High school students sampling different sports each season, appears to be a diminishing reality. Many may know the stories of athletes like Steve Nash and Wayne Gretzky, who played a number of sports as a youth, and specialized in a sport later in life. But, when we look to our high school athletes today, it seems more are focusing on specific sports at a younger age, and this trend is one that is dramatically changing our high school sports. Recently, Cam Cole wrote an excellent piece around this in the Vancouver Sun about physical literacy and the decline in kids sports.
Of course, at its core, this is not really a school issue; it is far broader than that. There is an intersection of school and community in almost every sport today. While less than a decade ago there were often lines between ‘school sports’ (e.g. volleyball, basketball, rugby) and ‘community sports’ (soccer, hockey, baseball) the lines have blurred. Today, almost every sport is a 12-month sport. For some sports like hockey, this is almost 100 per cent in community; for others like basketball, it is more evenly split between school and the community. Many sports have complete organizations in schools and the community.
Personally, I think something is being lost in early sports specialization. A recent report from Matthew Bridge and Martin Toms out of the United Kingdom: “The specializing or sampling debate: a retrospective analysis of adolescent sports participation in the UK” tends to agree. The report indicates “individuals who competed in three sports aged 11, 13, and 15 were significantly more likely to compete at a national compared with club standard between the ages of 16 and 18 than those who practised only one sport.” This runs counter to what many athletes, coaches and parents seem to believe, and who go all-in on a sport from a very young age.
Another phenomena influencing multi-sport, high school athletics is the increased emergence of paid coaches in community programs. While still largely supported by volunteer staff, parents and community members, most major community sporting clubs have some paid staff, who are obviously invested in retaining athletes for their livelihood. When it was solely a system of volunteers, the parent who coached soccer in the fall often helped coach the school basketball team in the winter, as well as the softball team in the spring. Paid community coaches are often less likely to see their athletes sample school sports.
There is also a major overlap and growing competition between school and non-school sporting opportunities (in many ways, it follows the non-profit versus profit paradigm). Club programs run all year and coaches will often discourage “their” athletes (the issue of coaches and so-called “athlete ownership” is also very infuriating) from participating on school teams outside of their sport. So, the community soccer coach doesn’t want a player to play volleyball for the school, because they want to promote sport specialization.
As a parent, along with my kids, I do want to have more say in this conversation. I want my kids to have the opportunity to play a range of sports if they want to. I am less concerned with “development”, which is all the buzz in sports now, and more concerned with the “fun” which should be all the buzz.
I like the advice Stephanie Hauser, a high school athletic director from Wisconsin, recently shared on the topic of multi-sport athletes at Proactive Coaching:
For Parents:
- Be the final decision makers on behalf of your kids’ well-being. This means having to put your foot down and be willing to make the difficult decision to say “no” on behalf of your multi-sport athletic child. Injury, fatigue and burnout WILL happen if you are not willing to say “no” to some things. Know when it is the right time to make the decision for your child – don’t automatically give the kids the choice; most will opt to attend everything, not wanting to let any of their coaches down.
- Be willing to “shut them down” for a time period when you see fatigue or burnout happening. Last summer, we were seeing the signs of some nagging fatigue injuries with our daughter, and we were struggling as parents with how to best handle the situation. Then, the best thing for all of us happened – she twisted her ankle at Panther Fitness. This was the excuse that we needed to shut down for the remaining three weeks of the summer…what a blessing in disguise!! The results were amazing. Her shin splints went away, her knee and hip pain went away, she had time to hang out with friends, clean her room, read a book, and when volleyball season began three weeks later, she proceeded to have an all-conference season. The trade-off for her was a refreshed body and mind, rather than a few more weeks of training, and she came back stronger than where she left off.
For Coaches:
- Let your actions speak louder than your words. Many coaches say that they support the multi-sport athlete, but it is evident that this is just “lip service” because in reality they are putting undue pressure on these multi-sport athletes to attend everything. Have regular conversations with these kids, so you will be able to sense when it is time to give them a little more breathing room. In reality, many of these multi-sport athletes are the most reliable, competitive and naturally athletic kids on your team. They are the “studs” – let them thrive in their other sports, and then come your sport and thrive there. I have witnessed this with our own daughter. There is no doubt that she begins each season looking a bit rusty. My husband and I call that the “three-sport athlete look.” Yet, within the first few weeks of the season she not only meets, but exceeds the performance of others who have spent countless hours in the off-season in the gym refining their one-sport skills. Coaches, spend the off-season time with the athletes that need you the most, those single-sport athletes who may have limited athletic ability. They really need you to help them fine-tune their skills because they may not have the strong athletic ability to rely on. This is the opportunity for you to really help them strive to be the best that they can be.
- Work with other head coaches to coordinate your off-season schedules and regularly talk with them about shared athletes. NEVER make an athlete feel like they have to choose between one coach and the other, and NEVER discuss or put down that athlete’s other coaches.
For Athletic Directors:
- Schedule time for head coaches to sit down together to coordinate the summer calendars, open gyms, contact days, and camps in a sincere effort to minimize the number of conflicts and difficult choices that the multi-sport athlete is forced to make. This will open the communication lines and minimize the frustration between coaches who feel that they are competing for the multi-sport athletes’ time.
- Communicate the multi-sport athlete philosophy of the athletic department with parents and share with them the things that the athletic department and coaches are doing to support that multi-sport athletes. Provide multi-sport athlete research, education and data for parents.
- Manage the outside entities, such as legion baseball, AAU basketball and select soccer. Work with your coaches to find ways to we get these outside entities to work with the school to help us maintain three-sport athletes. To do this, you need buy-in from the coaches and the willingness to commit to this effort and be the liaison between school and outside entity.
- Applaud and honor the multi-sport athlete. Build recognition opportunities into your athletic award system. Many of these kids are truly masters of time management, selflessness and self-discipline; and they have a passion for competition. Additionally, there are those multi-sport athletes with marginal athletic ability that truly just want to participate so that they can be a part of something good. Reward these kids for their dedication and contribution to your school.
There are a number of challenges currently happening in high school athletics, and I actually think we may have one or more new models developing (more on this in another post), but one value we should return to in school sports, and really — in all sports — is the value of the multi-sport, high school athlete.
cultureofyes.ca 
I couldn’t agree more. It seems like every kid and their parents and coaches think they will become the next National team star. We know that it is a very small percentage that actually reach the most elite level yet we treat them like they are all going “pro”. I find it especially challenging dealing with softball and hockey.
Thanks Trish. There is probably enough blame to go around – from parents, to coaches to the kids themselves.
Do you think?
As parent, I already see the push from the sports that my young children are already getting. Organization Sports spouts the values and virtues of CS4L but none of them practice it. And because of those practices, I refuse to put my kids is certain sports. I want my kids exposed to every sport for the benefits of healthy physical and social development; I believe that this exposure to all sports in their youth will keep them active as they get older.
As a coach, I’m frustrated with other coaches from different sports who put so much pressure on their players to only do their sport. If you miss a practice, you benched. I heard of contracts that players sign that say miss a practice, you’re off the team. This should be criminal and PSO need to put pressure on their clubs to stop this practice.
As a Athletic Director, I struggle with helping the multiple sport athlete. Coaches put uneccesary pressure on them to attend the “out of season” sport practices instead of celebrating the athletes successes in their other sport. To help, I carefully craft gym schedules so these students can go home rather than fall to the pressure of being in the gym when the next practice starts. I talk with the students to get a sense of how they are handling it all.
As Vice President of BCSS, I don’t have the answer. It’s a fine line between competitiveness and participation. I don’t believe that our current model is working. BCSS, PSO, MSO and maybe even ViaSport would agree that school sport is the starting ground for all sports. Many of our Olympians got their start in their sport because they tried it in school. School sports should be about the ability to explore and try new sports but I do not see that happening right now. I see school sports beginning to segregrate haves and have-nots, not just specific sport programs but whether they have sport or not.
Rob – others have raised this issue, and I think it is a good one, that we are often disingenuous when we talk about wanting kids to play multiple sports – what we are often really saying is that we want the very best kids to play our sport – and if that means advocating for multiple sports that is what we will do – we don’t necessarily do things that encourage “average” athletes to play multiple sports.
I also think we need to look at better defining our model in BC (and Canada) for sports – there are so many others around the world to consider that look very different . . . . some of the questions I have, include:
1) Are we really doing the right sports in school? Too many? Too few? We tend to do gymnasium based sports because schools own the gyms in Canada – but is that a good reason to continue the model?
2) What if schools became more focussed on intra-murals and less on competition and left this to the community – would this be good or bad for sports in general?
3) What roles can sports academies play in helping with this issue – creating time inside the school day for some to go deeper with one sport and then still play multiple sports outside of school?
I also do wonder if me and all those who quickly jumped in to say “great post” on this are being nostalgic for a time that has gone by – maybe these hopes are out-dated.
Mr. Kennedy, this is a very timely and important post and I hope we see more people joining the discussion. Your observations about the self-interest of the paid coach in these so-called elite programs was one I had not thought of; it is however, as you point out, a contributing factor to this growing issue.
My boys are multi-sport athletes, as my wife and I were. We encourage them to “change their shoes with the seasons” as a way of developing a range of skills and to expose themselves to the challenges each sport brings (new skills, different teammates, different coaches). They may decide they have a passion for one and we will support them when that time comes. We won’t, however, let the rules and regulations of paid programs dictate what and when our kids can or cannot play. Each won male athlete of the year at WVSS for their respective grades last year by virtue of them competing in at least three sports. As your post illustrates, there are fewer and fewer boys and girls each year to choose from for these awards.
My wife and I strongly support high school athletics. It is a chance for kids to be part of and play for the community that is most important to them during these years. It is a chance to play in front of people and for a “place” they care about, and that is an experience they don’t get playing away from their schools. I guarantee that when these one sport community program kids grow up and their minds wander while driving to work, they won’t remember the name of the Cup soccer game they played, the name of their team (they will have played for a couple of dozen in their careers) or the field they played on. On the other hand, they will remember the smallest details of the day they played for a provincial high school football, volleyball or rugby championship. I’m regretful more kids won’t have those memories.
Finally: I was at SFU this summer. I was killing time while my son was at a football camp. I wandered into the gym where an “elite” basketball tournament was taking place. I am a former high school basketball all-star and coached high school basketball teams to provincial final tournaments; I know the game. I was excited. I thought I would be seeing high level competition. What I saw instead was mediocre play – and less than that – right across the board. And then it hit me: this wasn’t the best basketball in the province being played; it was the best basketball being played by kids who could afford the fees the program charges (an insight I think many parents are blind to as they write cheques in the thousands of dollars, assuming paying to play means paying for quality).
The best sports – and best sports experiences – are still being played in our high school gyms and on our high school fields.
Again, thanks for highlighting this issue.
Thanks Paul – I absolutely agree that when adults look back to the sports of their youth it is their high school sports they look back to, not their community sports – there is something special about high school sports – I think you very nicely make this argument. Whatever the need model that emerges in sports, hopefully the sense of place and connection with schools will not be lost.
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Excellent article. Student athletes need this message to reach more parents. I’m an AD at a middle school and even at this level, parents will not let their kids participate in certain sports because “that sports trains the wrong muscle group” or their community coach will not allow the athlete to play other sports to prevent injuries. It’s ridiculous. Let the kids try new things, investigate new sports, you never know what they will be talented in, or what they will have a passion for.
Agreed Brad. Your examples of “wrong muscle group” and “prevent injuries” make me smile – they are very familiar to me!
This is only one example of the specialized athlete problem. A bigger issue is the overall impact on the entire athletic department. The quarterback for the football team can be the point guard for the basketball team and the starting pitcher for the baseball team. Yes, it is possible for an athlete to excel and lead in all three sports! Playing in three different seasons and three different athletic venues, developing an unbelievable repertoire of sports knowledge and skills, and honing an amazing competitive nature: what could be a greater high school experience?
This is a well written piece Chris, but I think this issue is limited to a (relatively) small group of young people and is mostly an adult problem. The growing number of “for profit” adults and businesses who coach or train young athletes convince their clients (parents of young, elite-hopeful athletes) that they must pay for, commit and train all year to “reach the next level”. Similarly, some youth non-profit sport organizations (including provincial teams) will forbid players in their program from playing another sport, or worse, playing the same sport for a school or local team. This is about the egos of these people and not at all about what is in the best interests of the kids. I think young children should be exposed to as many different experiences as possible, and, if they enjoy games, to many different sports, because it is fun. However, at the same time as the BC Ed Plan is talking about young people “pursuing their passions”, I have no problem with a teenager choosing to focus on his or her sport (or other passion) if that is truly what the kid really wants to do. While perhaps not ideal for everyone, I respect that particularly driven adolescents (14-18) are indeed old enough to make this decision.
Providing school enrollment is big enough, the few kids who choose to focus on one area just creates more opportunities for other kids to play. When I hear the argument against teenagers playing only one sport, I often wonder why we want the so-called “studs” to play many high school sports – is it because it is good for their overall development or because all these coaches also know their teams would be better if these bigger, stronger, talented and athletic kids also played for them? That is, is it better for a team if one kid practices and plays part-time because he or she has other sport commitments if that displaces a less-talented kid who would have been committed to the team full-time? I am also not convinced of the cause and effect relationship of multi-sport athletes and national team participation. Surely national team members played more sports growing up because they were gifted athletically and this is where their interests were; however, if you support Gladwell’s 10,000 hour theory, these same people also dedicated serious time to their chosen sport.
The more important issue is the declining numbers of young people who are involved in any form of regular physical activity at either the recreational or competitive level, in our communities and our schools. Playing sports, especially team sports, can be a tremendously positive experience for young people. Perhaps all schools should measure their success exclusively by total participation rates as a percentage of our school populations. A “great school program” should not be because our best 8-12 kids beat your best dozen kids.
If I can provide a counter point.
To be successful in a “global” world requires increased complexity and precision. This is true for athletics and academics. For most parents we look at the current system and long for the days when we dominated in 3 or 4 high school sports only playing during the season or we got an A in Social Studies without studying. We wonder why the kids today are working so hard at their sports (or academics) at such an early age because we didn’t need to do it.
I suggest that in today’s world things are different. Athletes are better trained, more sophisticated and more precise. Kids today are smarter (the Flynn Effect is the notion that each generation is increasing their IQ since the 1930’s, even though I hear people say kids aren’t as smart as they used to be).
Thus, to pursue “excellence” we must immerse ourselves in an area, be it piano or hockey or math. We need to have “master coaches” which in my experience are rarely parents. We need to have kids involved in “deep practice.” We need kids to be passionate with their interests. (Those are the 3 keys from Dan Coyle’s “Talent Code”). And yes, we do need to play multiple sports and be well rounded, but we definitely can’t pursue excellence in multiple sports for any prolonged length of time. The days of Bo Jackson are over.
Finally, I’d suggest we aren’t coming anywhere close to burning kids out because of their interests – we potentially burn them out because their interests have taken a bigger part of their life and all the other parts of their life remain (7 hours a day at school, 1-2 hours of homework, having to do the fitness circuit in PE despite training for 2-3 hours with their sport, getting up at 5 am for hockey practice).
What I’d like from High School sports is to align with students interests and passions, understand who they are and what they are pursuing, and make the learning flexible and supportive. This goes for fine arts, drama, math, english…
A parent of “3 athlete students” perspective- I agree Chris! School sports tie our kids to our schools- their first real non-family based community (other than religion for some) more so than the academics. It is when they truly connect with the kids from their community (they aren’t doing so over their science lab). When they learn something new or play (PLAY!) something they love for a term at a time. Term sports: what a great time period – why must every other sport be 6+month long commitments? I love that my kids have favourite sports and choose to focus on these when they can, but when they have 2 or 3 they love and the seasons overlap (soccer or rugby and skiing for my family) very little tolerance is shown by the coaches to “share their athlete”. I have suggested to coaches that they take on more athletes for the team knowing some will be absent at times and I am ok with rotational play on game day, provided all can go to practises. The blank stare says it all!
Unfortunately too many parents are timing their kids minutes of play, and yes- expecting their all-star to be the next Steve Nash, Wayne Gretsky or Christine Sinclair. True athletes are often multi sport talented and I find the parents of the real “stars” are more easy going and seeking balance than the wanna-be’s! But thats a whole other topic!
I love the way SD45 middle school team sports work- rotate through all the players, coaches who referee fairly and using coachable-moments, even during a game. Those kids come off smiling, learning and proud to wear the over sized school team jersey! I know high school has this at times, but it is too often the stacked team scenario which leaves too many average kids on the bench, or worse, not even going out for the team.
I want my kids to love sports, who see sport as a way to blow through the stresses of school or life, who enjoy being active without a personal trainer! Can pick up a tennis racket, golf club or toss a frisbee or football with some confidence and for FUN! We are headed away from those types of kids…unless we keep them playing term based team sports at school! Don’t let the narrow mindedness of some adults detract from the bigger picture of developing the whole child!
I have wondered for a while about specializing far too young. Many of my friends have children ages 10 on up who are part of “elite” soccer programs and are playing 5-6 days a week. This limits their free play time, chances to kick back and have fun with their friends and just be kids. There is a significant social issue at play. It is also my understanding that for some athletes at the high school level where student athletes are discouraged from participating in other sports because of possibilities of injuries, taking time away from practicing and preparing for their main sport, or just because of the huge time commitment that their main sport requires means they just dont have the time. This again limits a key social opportunity for these athletes to interact with their high school peers.
Another significant point of concern for me is that by focussing too much and too early on a single sport could possibly bring early and irreperable harm to young bodies that were probably not made for so much activity focussing on specific muscle groups, particularly young pitchers. It does seem that there are many young pitchers that by the time they make it to MLB are having major injuries that require significant off-time and surgeries. It may just be my impression, but it does look as though there are more young pitchers who are done after a few years because their arms are in a sense breaking down. the same goes for female gymasts as many appear to have signficant injuries by the time they are 20. I do wonder what the long-term impact will be on the bodies of these young athletes who specialize at such an early age.
Good discussion. It is never an easy or simple answer but for the most part I have always found it to be a positive thing if kids are able to experience more than one sport. Nothing wrong with kids making a choice to focus on just one sport if that is trulyt what they want but exposure to other activities can actually help them in their chosen sport. I have coqached a variety of sports in my time but basketball is my passion and where I put all my time in. I have always found that when my players played rugby that they were fitter and more competitively sharp, when they played soccer they developed their spacing skills and movement without the ball, etc. While there is nothing wrong with demanding committment from players you also have to use some common sense and be flexible to work with your athletes who may be involved in other activities. I also think the comments about how some club programs operate are very accurate and they trouble me a great deal. Jim’s comments below are sadly very accurate:
Paul – what do you think about the role of school-based academies to help? We have a number in West Vancouver and what I have seen is that these athletes are able to focus on their “passion” during the school day – and then they participate in multiple school sports on teams after school. So, a soccer play is on the field three afternoons a week, at Twist conditioning once, and in the classroom once as part of “school” and then they play rugby, basketball and cross country for the school – not needing to engage in extra training and development in their primary sport outside the school day since it is part of their school program.
I wonder how this might work for basketball . . . . bring all those “passionate” together in the afternoon each day for training and development, thus there is less need for off-season “open gyms” and this may lead to them more likely to play other school-based sports.
Kind of regretting hassling 3 of my soccer players for having scheduling conflicts between track, softball and soccer. They truly were some of the most committed and athletic girls on the team. Thanks for the thought provocation!
A wonderful thought provoking discussion from all sides! I am a mom of two boys 10 and 8, a teacher of physical education and a former athlete who was ferociously driven in one sport in early high school then reaped the benefits of playing 4 high school sports in my final year, I also competed nationally in one sport during university. I have experienced and have lived all the scenarios that are being discussed in this post.
As an Physical Educator, I wholeheartedly believe in educating our students to be Physically Literate. We ( in the PE dept where I teach) have revamped our entire k-3 PE curriculum this year to echo the the teachings of CS4L. We want our k-3 students to have the foundation of physical skills to be able to go on in the later grades to perform the more complex skills required in more formal games. In piloting the program this year, I can honestly say the the children are benefitting from this. So many of the children I have coached over the years in basketball and track and field don’t even have the fundamental movement pattern of running down. If children develop a more solid foundation when they are young then it will be easier to layer on those more complex skills as they progress through the school system. How can you teach a Grade 10 student to long jump properly if they don’t have sound running form or don’t know how to jump off one foot? Teaching a comprehensive Physical Education Curriculum inclusive of the teaching of Physical Literacy is a key starting point to encourage students to participate in high school sports. If they are physically literate they they will have the confidence to at least try the different sports!
The other issue I am finding with my own boys is the fear that if you don’t do all the ‘extras’ your child will fall behind. Hockey is the best example of this way of thinking. Our boys play hockey and love it. They would play 365 days a year if we let them and would happily sign up for every camp going. My husband and I have made the conscious decision to support our boys in the sport they love but not at the expense of participating in other sports, family dinners, family holidays, saving for post secondary education and the list goes on!!!!! As parents we limit what our boys do. Our 10 year old’s hockey team is doing an extra ‘conditioning session’ one night of the week by an outside company. We elected to have him not do it because: physiologically it is irrelevant, at 10 years of age he isn’t going to see the benefits of doing something like this. We also feel that it is more important for him to do his paper route and have some downtime rather than squeeze another training session in for one sport.
I had the opportunity to ask Mike Bossy (at a hockey camp geared to encouraging fun, and respect in the sport of hockey) why at the club level what they are asking the kids to do doesn’t match up with ‘best practice’ of having the kids play sports in all three seasons and his answer to me was simple: It is a money maker for the people running the programs. He felt that children should be playing sports in all three seasons rather than one obsessively (at least until the age of 14 or 15). He said that the ‘cream would rise to the top regardless of all the extras’. I couldn’t agree with him more.
Being physically active and reaping the benefits that sport has to offer is a value that I fully believe in, however, I don’t believe in the sports at all costs mentality. I think sometimes that parents and coaches have lost sight of the fact that these kids they are raising and coaching are JUST CHILDREN and they also have a right to a childhood. When my own kids look back on growing up, I hope that they remember the family hikes, dinners, vacations, and downtime that we had together in addition to the opportunities they had to play sports. We are raising children after all not elite athletes. If one day one of my boys decide to go on to take sports to a more serious level, it will be 100% their decision not mine. I had a roommate early on in my career who was a gymnast and competed in the 1984 Olympics. She cannot remember her childhood at all! Was going to the Olympics worth the sacrifice of not having a childhood to remember??? I wouldn’t want that for my boys no matter what the sporting glory.
Time will only tell if my own son’s will go on to enjoy the seasonal sports that the WVSD has to offer, but one thing is for sure, I will keep trying to encourage balance in their sporting lives!
Thank you for drawing attention to this Chris, you have definitely hit a nerve of mine with this discussion!
This is an outstanding article. I understand why the higher levels of sport are pushing for specialization, but the fact of the matter is they are trying to make the overall level of sport in the country better rather than taking into account the overall health of the athletes. As a coach, father and department head of physical education, my number one priority is developing “Healthy” athletes. This means all avenues, mental, spirtual, physical, emotional, and more. I have worked in a hockey academy for years before I took up my job as a department head of physical education. To be honest, I was, and still am shocked at how many of the hockey academy kids I used to coach do not even play hockey anymore, they actually completely quit the sport. Coaching a high level of volleyball in a 4A school I am so proud of my multisport athletes and like so many others have aluded, they are my healthiest athletes!
I too am a coach, a teacher, a parent, and a consumer. I find that most parents are trying to do the best for their children. However, when you hear of parents that are spending of upwards of $40,000 a year (gear, travel, fees, training) to promote their child’s hockey career, I just shake my head. First of all, who has that money to spend, second, this must come at a cost to their lifestyle. Are they leveraging something in order to search for that pot of gold?
I am using hockey as an example because it is one of the worst culprits in this new reality. Coaches demanded exclusivity to their sport as it interferes with training. What really has changed is the mentality of the new breed of coaches since it is now a business. I find it outrageous that a goalie coach charges upwards of $75 an hour for training. Development coaches upwards of $100 an hour. Yet, parents don’t blink. However, when it comes to a math tutor for $40, they hum and haw. Where it was once a pride to play provincially against other teams, now teams must travel out of province or out of the country. I suggest that productivity must go down dramatically when there is a hockey tournament going on as there can’t be that many parents who are self-employed. Also, practicing twice a week is no longer the best practice as now we need to incorporate dry-land training into the regiment. As you can see, we are our worst enemy, as we continually open our wallet, to enable this kind of nonsense. One advice I can impart from experience is that when a coach tells you that they think your child has ‘potential’, RUN fast.
Back to my reality, who cares if you are a 12 year old phenom in North America? $40000 is outrageous to pay for some 12 year old kid who is barely making a dime to his name. This would be like paying him a starting teacher salary without him ever having to open a book. What message does this send to the child? As well, what unfair expectations are we putting on the child? High school is a time for exploration and growth. High school athletics is part of that experience. High school athletics has that vibe unlike club or community sports. Your friends are there to watch you, and your teachers and administration are there to support you. Picture the movie ‘Friday Night Lights’ where the only action in town on the Friday night is the high school football game. Perhaps this is what our extra-curricular should strive to be…more sexy. We need to bring those kids back that are going home right after school. We need to support and encourage our teacher coaches to come back to fill in these volunteer positions. We need to make it so that the kids find high school athletics so irresistible that they will miss hockey practice to be at basketball practice. Wouldn’t that be a culture change?
Well said!!!!
Thanks. This is the conversation I have all the time with parents at the rink.
I loved your comment on highschool sports. Leaving hockey and getting back to highschool sports has been unbelievably refreshing!
[…] 1. The Multi-Sport High School Athlete […]
Chris – nice to have an article of mine recognised in this and the word spread further! Important to note also that there is a cultural context to take into account too, so mustn’t forget the wider situation in which sports are played.
[…] exclusively on a single sport from a young age. I wrote on the topic in a 2012 post on the Multi-Sport High School Athlete, and in 2013 on Being a Sports Parent Today. Part of what really draws me to this challenge in […]
[…] exclusively on a single sport from a young age. I wrote on the topic in a 2012 post on the Multi-Sport High School Athlete, and in 2013 on Being a Sports Parent Today. Part of what really draws me to this challenge in […]