Why Force Talented HS Soccer Players to Choose Between their School team and Travel Program?
We all know that life is full of choices – many of them quite difficult — so why put talented soccer players in an awkward spot where they have to choose between two passions? Playing for their HS team or their US Soccer Academy travel team? But that’s what’s happening with increasing frequency around the country. … Read more
My Top Ten Sports Parenting Predictions for 2012…
So much has happened in recent years in the ever-changing world of sports parenting, that I thought I’d finish out 2011 with my Top Ten Predictions for the coming year. Here we go: 10. LL Baseball will follow the NCAA and the Nat’l HS Baseball Federation and allow only BBCOR (and of course wood) bats. … Read more
Mike Milbury Allegedly Assaults a 12-year-old Hockey Player: What Sports Parent need to know…
According to several eyewitnesses, former NHL player and head coach and GM of the Islanders did something that lots of sports parents do – -when Milbury saw his 12-year-old son getting into an altercation with another 12-year-old on the ice, Milbury went onto the ice and separated the two boys by grabbing the other boy … Read more
The Continuing Strange Saga of the 9 Wayne Hills HS Football Players
The school board in Wayne NJ announced right after Thanksgiving that they were now going to enforce the ban on the 9 varsity football players who were arrested and charged with the aggravated assault which left two kids from Wayne Valley HS seriously hurt after a party some weeks ago. The coach of the Wayne … Read more
A Parent’s Worst Nightmare: Protecting your kid from a sexual predator
Of all the sports parenting shows I’ve done over the years, today’s show was by far the most sobering. I had recalled reading a terrifying cover story in Sports Illustrated that ran way back in Sept, 1999, about how pedophiles from all over the country had become fully engaged in coaching young kids in youth … Read more
A question of propriety? Should HS coaches be allowed to run travel programs for their players?
Rarely has a topic generated more comments on my show than this one – and understandably so. In short, as travel teams inexorably begin to dominate the HS landscape, more and more HS varsity coaches are beginning to see a potential payday by running their own travel programs for their players in the off-season. The … Read more
Achieving Equal Opportunity in Youth Sports (Part I) – The “Power of the Permit”
By Doug Abrams About 35 million boys and girls — nearly half the nation’s children — play each year in at least one organized sports program conducted by a private association, or by a public agency such as the parks and recreation department. Some of these youngsters play on travel or select teams, and others … Read more
Who Owns Youth Sports?
By Doug Abrams Responding to last week’s column about “Mistakes,” Frank McMahon commented that “the time is long past for youth sports to be returned to their rightful owners, the children we purport to serve.” Mr. McMahon hit the nail right on the head. Our enterprise is called “youth sports” for a reason — youth … Read more
Mistakes
By Doug Abrams Coaches are teachers in every sense of the word, and much of the educational psychology that works for teachers in the classroom can also work on the athletic field. You can tell a lot about a teacher, for example, by watching the teacher’s reactions to the mistakes students make as they seek … Read more
What Youth League Coaches Don’t Know – And What Coaches and Parents Can Do About It
By Doug Abrams When I was president of mid-Missouri’s youth hockey program about ten years ago, a visibly upset parent called me aside one night to say that her son was being bullied by a couple of teammates, both at the home rink and on road trips. Nothing physical, but teasing had continued for a … Read more
"The Sports Edge"
Rick Wolff
Steve Kallas
Doug Abrams
