Mom of Teens Talks Sports

I made a video with a recap of the Girls High School Basketball Class L CIAC Semifinals. It was North Haven High School vs Lyman Hall High School.

Check it out: https://youtu.be/1AJvYqNVNZk

I love baseball. I grew up in Los Angeles and love my Dodgers. I loved watching and going to games. I loved watching Sax and Fernando – the experience was amazing. As I got older – I did not attend baseball as much but still enjoyed watching and following the game of baseball.

When our son was in kindergarten, he wanted to play baseball. I was so excited.  We signed him up for our local Little League. I have grown to love our Little League baseball.  He “graduated” our local little league last year, but will still play on the 50/70 team this year (his 8^th year playing). I am so fond of our local little league that I joined the board.

The biggest drop we have seen locally is on the Little League Baseball level here in Connecticut. We have seen such a huge drop that some of our neighboring towns have had to merge. We have also seen other little leagues go from having 7-8 Majors teams to 3-5 teams this year. Travel baseball teams have also taken some of the local little leagues. Our local little has a great relationship with our local travel team. Our little league players need to stay with little league in order to be signed up with the travel team until the age of 12.

But if you have kids in Youth Sports on any level and any sport – you have witnessed the decline of Youth Sports. Some sports have seen a huge drop for another sport, some have left local teams for club teams, some have been priced out due to the costs and some just do not want to play anymore. But times have changed. Sports are now being played year round.  So soccer (was mainly a fall sport) and baseball (mainly spring) are both being played year round with the travel and club teams.  

Some examples of kids leaving for little league to other sports is with Lacrosse being played at the same season. We have witnessed a huge switch for kids leave little league to lacrosse. If you also look at the list of the most popular sports are – according to “What Are the Most Popular Youth Sports?” (DeMaria, 2019) – The number one sport for youth is Basketball then Baseball.

You can also argue that some kids are leaving sports due to the coaches. According to “Youth sports still struggling with dropping participation, high costs and bad coaches, study find” (Bogage, 2018) – only a small percentage of coaches are trained correctly. I have witnessed some coaches across several different sports, mainly using only their kids or only using a handful of kids, instead of the team being played as a team. Do not get me wrong there is also some amazing coaching that I have witnessed.

I do not know the answer to the declining numbers in little league. I just want kids to go back to when we played in our backyards and had fun playing with your friends. But that is for another post.

DeMaria, C. (2019, October 15). What Are the Most Popular Youth Sports? Retrieved from https://www.sportsrec.com/4550784/what-are-the-most-popular-youth-sports

Putterman, Alex. “Connecticut Little Leagues Forced to Adjust amid Youth Baseball Participation Decline.” Courant.com, 10 July 2019, www.courant.com/sports/hc-sp-little-league-youth-baseball-connecticut-participation-20190710-xq4b4trxdnehbbwodm4z35aulu-story.html.

Bogage, Jacob. Youth Sports Still Struggling with Dropping Participation, High Costs and Bad Coaches, Study Finds. 16 Oct. 2018, http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2018/10/16/youth-sports-still-struggling-with-dropping-participation-high-costs-bad-coaches-study-finds/.

I have been reading a lot of articles and talking to a lot of parents, whose kids play in competitive youth sports. I can see both sides, where the older the kids get, the more competitive it becomes and some kids do not like the sport anymore and it is not fun for that child that and some thrive in it. I have also seen where the fun is being sucked out due to the parents.

I have two kids – one thrives and does well in Youth competitive Sports and the other ones just likes to swim and be part of a team. She is not the fastest but tries and loves cheering her teammates on.

 My son on the other hand is a different story. He plays competitive youth full contact football, park and rec basketball and baseball. He started baseball at a very early age and is okay but not the best. He started in flag football in the 2^nd grade and it was pretty good for a few years but he got bored and I could see him getting bored. So in the 5^th grade, we brought down and signed him up for full contact football. The first year, was really hard. The practice schedule and games are no joke. It is a FULL family commitment. Noah did not know what he was doing but tried. He only got his minimum plays for the first few games and weeks but worked hard and listened to his coaches. We (his parents) also told him that he better respect his coaches and teammates or football would be over since it was a commitment for us also. He listened and really did work hard.

My husband and I would trade off going to the practices and for games for all sports both of us go to support him. At the games across all the sports – I can see how some of the parents are sometimes more competitive than the players, but I have also seen the coaches not listening to the team. For both of these – I can see the kids not liking these sports anymore. We have always told our son that if a sport ever is not fun anymore and he does not want to play it anymore to let us know and we can talk about it as a family. Well this has NEVER happened… it has only gotten worse and this year he added basketball.

At my son’s age – all the boys are very competitive and all they want to do is win at any cost. I have witnessed parents yelling at their kids when they strike out at baseball or if they miss a football pass to them. Am I that type of parents – I would like to think I am not since yes I want my kid’s team to win but I also believe that kids need to learn how to lose and fail. What are your thoughts?

It was a very exciting first round of Wallingford Weber Park and Rec 7th grade basketball game playoffs. Four of the teams played and two had bye weeks and are playing the winners of these first round games.

The two lowest bracket teams played against each other (Grant – White team and Salerno – red team) and it was an exciting game. They have played each other twice before. The first game there were three players expected and a lot of fouls. Since there are several football players on both of these teams – they have played very competitive each time. Today was no different.

During the first period Salerno’s team was leading 23-17. A lot of fouls were called against Grant’s team so they got a lot of free throws and hardly any against Salerno’s team. Grant’s team came back during the second period and fought hard. It was a lot of teamwork and they seemed to really pull it together. Grant’s team won 34-28. You can see some of the teamwork and rebounds from my video on twitter. https://twitter.com/angelar_c/status/1234214048574713862?s=21

I decided to take my parent hat off and put my journalism hat on. I had the pleasure of interviewing my 13-year-old son, Noah Cutler.

Here is what he had to say…

AR-C: At what age did you start in youth sports?

NC: I believe I started at the age of 6. I was in kindergarten. I started in baseball with t-ball.

AR-C: What sports do you currently play?

NC: I play football, baseball and basketball. Full contact football, not flag.

AR-C: Which one is your favorite?

NC: Football is my favorite

AR-C: Why is it your favorite?

NC: It’s the sport, I grew up watching and be playing since I was 8 years old. It’s my football family.

AR-C: Did you like all of your coaches?

NC: Some of them. Well actually most of them.

AR-C: Have any of your coaches been memorable?

NC: My Triple A Baseball Coach taught me to be a good player and leader. He taught me to be an adult and made me want to give back and help out.

AR-C: If you could change anything in Youth Sports – what would it be?

AC: Nothing. Each youth sports are good as they are. It depends on the coaches.

AR-C: If you could give any suggestions to your coaches – what would it be?

NC: Which coach?

AR-C: Any coach…

NC: I would tell them to give a kid a chance. When you coach them – it means the world to them.

AR-C: Which Sport Athlete is your role model and why?

NC: JJ Watt is my role model. He is a great player. He also is always helping in his community and to charities.

AR-C: Do you have any sports plans for the future?

NC: Yes, I want to play football and maybe baseball in high school.

ARC: Beyond high school?

NC: College maybe?

I am currently taking a Sports Journalism class for college and was asked to create a sports blog. Well since I am a mom of a multi sport player – I thought I would create a good website name that would be easy for people to find me. I love taking pictures of my kids sports and I am currently finishing my degree in Communications so I thought I would try and see how I would do with Sports Journalism.

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