The Little League World Champions will have to forfeit their title after an investigation discovered that the team was drawing players from outside its geographic boundaries.
Presumably, in order to field a stronger team, players from different districts were recruited to play for the team. This decision has meant the loss of a title to the youngsters who actually played the game to achieve it.
When did Little League become such a big business? Or, when did youth sports in general become such big business? From a sports medicine standpoint we want to encourage young individuals to play many different sports form a young age in order to instill healthy habits and foster a lifetime love of activity. Now, athletes are being pushed to specialize at a young age, they are not playing other sports so they don’t fall behind their peers and they are facing a lot of pressure to succeed at a young age. If they do succeed they get compared to adults and people wonder how great they will be when they make the pros. Unfortunately, a very small percentage of individuals go on to play professionally. Perhaps some of the reasons for not continuing are a hitting an early ceiling. If you play one sport and work on only that sport you reach a point where it becomes harder to improve. If you peak early you will great as a youth, but mediocre as a high schooler. It may be that playing that one sport used to be fun, until it wasn’t. The pressures just weren’t worth it any more so they walk away.
From a business standpoint, parents have money they are willing to spend on equipment, club dues, coaches, camps and training. Each of these areas wants a slice of the economic pie and the justification is that they are willing to pay for it. We all want our children to be successful and do the best they can, but we also need to recognize that they are still children and need support, guidance and encouragement from parents.
With the amount of money being spent on youth sports, you can bet this will not the last violation in order to succeed. Let’s just hope that the ones who do succeed, do so for the right reasons.
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