called Layup4Lauren  where people can accept the challenge by performing a layup with their non-dominant hand which is how Hill feels while playing basketball with DIPG and then donating to brain cancer research.

Lauren Hill is an inspiration to countless people and her determination to play the game she loves  is a reminder to all of us to never give up.