The “Inescapable Problem”: Remaining Active in Sports After the Last Game
By Doug Abrams Sooner or later, all youth league, high school, and collegiate athletes confront what writer James A. Michener called “the inescapable problem” – the need to readjust when their playing career ends. The end comes sooner for some athletes than for others, but it comes — about 70% of youth leaguers quit playing … Read more
Concussions Continued…Will You Let Your Kid Play Contact Sports?
As predicted a few weeks ago, sports parents are now beginning to have to confront this question: with all of the recent research about the long-term dangers of concussions ino playing contact sports, will you let your youngster play football…soccer…lacrosse…ice hockey…baseball? I felt it was time to revisit this all-important topic since in recent weeks more … Read more
The Power of “Thank You” (Part II)
By Doug Abrams Three weeks ago (before spending two weeks with the Southhampton field hockey appeal), I had mixed feelings about discussing the topic of “thank you’s” in youth sports. I wondered whether most parents really needed a pep talk about why they should be sure to thank the men and women who coach their … Read more
Winning is Not the Pathway to Success? A New Approach from Canada
Something very curious is happening in the Land to the North. Clearly Canadians are just as competitive as we are when it comes to excelling in sports. But very quietly, our friends are taking a different approach when it comes to developing young athletes in sports. According to a recent account in the Globe & … Read more
The Amazing Case of Jabari Parker, the Nation’s Top Basketball Prospect
This week’s cover of Sports Illustrated boldly proclaims that 6’9″ junior Jabari Parker of Simeon Career Academy in Chicago is not only the nation’s best prospect in hoops, bu that Parker is the best prospect in the game since LeBron James. That’s a pretty strong claim. So I called up the writer of the article … Read more
Book Review: The Most Expensive Game in Town
One of the nice benefits of having been involved as an advocate in the world of sports parenting for more than two decades is that lots of publishers and authors send me their books to review. Each year, I tend to accumulate a number of either just published books or galleys of books that are soon … Read more
Why Civil Rights Were at Stake in the Pilaro Field Hockey Case
By Doug Abrams Fourteen-year-old Keeling Pilaro will play field hockey for Long Island’s Southhampton High School again next season after all. On Tuesday morning, his continued participation was approved by a close vote of an appeals panel of Section 11, which supervises Suffolk County’s high school sports. The ultimate issue was whether Title IX would … Read more
Perhaps the hardest question that today’s sports parent have to confront….
I felt the time had come this AM – on Mother’s Day no less– to ask the question that Moms and Dads everywhere have to confront these days: whether it’s okay to let their youngsters play contact sports, like football, soccer, ice hockey, lax, and so on — when it’s clear that there’s real growing … Read more
Title IX and the “Level Playing Field”
By Doug Abrams Rick Wolff and I had another stimulating conversation on “The Sports Edge” last Sunday morning, this time about Title IX’s dramatic effect on the lives of boys and girls in sports. Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, of course, is the landmark congressional legislation that prohibits gender discrimination in … Read more
“You can’t play any more because you’re too good” – A Very Strange Case of Title IX
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the passage of Title IX, the wonderful federal law that mandates equal play for boys and girls in HS and college sports. By all measures, this has been a law which has brought only good things to sports. But that being said, every so often a quirky situation … Read more
"The Sports Edge"
Doug Abrams
Rick Wolff
Steve Kallas
