Are high school athletes pushed too much?

[Alidar Jarok]

The inspiration for writing this is a sport that doesn't have a wide following (Girls high school and college basketball), but I think it touches on a larger issue.

Over the summer, one of the highest ranked girls basketball players in the nation, Elena DelleDonna backed out of a full ride to the University of Connecticut after a single day there and transfered to the University of Delaware basically vowing never to touch a basketball again (she plays Volleyball now). To me, there's two things shocking about this. The immediate reaction in my mind was how she turned down something extremely promising (you have to be really good to get a full scholarship to UConn). But, as more information came out, my opinion has pretty much changed. She started playing basketball when she was 7 and practiced two hours a day between then and when she drove up to UConn to begin summer college. According to her, she was burned out with the sport since she was 13, but kept pretending to like it for another 5 years to make everyone else happy. I'm surprised she didn't go crazy sooner.

My question is, do you think high school athletes (and, in this case, middle school and younger) are pushed too hard? Is there too much emphasis on success in the hopes that one person becomes the next Lebron James or Michael Jordan of their sport? Or is it worth it for the possible rewards?

 

[CaptainHawk1]

It's a subjective question. There are some kids who's parents push them too hard in sports for a variety of reasons and then there are communities where that's all they have.

My cousin coaches football and has done so in Las Vegas and in Atlanta in poor neighborhoods, it is literally all they have to hope for and to support. High Scool Athletics is their life and a part of their culture. The concept of pushing their kids to achieve academic success doesn't even occur to them.

When I was growing up, my parents never pushed me in sports. If I wanted to partcipate my parents supported me but then again, my parents also pushed me academically.

I think kids should pursue it until they don't want to anymore and parents should stay the hell out of it.

-Shawn

 

[Pegaritaville]

In high school, I'd say no. By then (hopefully) kids know what sports they want to play and what effort they wish to put into it.

My big problem is with the seemingly unending sports programs aimed at younger kids. The way the "sports camps" and such market it, if you don't go, you'll fall behind. Just about every parent gets sucked into the mentality that if you don't spend the big bucks, you're child is doomed to sit on the bench. Unfortunately, it's kind of become a self-fulfilling situation. No parent wants to have their kid to fall behind, so all of the parents end up playing a game of one-up-manship. It seems that kids have to be in one program after another nowadays: They have no time to just be a kid, and that kind of bugs me.

 

[Maestro]

I am good friends with our girls basketball coach. Both of his daughters played on his last three state championship teams. They all did the summer leagues, the work-outs, the extra practices.

Neither are playing college ball.

 

[Canadave]

Personally, I'm always amazed at the amount of pressure put on high school athletes south of the border. Young athletes really don't deserve to have so much focus on them.

 

[Maestro]

I'm also appalled at the amount of high school football shown on ESPN and FOX Sports channels.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I know I'm bumping a long dead thread, but there's an update to the original story. After a year of playing volleyball instead, Elena DelleDonne is now part of the UD basketball team. I honestly wonder if this would mean more pressure or less. On one hand, she's no longer with the top women's basketball team in the nation. On the other hand, she's expected to bring a program that isn't all that big into national prominence.

I guess the cycle goes on. Maybe that answers my original question. In her mind, the pressures are worth the possible rewards.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Hm. Well she's 19, she's an adult. I can see why it could be wrong to push a minor too hard to compete in sports (which may have happened in her case), but she's certainly old enough now to decide that for herself. If she can't cope with the pressure, the world won't end either.

Btw. 19 is an age, where in pro soccer, you pretty much have either made it already, or you never will. There are players younger than that with million-$ contracts.

 

[Davros]

High Schools shouldn't even have teams.

 

[mimic]

^I enjoyed being on a team in high school.

 

[RoJoHen]

^I enjoyed being on a team in high school.

I wasn't on a team, but I loved going to our football games.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Yeah, I enjoyed watching high school sports. And the players on the teams enjoyed playing them. And those who got to go to college because of that probably enjoy that. Sports themselves aren't necessarily the issue here.

 

[Daedalus12]

If the coach is like Jon Voight's character in Varsity Blues then yes. Otherwise the only people who are doing the pushing are the athletes themselves.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Sometimes parents are. The reason I brought this up was a seven year old girl was practicing two hours a night in anticipation that she would be successful some day.

 

[RoJoHen]

I did know a guy on the wrestling team in high school whose dad pushed him so hard that he grew to hate him, but he was so afraid of disappointing him that he drove himself into a pretty hardcore depression. It wasn't good.

 

[Danny99]

I think some onus has to be placed on sports teams and leagues for allowing such cases to appear.

Though parents can push their kids to the extreme and that is a shame, but if professional sports league pushed the draft age to 21 and allowed some maturity and possible schooling to occur for these kids, it'd be better for them. I know I matured alot in my university life from ages 17-21 and so could athletes, without being under the glare of the public spotlight.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

High Schools shouldn't even have teams.

Because of the "too much pressure" issue or something else? I played several sports from childhood to before, after, and during high school (football primarily in high school) and enjoyed them immensely, and would regret that opportunity not being available to others.

It all comes down to the parents, really. The coaches can push a kid too far as well, but ultimately they only have control if the parents give it to them first. If demanding parents who were trying to relive their ideal lives vicariously through their children didn't have sports to fall back on they'd probably just wind up pushing their kids too far in some other way.

I was fortunate that while we were (relatively) poor and getting a athletic scholarship would have helped a great deal in paying for college, my parents never put that kind of pressure on me to train or play sports endlessly in pursuit of a scholarship or athletic career. What I wanted to do was always the top priority.

 

[Skywalker]

Some kids actually thrive under the pressure, but normally they're the ones who actually want to play their chosen sport beyond high school and college. A lot of the times it's parents who want to see their children succeed (in other, worse cases, it's parents who want their children to become millionaires so they can leech off of them). Sometimes it's just jackass coaches who take the game way too seriously.

That said, I wish I'd continued playing baseball through high school. I was actually pretty good, but I got kind of burned out on the student athlete thing, myself.