There’s been a lively discussion going on all week over California High’s dugout fiasco. Now here’s another question for you. Do you see conflicts between your high school’s academic philosophy and its athletic practices? Have you had coaches tell your kids their priorities should be: 1) swimming (baseball, soccer, etc.), 2) sleep and 3) academics, in that order?
Do the North Coast Section and league championship trials and finals conflict with AP exams at your kids’ high school? I’m not talking “conflict” as in “cuts into studying time,” although that’s certainly a concern. I mean, games and meets that start during the exam. Senior year, our oldest son had to choose between swimming in the DFAL league trials, which began at 2:15 p.m., and taking a German AP exam that ran from 12:30 to well after 4 p.m.
There’s a tempest brewing in California High’s baseball dugout, after a San Ramon Valley family accused coaches of giving members of their year-round, non-school team prized JV and varsity positions that left other players out in the cold. In essence, coaches were playing favorites, the family charged, with players who’d paid to play.
Frankly, it’s a common complaint, particularly in prosperous suburban areas where kids play high-octane, year-round ball, and their parents routinely hire private pitching/batting/whatever mentors to help their kids excel. In this case, school officials investigated and found no evidence of preferential treatment, but one of the coaches was removed halfway through the season, so commence with the dot-connecting.
Having had four kids play nearly every kind of aquatic and field sport for the last decade and a half, we’ve heard similar charges lobbed every time someone’s kid gets cut from a varsity team or doesn’t get as much playing time as mom or dad expects — and we have to say, this is a complicated issue. Read the rest of this entry »
Is your kid spending his childhood on the soccer field? Is your family’s summer a series of non-stop swim meets? There’s no doubt that youth sports have taken over family life. If your kid is playing year-round everything because he or she loves it, that’s one thing, but if it’s because you think there’s an athletic scholarship or professional sports glory waiting in his future, you need to read this morning’s New York Times story, “Athletic Scholarships: Expectations Lose to Reality.”
Parents sacrifice weekends and vacations to tournaments and specialty camps, spending thousands each year in this quest for the holy grail. But the expectations of parents and athletes can differ sharply from the financial and cultural realities of college athletics…
“People run themselves ragged to play on three teams at once so they could always reach the next level,” said Margaret Barry of Laurel, Md., whose daughter is a scholarship swimmer at the University of Delaware. “They’re going to be disappointed when they learn that if they’re very lucky, they will get a scholarship worth 15 percent of the $40,000 college bill. What’s that? $6,000?”
And what’s never discussed is the downside to playing college ball, track, swimming, etc. - the painfully early morning weight training, long practices and travel time. There’s a reason colleges routinely hire tutors for their star athletes. Read the rest of this entry »
Foster City: The city fathers and mothers are running amok. Something’s wrong when adults can’t play pick-up games because the turf has to be protected for youth sports. Read the rest of this entry »
I haven’t actually searched to find out whether we’ve written about protective cups before, but I have a hunch this is a first. I couldn’t resist when I saw the video promoting the Nutty Buddy.
There’s been a lively discussion going on all week over California High’s dugout fiasco. Now here’s another question for you. Do you see conflicts between your high school’s academic philosophy and its athletic practices? Have you had coaches tell your kids their priorities should be: 1) swimming (baseball, soccer, etc.), 2) sleep and 3) academics, in that order?
