SPACE FOR ‘RENTS
GIVE THE GAME BACK TO THE KIDS By Erin Burton | Special to Soccer Times
Erin is certified in K–12 physical education and adapted physical education with a master’s degree in physical education pedagogy. She is also a long-time soccer player and youth soccer coach who loves to share her love of the game with young athletes. She can be reached at: erin@unboundroots.com
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e are done,” said a parent on the undereight (seven years old) recreational soccer team I coached this summer. “With what?” asked her daughter. “With soccer. Just as it happened with your older sister – we are done,” her mother replied. “No, Mommy, no! I don’t want to be done with soccer!” her daughter begged as she wrapped her arms around her mother. This was the heartbreaking scene at the end of our last soccer game, as a group of parents and children gathered to chat after the game. Unfortunately, many of the parents felt the same way – they were out of playing options. When my daughter turned five years old, I was excited to volunteer as her recreational soccer coach. I grew up in the same town we live in now, and I remember playing rec soccer until I was 13 years old, before playing competitively for our local soccer club. Back then, recreational soccer was held in the fall, and the thrill of the competition between school teams in the community was so much fun. Our games were on the oftenchilly Saturday mornings, and I remember the sting of the ball bouncing off my legs in the freezing temperatures. Noses were red, fingers were ice-cold, but we loved it. Players of all abilities came together to learn the game of soccer, and to experience what contributing to a team felt like. Friendships were formed – a love for the game was realized. I’ve coached recreational and competitive soccer for five seasons now, and I’ve been fortunate to observe a love for the game of soccer being established in the young players in our community. The smiles that these players bring to practices and games, the determination that is set on their faces as they challenge their opponents, and the chants that they yell at the top of their lungs divulge their love for the game. Unfortunately, some of these players are no longer playing in our community. Here we are, at the end of my daughter’s first-grade year, and my family has found ourselves at a crossroads, as have many other soccer families. Our local soccer club and community recreation program have decided to discontinue recreational soccer after the under-eight age level. Why? One developmental director in our soccer club states that there are not enough interested kids to hold both recreational soccer and competitive soccer, and that competitive is the right direction for the club. Another director said that “competitive and academy are what parents want.” When I approached our district’s community services department about offering recreational soccer opportunities for kids ages eight and older, two different directors said that they can see a need for additional recreational opportunities, but one said, “We just don’t want to step on the club’s toes.” The other said, “It’s all political. We’ve 12
SEPTEMBER 2018
Soccer Times
The Cost of Leaving “The Sandlot” Have you seen the 1993 movie “The Sandlot”? The sports comedy is about a young boy, Scotty Smalls, who moves into a new neighborhood. Scotty befriends a group of seven boys who get together at the sandlot to play baseball after school. The boys have many adventures together, but their passion is baseball. They play every day – no parents – their own rules. With even just a few players, the highlight of the boys’ day is playing baseball after school. My great-grandfather had a similar experience in his youth. My great-grandfather wrote the following in his memoir:
had a good relationship with the club for many years, and we don’t want to ruin that.” So, our community is left with two options that are not only expensive, but time-consuming – Academy soccer, or competitive soccer. 1. Academy – A 10-month program that involves training under “professional” trainers three times per week, and playing two games on Sunday, every other week, for a cost of $1,185. 2. Competitive (fall and summer seasons with winter training options) – Fall season includes playing end of August through midOctober, players are expected to practice two times per week, and play one game per week on the weekend. Teams will play half of their games at home, whereas the other half of the games will require travel. The cost for the fall season (deposit, club fees, team fees, jersey kit, travel, training, tryouts, and tournaments) is approximately $550-$600. And our local soccer club is more reasonable than most soccer clubs in the state of Minnesota. At seven years old, my daughter has to choose academy or competitive if she wants to play soccer in our community. No wonder parents are pulling their children out of soccer. Adults have taken over youth soccer and have turned it into a business. A business that: • Employs “professional” soccer players to train our kids to be “top players” from ages 4-18 • Charges astronomical prices to be a part of a club or organization • Expects year-round sport specialization • Can be unhealthy, both mentally and physically, for young children
• Is not inclusive of all children This isn’t happening in our soccer community alone. It’s happening throughout Minnesota, and in every state in our country. It’s happening in many other youth sports, not just soccer. Adult-Centered Youth Sport The BBC recently published an article by Tom Farrey (2017) called “Have adults ruined children’s sport?”. The article discusses the U.S. youth sports industry and how it is built on the wallets of parents, and designed to chase the opportunities to play in college and secure scholarships. A disturbing infographic (above) depicts the sharp decline in participation in youth sports. Another image in the article depicts perfectly manicured soccer fields at one of the largest youth soccer tournaments in the United States, where more than 600 “elite” teams of 9- to 15-year-old players amass on rural New Jersey fields, and thousands of parents pack the sidelines. Organizers for this particular event can reportedly rake in over $1,200 per team. These fees do not include hotel and travel expenses, or the fees that parents already pay for club soccer. Farrey, from the Aspen Institute, writes: “What the drone can’t see is how many other children – those who aren’t early bloomers, or whose families don’t have the funds, or time, to take part – have fallen away from the game. Football [American soccer] has declined among those left behind, with fewer children joining either local teams, or playing informal games in the park.” Increased demands of time and money aren’t the only negative effects of our adultcentered youth sports industry.
Baseball was the sport of that long ago time. Each recess, we played ball mostly with homemade balls as we had no money to buy any. If I needed a good ball, I would take a solid rubber ball that cost a nickel… [and] wrap the little hard rubber ball tight with string until it became the proper size. This made a fair ball. Because we thought ball, dreamed ball, and played ball, those schools turned out some good ball players… Interest was very high during that period because every player was a farm boy and a neighbor. In the following year [1924], they started to hire a player now and then and the people lost interest, so by 1930 there was no team. – Roy Falk, 1975 Sixty years after playing baseball, GreatGrandpa scrapbooked a picture of his youth baseball team. No coach — just kids getting together to play ball, dream and have fun. He remembered every player’s name. For many years, sports were playercentered, where kids learned skills through playing the game, just as the kids did on my great-grandfather’s team. Today, most youth sports are adult-driven industries that expect year-round commitment and repetitive training. According to Hawkins and Metheny (2001), year-round, repetitive training has led to an increased incidence of musculoskeletal injuries in youth from overuse. They estimate that 50 percent of all youth sport injuries can be attributed to overuse-type mechanisms. Jayanthi et al. (2013), found that there is no evidence that intense training and early specialization are necessary to achieve elite status. They list that sport specialization has the following risks: • Higher rates of injury • Increased psychological stress (player burnout) • Quitting sports at a young age Abrams (2002) states that a poll from the