MHSAA Library
“AMERICA’S MOST COMPETITIVE ADULT SPORT”
(August 2004)
One of the most elusive of blessings is a well balanced life.
Think about that. How much mental illness is a part of one's body, mind or soul out of control? How much physical fatigue is a result of too much of one thing or too little of another, like too much work and too few workouts? How much emotional discomfort is caused by lack of time for spouse, children, charity, church, for recreation . . . re-creation?
One of the most elusive blessings of life is a well balanced life.
For children, there is danger in too much idle time. “The Music Man" preyed on the fears of the parents of River City, Iowa, haunting them that idle time would lead to boys' ruin.
But that was then, now is now. And the dangers to many kids may have more to do with too much to do than too little to do.
Certainly this is not the case for all children. Many underprivileged children are under-scheduled, under-supervised and under-challenged.
But for very many children who are involved in sports, in very many communities and circumstances, their quality of life is harmed at least as much as helped by the over-scheduling of adolescent lives by adult leaders, some with the best of intentions, some with bad intentions, and many with no clue at all.
Psychiatrist Alvin Rosenfeld writes of his concerns, using phrases such as, "the over-scheduled child rearing style" and saying "Parenting is now America's most competitive adult sport."
Now coming to a high school near you are parents who have carried their crying five-year-olds to and from the mats of freestyle wrestling meets. Coming to a high school near you are parents who enrolled their six-year-olds in competitive soccer leagues and coached their seven-year-olds' teams to be sure "it is a good experience." Coming to a high school near you are parents who have paid for private tennis lessons for their children since they were eight years old, paid for private softball pitching lessons since they were nine years old, and paid for individual and team basketball camps since they were ten years old. Coming to a high school near you are parents who have taxied their children across town, state and country for competitions in ice hockey, soccer, volleyball, basketball, baseball, golf, tennis and more.
Now coming to us with high school students are parents who have exhausted themselves and their pocketbooks and are now saying, "You do it. You provide the uniforms, the transportation, the coaches; and most of all, you keep pushing, you keep over-scheduling, you keep doing it because they won't listen to their parents anymore."
The loudest objections to any proposals to restrict the number or length of high school practices, the number of contests, the length of travel, coaching contacts out of season, and participation out of season have come from parents. Some objections have come from coaches, but the most objections and the loudest ones come from parents.
Not all parents fit this stereotype. Some parents criticize state high school associations for allowing too much, leaving no time for family vacations and insufficient time for the students' school work and church life. But these parents complain less now than other parents would complain later if new limits on athletic expectations were proposed.
The typical child involved in school sports lives in three worlds. There is the athletic world, both school and non-school. There is the academic world. And there is the personal world that includes non-athletic activities, church and community activities, after-school jobs and, of course, friends.
In school sports we're supposed to believe, and we're supposed to advance policies, that assure academics are placed ahead of athletics in the lives of students, at least within the academic day, week and year.
I suppose all sports have their bad moments, but these situations stand out as obvious problems, as obvious cases of misplaced priorities:
1. High school swimming - it's the only sport high school administrators will allow to practice two times a day, even on school days, all season long.
2. Non-school ice hockey, soccer, volleyball and basketball - students travel great distances almost daily to practice and compete with elite teams in other towns, often playing more games outside the high school season than during the high school season.
3. Gymnastics - students start in the fall in clubs; and by the time the winter high school season is finished, so are these students' bodies: bruised, battered and bandaged. Child abuse might have fewer scars than what I have seen at MHSAA Girls Gymnastics Finals in March.
4. Baseball and softball and golf - students missing classes day in and day out to participate in regular season contests.
Obvious as these abuses are to educators, we doubt we could get consensus to change anything. School administrators will agree, but parents will object to a reduction in swimming practices, restriction on non-school sports out of season, and prohibition on playing Sport A in a non-school program while on the school team in Sport B.
We are fighting to keep sensible limits in Michigan. That's a hard fight; it’s a noble fight. Pushing for more restrictions, we would likely end up with less, so the cost benefit analysis of a fight for what's good for kids is a high risk enterprise with very low chance of reward or success.
Eighty percent of all youngsters who ever participated in sports have stopped doing so by the time they reach 13 years of age. It is no wonder.
And there is a corollary to this burnout among the students: the more we push (or simply allow) the over-scheduling of students, the harder it will be for us to find and keep their high school coaches. Excessive demands on athletes lead to excessive demands on coaches, burnout and exacerbation of the coaching shortage in educational athletics.
MHSAA Executive Director
John E. "Jack" Roberts
