September 2005 How To Be a Good Sports Parent From: Sports Done Right Initiative www.sportsdonerightmaine.org Encourage your child, regardless of his or her degree of success or level of skill. Ensure a balance in your student athlete's life, encouraging participation in multiple sports and activities while placing academics first. Emphasize enjoyment, development of skills and team play as the cornerstones of your child's early sports experiences while reserving serious competition for varsity level. Leave coaching to coaches and avoid placing too much pressure on your youngster about playing time and performance. Be realistic about your child's future in sports, recognizing that only a select few earn a college scholarship, compete in the Olympics or sign a professional contract. Be there when your child looks to the sidelines for a positive role model. Quotes from Sports Done Right Initiative: Many parents pressure kids in the hope that they will become professional athletes who make millions, like basketball star LeBron James and soccer star Freddy Adu. But, only one in 13,000 high school athletes makes it to the pros, and when athletes use steroids, as baseball's Jason Giambi reportedly admitted doing, it just reinforces the win-at-any-cost mentality. Only 2% of high school athletes will ever receive a college athletic scholarship. Prepubescent athletes are experimenting with performance-enhancing drugs. Doctors are reporting sharp spikes in injuries caused by year-round specialization in a single sport at any early age. Problem #1: With the crisis in kids sports: Out of control adults. In May a man was charged with beating his daughter's softball coach. Another man was found guilty of the death of a father of three boys who played hockey with his son, and a mom was sentenced to one year of propagation for assaulting an 11 year old who was cheering for the opposing team at her sons little league baseball game. The Sports Done Right District is holding training sessions to define out-of-bounds behavior at sporting events and requiring the parents of every student who plays to sigh a contract promising to abide by a higher standard of sportsmanship. Problem #2: Poor Coaching. Too many coaches pressing to win at all costs and neglecting their primary responsibility- to educate and inspire children. "One coach can destroy a kid for a lifetime....I've seen it over and over." Per Dan Campbell- state champion track coach. Sports Done Right Initiative recommends compensation based on coaches level of training. Pilot school districts are sending coaches to continuing education classes in subjects like leadership and child psychology. "We're not talking about the Celtics; we're talking about 6th graders."

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Copyright 2005 - Lisa Merrill