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Trophy Kids

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Coach O

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I am the parent of a former high school athlete and current high school athlete. As many of you older posters know, I coached high school basketball throughout the 90's. If you have young kids that play sports, or toddlers that you think you will want to play sports, please watch the documentary on HBO: State of Play and Trophy Kids…it is a chilling depiction of what can happen when parents lose perspective...

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/84585/peter-bergs-state-of-play-trophy-kids-and-memories-of-crazy-sports-parents
 
Coach O said:
I am the parent of a former high school athlete and current high school athlete. As many of you older posters know, I coached high school basketball throughout the 90's. If you have young kids that play sports, or toddlers that you think you will want to play sports, please watch the documentary on HBO: State of Play and Trophy Kids…it is a chilling depiction of what can happen when parents lose perspective...

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-t...phy-kids-and-memories-of-crazy-sports-parents
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DVR'd this. HBO+Peter Berg=worth watching
 
I came close to watching this yesterday but have to admit: seeing Marinovich's name soured me. Funny thing is- he's the poster kid for this bullshit. These parents need to get their own lives and stop fucking up their kids. They ride them like this then get shocked when the kid is caught DUI or getting high. When a kid doesn't want to play a sport and it's more than just situational frustration (i.e. just lost a game and you get the "this sucks; I wanna quit") it's time to let them decide- them, not you. You don't want them to quit just because they're getting challenged. But when it's painful, emotionally and physically, and you're becoming the kind of parent that people look down on or want to beat the shit out of, you've lost perspective.
 
94--agreed.

What might be the most painful is when a parent of an average talent kid places unreal expectations on them. Unfortunately, in sports, you can't "work" your way to elite. You have to have the talent (and most importantly, SIZE) first. 99% of kids don't have it. But 42% of parents think they do… Bad formula.
 
This is why year round sports STINK. I have more friends that think their child is on to college sports. Of all my friends, and I mean all of them I think I can name about 10 that played on some level of college. The ones I find really funny are the parents that encourage their kids to go to some crappy school for a sport, that even if they were great, would likely never earn them a check, and 4 years later they have a diploma from Bozo Tech
 
TARDAWG said:
This is why year round sports STINK. I have more friends that think their child is on to college sports. Of all my friends, and I mean all of them I think I can name about 10 that played on some level of college. The ones I find really funny are the parents that encourage their kids to go to some crappy school for a sport, that even if they were great, would likely never earn them a check, and 4 years later they have a diploma from Bozo Tech
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in their defense, they might get a partial scholarship and undergraduate degrees are pretty much bullshit unless you're planning on going on to a elite level graduate program
 
I struggle with this quite a bit. My 15 y.o. son is a pretty good goalie on a mid-level classic team. I think that he could be good enough to play at a low-level college (think NAIA or D-III) squad, but I (and he) understand that the chances for anything beyond that are nil. He still enjoys playing and so we support him by sending him to camps, travelling, going to practice four nights a week, etc. I can be hard on him at times, but he's told us that his goal is to play soccer in college. (We've asked him if he would prefer to go to a small school that he's never heard of to play or a larger school where he won't, and he's told us that he'd prefer to play.) He understands that for him college is for education, not a tryout for a professional squad.

It's very difficult as a parent to encourage your child to work towards his dreams without crossing the line (or at least toeing it a few times.) You want to push them so they can succeed, but you don't want them to begin to resent the sport that they love.

Frankly, part of the equation is that I push him because it is what currently motivates him. Ultimately, I will feel successful when he coaches my grandchildren and shares the same love for sport as I have with him.
 
Demonbeck said:
Ultimately, I will feel successful when he coaches my grandchildren and shares the same love for sport as I have with him.
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I say this all the time…my goal is to raise two "lifetime athletes." People who enjoy and participate in athletic activity all of their lives. Pickup basketball in their 20's, beer league softball in their 30's, on up through golf in their 80's…
 
Coach O said:
I say this all the time…my goal is to raise two "lifetime athletes." People who enjoy and participate in athletic activity all of their lives. Pickup basketball in their 20's, beer league softball in their 30's, on up through golf in their 80's…
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I had too many friends who played soccer in college that don't have any involvement in the sport today. I think that is sad
 
Most of the kids I am thinking of can get into these same schools sports or no sports, and as with most colleges, there is TONS of partial academic money to be had. I think you could argue the case it might get you in a better school, but using ten years of year round practices to get a partial scholly to a lesser school just does not add up to me.

Good buddy of mine has a son on a Full ride playing short stop at UGA (most impressive of any friend's child) and a daughter at Ga Southern on tennis (she could have gone to a better school, but went for the tennis), I mentioned to him he must love the money savings he laughed and said he had run the numbers, and even with a full ride he is way behind in the game after all the cost to get them there.

All cases are different I know.
ImTheCaptain said:
in their defense, they might get a partial scholarship and undergraduate degrees are pretty much bullshit unless you're planning on going on to a elite level graduate program
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my brother in law go in to johns hopkins because of soccer. played one season and quit because the coach was a douche and engineering is hard.
 
Friend of mine got into dook to be a football kicker. Got in and went to one practice. Diploma on the wall.
 
yup. he would have been uncw/app st bound in all likelihood. maybe unc or wake on legacy strength, but not hopkins.
 
TARDAWG said:
Most of the kids I am thinking of can get into these same schools sports or no sports, and as with most colleges, there is TONS of partial academic money to be had. I think you could argue the case it might get you in a better school, but using ten years of year round practices to get a partial scholly to a lesser school just does not add up to me.

Good buddy of mine has a son on a Full ride playing short stop at UGA (most impressive of any friend's child) and a daughter at Ga Southern on tennis (she could have gone to a better school, but went for the tennis), I mentioned to him he must love the money savings he laughed and said he had run the numbers, and even with a full ride he is way behind in the game after all the cost to get them there.

All cases are different I know.
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I'm not talking about people who could go to a different school and maybe save a few, i'm talking about kids who couldn't go to school period unless it was the local community college.
 
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