entertainment center: Parents of Children in (or about to be in) Sports Should Read This ...

Just a note: I?ve updated a few of the pages on my blog and uploaded a few academic papers as well as a few old sermons.? I would like to pass along anything I create that I think might be helpful ? that?s why I haven?t posted much ? figuring not much would be helpful ? Maybe you?ll find something of use there.? I did post a series of sermons I preached back in 2010 that you may find helpful if you find yourself in a Church of Christ that is wrestling through some of the theological and hermeneutical challenges that are a bit unique to us.? See what you think.

Game on

As I?ve begun this trek through youth sports and have been searching for the role of the church in helping equip our members for how to navigate these waters, few things have opened my eyes as wide as this book by Tom Farrey, published in 2008 (and then republished in 2009).

In writing his book, Farrey follows the development of children beginning with the first chapter (age 1) through the final chapter (age 14) discussing different parents? obsession with making their children into sports icons.? He takes the reader to a sperm bank in Southern California where he quotes a doctor there as saying, ?I?d say somewhere between 40% and two-thirds of the infertile couples look to prioritize athletic traits? . . . ?In fact, after ethnicity . . . attributes such as height and body shape are most frequently requested? (p. 43).? He goes to a sports arena in Concord, Massachusetts to discuss with the parents of a set of seven-year-old twin girls who already are thinking ivy league, D-1 scholarships, and who already shell out over $10,000 per twin, per year, for hockey.? He takes the reader to Europe and compares the (much more effective) approach the French have towards their youth soccer programs which begins later in childhood and are much less rote and machine-esque? in comparison to the American counterpart.? From AAU to the NCAA, from soccer to basketball to girl?s hockey .? .? . even fencing is not out of Farrey?s aim.

Such a comprehensive volume is difficult to summarize in a brief blog overview, but I?ll do my best.? Farrey essentially sees a system of youth sports in the United States that has become extremely broken as it increasingly marginalizes the poor who cannot afford to be part of the system, contributes to the lack of inactivity and obesity in the country as travel and elite leagues stymie opportunities that use to exist in local recreation leagues, creates false dreams of NCAA scholarships (reinforcing what Michael Novak said more than 30 years ago ? that sports has effectively become the opiate of the masses), and is detrimental to the country?s performance in international competition (he argues that not only does the current system do great harm to our country?s children ? it?s actually not the best program for promoting athletes who compete at the highest levels ? he offers Australia as a better example of success ? check out their medal count in recent Olympics).

youth-sports

There is a great deal in Farrey?s work that will take some time for me to digest.? I am amazed at the irony of his book being published by ESPN who he points to (carefully, but certainly) as helping contribute to these problems.

Farrey is not writing from a Christian point of view, per say, but a great deal of what he points out should resonate with Christians looking for their children to participate in sports.? If sports, indeed, is a spiritual power, we should be asking ourselves, ?In what ways can my children participate and contribute to the created good, intent of sports? rather than shrug our shoulders as if to say, ?Well, if you can?t beat them, join them!?

Any parent who is wrestling for the best way their child might participate in youth sports would do well to read Farrey ? and read it before you child is faced with the many opportunities that will come his or her way for participation in sports.? Be proactive, instead of sitting back and being marketed to.? Know what is best for your family.? Know what you are and aren?t willing to do.? Know how much travel you are willing to participate.? Know how much money you are willing to spend.? And keep your dreams realistic.? Don?t think about plans for your child to develop into a D1 athlete ? think instead about how they can enjoy their childhood, and allowing sports to impact his or her life alongside other worthy endeavors.

When it comes to dreams of D-1 scholarships and opportunities at the ?next level? I find it instructive to consider Farrey?s words as a reminder to stay grounded:

NCAA_Clearinghouse_Registration ?I?ll keep it to one sentence.? If you?re gifted, really gifted, and lucky (right team, right coaches, right scheme, no wrecked knees) and play by the unwritten but uncompromising rules of the NCAA establishment ? devote 360 days a year to your team and don?t make a habit of questioning the fairness of a system that uses your ability to perform in order to make hundreds of millions of dollars while you are on campus ? then you might end up like Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith, with a hunk of wood and metal in your left hand and a strirring national feature story (set to soft jazz) that memorializes your childhood descent into a Cleveland foster home and emergence as a student-athlete-celebrity, and how that Heisman Trophy you just won is going to motivate other kids to rise up from the ghetto in a similar manner, thereby helping to recycle the myth ? critical to existing public policy ? that big-time, commercialized college sports like D1 football and basketball are a viable route to a better life, when in fact there?s no real evidence to suggest that collectively the poor have been lifted by all that sport-centric dreaming and, besides, the Heisman isn?t what kids in the ghetto dream about anyway because chunks of metal and wood don?t put dinner on the family table and sometimes don?t even guarantee an NFL career, even if you so far have beaten the odds.?? (p. 146 ? 147)