SportsLetter

Turn that off and go outside and play!

An article in today's Wall Street Journal outlines the benefits of children (and adults) spending more time outdoors.

Author Jonah Lehrer cites a "recent study" which concluded that "American children between the ages of 8 and 18 currently spend more than four hours a day interacting with technology."

From the article:

As a result, there's no longer time for nature: From 2006 to 2010, the percentage of young children regularly engaging in outdoor recreation fell by roughly 15 percentage points.

This shift is occurring even as scientists outline the mental benefits of spending time in natural settings. According to the latest research, untamed landscapes have a restorative effect, calming our frazzled nerves and refreshing the tired cortex. After a brief exposure to the outdoors, people are more creative, happier and better able to focus. If there were a pill that delivered these same results, we'd all be popping it.

Lehrer goes on to describe a variety of studies that showed that people who spend more time outdoors than others score better on tests of creativity, attention and short-term memory.

From the article: 

This also helps to explain an effect on children with attention-deficit disorder. Several studies show that, when surrounded by trees and animals, these children are less likely to have behavioral problems and are better able to focus on a particular task.

So, this Memorial Day Weekend, go take a hike. 

With your kids, of course.

Youth sports and the local economy, again

A Memorial Day youth baseball tournament in Palm Beach County, Florida, may bring in $14 million to the local economy.

From the Palm Beach Post:

The 1,700 baseball players, coaches and family members expected at north county's Memorial Day Madness this weekend - most from outside the area -- are part of the booming youth baseball tournament business in Palm Beach County.

"That's a big boost for local hotels and restaurants. These quick two-to-three-day events have a big economic impact," said Ed Chase, president and CEO of the Northern Palm Beach County Chamber of Commerce.

Last year, 24 youth baseball tournaments -- up from 18 six years ago -- drew about 15,300 hotel room nights. The total economic impact was about $14 million, said George Linley, executive director of the Palm Beach County Sports Commission.

and

About 60 Memorial Day Madness teams, each with about 13 players between the ages of nine and 16, will play about 112 games starting Friday night. Each team usually brings about a dozen friends and family and about three coaches, said Eric Hungenberg, the Florida baseball director for Fort Collins, Colo.-based Triple Crown Sports, the producer of the annual event.

Those aren't boos, they're saying LUUUUUURES

And now, a fish story.

Earlier this year the Kentucky High School Athletic Association (KHSAA) announced that it had added high school bass fishing as a state championship sport.

And Kentucky isn't even the first state to do so.  According to a recent article in USA Today, Illinois high school participation in the sport has grown from 199 schools to 232 over the past four years.

Dan Gannaway, former Illinois High School Association (IHSA) assistant executive director who helped helped bass fishing become a state championship event first in Illinois and now in Kentucky says:

"It's more than just going out in a boat and throwing a lure in the water. It's trying to teach the kids the sciences about fishing. There's a lot of science involved in fishing, whether people believe it or not. Water temperature and clarity and dealing with all of that relative to color, where the oxygen is in the water at different times."

Reported early concerns are student safety, liability, and availability of suitable equipment, including bass boats.  Also, reports USA Today:

In addition to having a valid Kentucky fishing license, each participant will be required to join Student Angler Federation (SAF), an arm of The Bass Federation that organizes numerous youth fishing tournaments around the country.

Mark Gintert, national youth director with The Bass Federation, isn't worried:

"I tell people, and this may sound kind of simplistic, but I tell people this is just exactly like the Field of Dreams. If you build it, they will come," he said. "Now you may have to work a little bit to get your volunteers, but once you publicize to the world that you have a school fishing club and you need some help, you'll get those volunteers."

And, he added,

"The great thing about fishing is it's the greatest equal opportunity sport in America," Gintert said. "It's a Title IX dream for a school. It doesn't matter if you're a girl, a boy, if you're four-foot-six or six-foot-four, 300 pounds or 30 pounds, that fish has no idea who's on the end of that rod….So boys and girls can stand side-by-side, shoulder-to-shoulder, and fish in these tournaments and win."

I got your role model right here!

A youth rugby team has been suspended after its president and a coach were accused of offering team players money for "big hits" on players from opposing teams.

According Dan Noyes from ABC's KGO-TV in San Francisco, Wesley Van Tonder and his son, Wes Jr., allegedly offered cash payments to members of their Bay area youth rugby club, the Martinez Raptors, for hard hits on opposing players. 

The Van Tonder's have denied offering the bounties but a player from the Raptors under-14 team confirmed that "that the Van Tonders offered that boy and his teammates money for hits that would knock Lamorinda [Rugby] players out of the game."

From KGO-TV:

"And the father was particularly upset that once the investigation began that apparently there had been a meeting of some sort telling the kids, 'Don't say anything about it or else,' and 'or else' was kind of left open," said [Northern California Youth Rugby Association (NCYRA) disciplinary chairman Matt] Eason.

Also from KGO-TV:

The league announced its decision in an email to coaches and parents:

•All of the Raptor teams are suspended until Jan. 1; they'll miss the summer season
•They forfeit all of last season's matches
•Wesley Van Tonder and his son are suspended from rugby for three years

There has been some speculation that the idea of bounties came from the recent NFL scandal involving the suspension of New Orleans Saints players and coaches for cash payments made to Saints for injuring opposing players, including members of the San Francisco 49ers.

Said one parent from another rugby club:

"There's no room for that at this level of youth sports or in any level. There's no room for bounties."

Nix high school sports? NFHS says nay nay

Bob Gardner, executive director of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), reacts to former basketball coach Len Steven's suggestion that the European model of club sports would be a better system for high school athletes than school sports.

From the NFHS website:

What Mr. Stevens probably doesn’t know is that many of those countries employing the “European model” would trade their model in an instant for the education-based philosophy of high school sports in the United States. After listening to my report at the 9th International Session for Educators at the International Olympic Academy in Greece last summer, representatives from many nations marveled that our programs receive little or no government support in our schools, and the universal wish of the delegates from other nations was that their programs could be more like ours ...

...What Mr. Stevens doesn’t account for is that if sports were removed from American high schools, the focus would not be on education. The focus would be on trying to locate students who abruptly left school – dropouts – when sports were taken away ...

...How many of those 7.6 million [student-athletes involved in high school sports] would still be around if the only option was to join a club team? The clubs only want the very best athletes, and fees can range from $5,000 to $10,000 a year to be involved with a year-round travel team.

A large majority of high school students who are involved in sports are there to have fun, to be with their friends, to compete and learn and to be a part of a team. Kids have a need to be needed and to be a part of something positive, to be involved with their peers and coaches who care. Many students involved in sports do not have a support system at home – their high school teammates and coaches are their lifeblood. This concept simply does not exist through club sports.

And finally,

Certainly, there are challenges in many states, mainly due to funding issues. But even in those situations when funds become tight, more often than not the community responds because it sees the value of these programs for young people. With all due respect to Mr. Stevens, there are 7.6 million reasons we’re going to keep sports within our schools.

Running like it's 1928

The more things change ...

There are 10 states in which girl high school cross country runners run shorter distances than boys during the regular season.  In all other states the distance run by both girls and boys is the same. 

In most of those 10 states the girls run four-kilometer (2.5-mile) races instead of the standard five-kilometer (3.1-mile) courses run by boys; and in Oklahoma the girls run an even shorter distance, 3.2 kilometers (or roughly two miles). 

From ESPN:

ESPNHS reached out to the cross country representatives at each of the 10 state associations in which girls run shorter distances than the boys. Nine associations responded. (Representatives from Iowa did not respond to repeated inquiries.) Every athletic association implied that the state would be open to increasing the distance, provided that the coaches' associations voted to do so.

For coaches, the main deterrent is the perception that it will negatively affect participation numbers. Particularly in smaller classifications, coaches worry that increasing the distance from 4K to 5K will turn away girls who either aren't as serious about the sport, use cross country mostly to train for other sports, or both.

"Nobody has ever said that a girl can't run a 5K," Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association assistant director Marcy Thurwachter said. "The No. 1 issue is what will happen to our smallest teams and their participation numbers."

For high school senior and Gatorade National Runner of the Year Molly Seidel any changes made by her home state of Wisconsin to its tradition of 4K races for girls will come too late.  Molly's open letter to the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) was reprinted on ESPN and said, in part:

Like the shag carpeting glued to the floor of our home's guest bedroom, I realize some things won't be shed easily. Some girls simply don't want to switch to the longer racing distance. Some even believe that they're not fast or strong enough to handle the 5K. This is not only untrue; it's ridiculous. Cross country is about pushing limits, and our state should be encouraging its female runners to push their own limits, not holding them back with outdated rules and regulations.

Pay-to-play is shutting out some low income kids

Nearly 1 in 5 children from lower income families "decreased their sports participation" according to a new report just released by University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health (NPCH). 

The nationwide poll asked parents of middle- and high-school-age children what they spent on school sports and how much their kids participated. 

From a University of Michigan press release:

Overall, 61 percent of children playing middle or high school sports were charged a pay-to-play fee. The average fee was $93, according to the poll respondents, but 21% of children faced a pay-to-play fee of $150 or more.

However, pay-to-play fees are only one component of the school sports costs reported by parents. Including equipment, uniforms and additional team fees,, the average cost for a child’s sports participation was $381.

Researchers found that 12 percent of parents overall said that the cost of school sports caused a drop in participation for at least one of their children. However, that varied substantially based on income. Among lower-income families, those earning less than $60,000 per year, 19 percent said their children’s participation decreased because of costs. But among families earning more than $60,000 per year, only 5 percent reported costs had caused their children to participate less.

“As pay-to-play becomes the norm, nearly 1 in 5 lower-income parents reported their kids decreased their sports participation – that’s significant,” says Sarah Clark, M.P.H., Associate Director of the Child Health Evaluation and Research (CHEAR) Unit at the University of Michigan and Associate Director of the National Poll on Children’s Health.

The NPCH report can be found here:  http://www.mottnpch.org/reports-surveys/pay-play-sports-keeping-lower-income-kids-out-game

Your Lady Caused Sorrow

A fundamentalist Catholic school in Phoenix chose to forfeit a championship baseball game rather than play a team fielding a female player.

Our Lady of Sorrows was scheduled to play Mesa Preparatory Academy in Wednesday's Arizona Charter Athletic Association (ACAA) state championship at Phoenix College.  Our Lady of Sorrows had played Mesa Prep twice earlier in the season and both times an accommodation had been made to keep Mesa Prep's freshman second baseman Paige Sultzbach off the field.  Mesa Prep won both games.  For Wednesday's game, however, Mesa Prep said Paige would play.

From Fox Sports Arizona:

"I think the championship game was something she had earned the right to play," Mesa Prep athletic director Amy Arnold said. "The (Mesa Prep) players are all very supportive of Paige. They consider her very much a part of the team, and they want her to play."

And:

"We respect the stance of Our Lady of Sorrows Academy," Arnold said. "They are obviously taking a moral stance on their beliefs, and we have to respect that. It's a sad situation that the championship game cannot be played. No one wants to win or lose a championship by forfeit."

Our Lady of Sorrows told Fox News:

...the school had no choice but to forfeit: "Teaching our boys to treat ladies with deference, we choose not to place them in an athletic competition where proper boundaries can only be respected with difficulty,” the statement said. "Our school aims to instill in our boys a profound respect for women and girls."

ACAA's executive director Randy Baum worked with the schools throughout the year to address the differences in school policies and said he simply wished Mesa Prep "had been more consistent in its policy rather than sitting her in the regular-season games and insisting she play in the state championship."

Said Paige's mom Pamela,

"This team has worked so hard," she said. "They're undefeated. They had one game left. At our school, we're taught that when you start something you complete it, and they weren't done."

Get rid of high school sports

So suggests former college basketball coach and current executive director of the Reno-Sparks Chamber of Commerce Len Stevens.

Stevens, who was head basketball coach at Washington State (1983-87), University of Nevada (1987-93) and a Swiss club team, recently told Dan Hinxman of the Reno Gazette-Journal that "our changing culture has effected changes in high school sports" which have assumed an unhealthy priority in our high schools.

From Hinxman's article:

As Stevens points out:

• Coaches were supposed to be teachers. Now fewer than half of them are.

• Each passing year, fewer and fewer students attend their schools’ games. A recent study showed fewer than 10 percent attend games, Stevens said.

• At almost every school principals will tell you their greatest headache is dealing with parents who have complaints about their child’s experience in sports ...

Stevens, Hinxman writes, believes that the European model of club sports would be a better system for high schools in the United States. High schools would offer only intramural sports; kids who wanted to compete at a higher level could join a club.  Clubs also might provide "breaks or waivers to talented children who might not be able to afford” joining.

From the article:

Club sports have been growing in the U.S. for years, and Stevens believes if we go to club sports that would answer a lot of problems and put the high school focus back where it belongs, on education.

In this format, high schools would still have intramural sports and physical education, which would turn the attention to recreation, diet and exercise.

Perseverance on the mound

A 14-year-old pitcher who was born with a partial right arm recently threw a no-hitter in a little league baseball game.

Coleman Shannon of Johnsonville, S.C, was born with a medical condition known as Amelia.  His partial right arm ends near the elbow.  That didn't stop him from tossing a no-hitter and getting two key hits in a defeat of Timmonsville on April 24.

From  SCNow.com:

When he’s on the mound, he considers himself the leader of the team and arbiter of all action on the field.

“I’m the leader of the game,” Shannon said. “I’ve got a bunch of people to back me up and that’s the way the game is supposed to be played.”

The way the game is supposed to be played is the only way Shannon knows how to play. His determination in baseball pales in comparison to the grit and resolve he has shown throughout his life.

Shannon is not only an accomplished baseball player, but is also a hunter and guitar player.

His mother, Jessica Shannon, said she is amazed by the heart Coleman shows by accomplishing things people with no disability sometimes don’t even consider attempting.

“It really is amazing the number of people out there that can do things with ease and choose not to,” Jessica said. “With Coleman, it’s a determination and something that he strives to do. It’s a feeling that to a parent, you really can’t describe it.”

SL Interview: Filmmaker Fred Golding's wrestling documentary "On the Mat"

In the state of Washington the wrestling program at Lake Stevens High School has developed into a storied powerhouse.  The Vikings have won multiple state titles since Coach Brent Barnes, himself the son of a high school wrestling coach, took over the program in the late 1980s, including an 18-year undefeated skein in conference matches.

During the 2010-11 season, documentary filmmaker Fred Golding followed Barnes and the team as Lake Stevens pursued yet another state title.  "On the Mat" focuses on Barnes' efforts to mold his youngsters into winners and shows the sacrifices that the teenagers make during the season.  Many starve themselves to "make weight," while the sport's physical demands are "somewhere in between torture and pure hell," according to Chris Pratt, the film's narrator and executive producer.  Meanwhile, even as wrestling attracts more women grapplers, college scholarships remain a rarity.

New York City-based Golding has been writing, directing and producing documentaries for 25 years.  He often partners with director-producer Mike Tollin on sports-related projects, including "Hardwood Dreams: Ten Years Later," about the ill-fated Morningside High School (Inglewood, Calif.) basketball team that featured Stais Boseman; "Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream," which earned the pair an Academy Award nomination for Best Feature Documentary; "Bonds on Bonds," ESPN's reality show about Barry Bonds; and, most recently, "On the Mat."

A truncated version of "On the Mat" originally appeared on MTV's "True Life Presents" series in early 2012.  The feature-length version of "On the Mat" just made its world premiere at the 2012 Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival.

SportsLetter spoke to Golding by phone from New York City in early April, just before "On the Mat" debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival.

--David Davis

Walk this way

A new study says walking 12,000 steps a day will help children and teens meet their recommended daily exercise goals.

From Athletic Business:

The American College of Sports Medicine has calculated the number of steps required for children and teens to meet their daily exercise recommendation, offering a new tool in the fight against obesity. A study published in the May edition of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise calculated the correlation between step counts and physical activity time counts, equating 12,000 steps to 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity.

The new tool offers a simple way to gauge and improve physical activity levels using only a pedometer, and creates an easy way for children to see their progress. "Daily physical activity goals are important not only to policy makers, but also to the well-being of the general public. This study proposes a new daily goal that is easy to measure with simple equipment," lead author Rachel Colley of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute said in an interview. "Step counts are something that children and teens can easily monitor themselves and use to work toward personal health goals."

Ranking high school athletes and the myth of stars

In his breakdown of the recent NFL draft Gregg Easterbrook assails the practice of ranking high school athletes.

From ESPN:

What college coaches have started calling the "Rivals effect" might be doing high school prospects more harm than good in this regard. The very public Web-based rankings inflate the egos of young athletes, while distracting them from schoolwork and conditioning. ESPN has started ranking high school prospects, too, so ESPN also is open to criticism.

Not only does the "Rivals effect" swell young heads, but the high school rankings seem little better than throwing darts at a board. Rachel Bachman shows that 54 percent of the high schoolers that earned a five-star ranking, the top classification, not only were not drafted high by the NFL, they were never drafted at all. The effect is doubly frustrating for college coaches, because Web prospect standings now enable the ranking of recruiting classes. Boosters pressure college coaches to produce highly ranked incoming classes -- although the rankings have little to do with who will become a good college player, as [Philadelphia Eagles' seventh-round selection Bryce] Brown's meltdown shows.

Your columnist is at work on a book about the effect of football on American society. As part of the research, I tracked down all players in the 2004 U.S. Army All-American Bowl, a high school all-star game that was then the ultimate in prep football recognition. (The Under Armour and Semper Fidelis all-star games now compete with the Army event.) The roster for the 2004 Army game matched almost one-for-one the top half of the Rivals ranking. Of the 86 players, two are now NFL stars, while only 13 more spent any time in the league. Seventy-one of the 86 top-ranked football prospects of 2004 -- 83 percent! -- never earned a dime in the NFL. A surprising number did not even play much in college. On the flip side, nearly all the high school football players from that year who became successes in college and in the pros were overlooked by Rivals and by the Army bowl selectors.

High school football players -- being on Rivals, the ESPN 150 or any similar ranking is a big thrill and a way to get college coaches to call your cellphone. But being listed has NOTHING to do with whether your athletic career will go well and might even hold you back by swelling your head ...

When funding youth sports raises red flags

A Worcester, Mass., district attorney who has spent over $260,000 in the last three years on youth sports programming in his community using public money from a law enforcement fund has come under fire for the practice.

District Attorney Joseph D. Early, Jr. has used some of the "forfeited funds" on scholarships, equipment, uniforms, youth sports facility improvements and to "repave a basketball court at an elementary school in one of the city's wealthiest neighborhoods," according to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. 

From Telegram.com:

In Massachusetts, money seized from alleged drug dealers is split evenly between the police department that confiscated it and the district attorney's office that handled the civil forfeiture proceeding in court. State law requires that most of the money must be spent on investigations and law enforcement operations, but allows district attorneys the leeway to spend up to 10 percent of their share of forfeited funds on “drug rehabilitation, drug education and other anti-drug or neighborhood crime watch programs which further law enforcement purposes.”

Worcester District Attorney's office accounting records obtained by the Telegram & Gazette under the state Public Records Law show Mr. Early's largesse is often not directly related to anti-drug efforts, does not exclusively target at-risk kids, and last year was more than triple the amount allowed by law. In addition, the money is doled out haphazardly without any formal application process as employed by other district attorneys.

In two cases contractors who were contributors to Mr. Early's political campaign received non-competitive contracts for work.  One of the contractors sponsors a baseball team in a youth baseball league in which Mr. Early’s wife serves as member of the board of directors.  Perhaps unavoidable in a small community, but the lack of oversight is causing some concern:

While youth sports may be a worthy cause, critics note that simply spreading money across scores of teams and leagues, including some in solidly middle class neighborhoods, does not constitute a coherent, effective anti-drug strategy and that the seized money at issue is not a pot of cash for Mr. Early to spend at his whim.

Mr. Early sees no problem:

In an interview, Mr. Early defended his spending of public money on youth sports, in amounts that have increased dramatically in each of the last three years, as a proven crime-fighting strategy that has resulted in falling rates of juvenile delinquency. He said giving children something to do after school under the supervision of responsible adults is a core part of his crime prevention efforts.

“It's about giving kids opportunity. It's about prevention, prevention, prevention,” Mr. Early said, later adding, “I can't think of a better use of these funds.”

Boy kicked off HS field hockey team for being too good

The star player of a New York high school field hockey team will not be permitted to play next year because he's too dominant a player.

Yes, he.

According to news reports 13-year-old Keeling Pilaro of Southampton, N.Y, was removed from his Southampton High School's varsity team, where he has played the last two years, because his overwhelming skills were causing “a significant adverse effect on some of his opposing female players," according to Ed Cinelli, the executive director of the area high school association.

Keeling's family is appealing the ruling.

From Athletic Business:

The issue of equality is often raised whenever a male athlete wishes to compete in a female sport, and vice versa, with opponents arguing that males’ size and strength provide an unfair advantage or create a safety concern when competing amongst girls. But it’s hard to make that argument in this case — Pilaro is 4 feet, 8 inches tall and weighs in at 82 pounds. Pilaro’s advantage may simply be that as a native of Ireland, he grew up playing the sport and has had more practice.

At greater issue might be the increasing popularity of field hockey among male athletes. "As a sport, it's a girls’ sport," Cinelli told MyFoxNY.com. "When a boy plays, it leads the way for other male players to come in and take over.”
 
From IrishCentral:

Keeling first started playing field hockey while living in Ireland, where it is both a popular men’s and women’s sport. Back in the US, however, the sport is typically reserved for girls.

The 13 year old’s removal from the varsity team has led to conversation as to whether or not the actions taken are in compliance with federal law Title IX, which that states both men and women should have an opportunity to play a sport if the school offers it to the opposite sex,

Dana Edell, the executive director for girls activist organization SPARK, said "If he's not allowed to try out for the team, that opens up the door for all kinds of discrimination.” She went on to say that young Pilaro should be permitted to at least try out for the team, or be granted the option to start a boys’ field hockey team at the school. If not, then the girls team should be disbanded.

"It's the coaches responsibility to make sure the players are safe," added Edell. "And a boy should not be penalized because he's good."

Keeling just wants to play.

"I do hope they let me play," he said. "I really like these girls -- they are my family."