This whole RSL Florida mess has all my thoughts on youth sports bursting to come out.  Here goes.  First, it's a game for god's sake, treat it as such.  Second, the likelihood of your kid playing past high school is slim to none.  Considering how many hundreds of thousands of kids play organized sports, and then considering how few of those make it to college, it's not a very good way to try to fund your kid's education.  Not to mention just how much athletic departments control every aspect of a student-athlete's (and I use the term student in that very loosely) education, down to some departments even picking the kid's major.  Sports parents are as bad as preforming parents, it is truly sickening how many think that their kid really is the next George Best or Diego Maradonna.  As for college athletics, I have to admit I'm sort of torn.  On one hand, I love watching college (American) football, but on the other, in my academic view, half those kids don't deserve to even be admitted into the university, much less to have their education paid for while other kids have to scrimp and save to put themselves through school who academically do deserve to get in.  While throwing a ball 60 yards is fun to watch, in the grand scheme of things, it is much less important than even someone studying to be a kindergarten teacher.  Who deserves the money that is devoted to sports in schools more, the athlete or the kindergarten teacher? 

In this same line, I look at most of the high schools in the area and notice how much of the building is dedicated to sports.  All have a stadium that is only really used for football and track meets.  The gym is used for gym classes, so that makes sense; but what doesn't make sense are the weight rooms.  Some of these schools have better weight rooms than the local Gold's Gym.  And who gets to use these weight rooms?  Yep, the sports teams.  At my own high school, yes there were weightlifting classes, but they required special permission to register, which ensured that only the athletes got to use them.  In my weight training class, it was all the wrestlers and half the swim team with a couple of football players thrown in.  Nobody else was allowed to use the facilities.  I was on the wrestling team and it's sort of sad that 40 kids used mats that cost $25,000 each and we had a total of 6 full sized mats. 

The parents in Florida not pulling their kids from the program after this shameful display by the organization is what is truly distressing.  What's more important, the safety of your daughter or that your daughter is a the state champion team?  Losing a game is something that may hurt for a while, but having a coach you can't trust who may molest or kill your child, I just don't see the logic.  Is it really that important for your kid to play on that team if it's not good for the health and well-being of your child?  Again, it's a game.  I think we really lose sight of what's important sometimes, I admit to this myself, which is why I am posting this right now.

        

 

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