Sports in America

[houseelf]

I want to clarify. My son made a select travel lacrosse team that he will participate in this summer before he enters 8th grade. I have paid an embarrassing amount of cash for multiple rec league teams for my kids. We have often scheduled family things around our kids' activities. By no means have we opted out of American Sports culture and I agree that a busy kid helps defray *some* of the teenage proclivity to find trouble. *I said some. Sports often is the way that guys make buddies. For girls, sports offer a chance for them to view their bodies as something different than an object. Athletics and team work are a great parable for life.

What bugs me is that invisible line that gets crossed: Crazed parents in the stands yelling at their kids and refs, the overlooking of rule or ethical violations for sports players, and kids not being able to go on family vacations because sports practices reign supreme. Even the schools are complicit in honoring sports above other things. This discussion can take a macro level, e.g. Penn State, Tiger Woods, Steubbenville, or a micro level within our individual communities. If your kid goes on a family vacation: unexecused absence. If your kids go to a cross country meet and has to leave school early: excused absence.

WTH are we telling our kids? I read somewhere that 1 in 17,000 kids will go on to become a professional athlete. Let's just be REAL honest about the eventual outcomes of spending that 10,000/year for select teams and coaching for a kid that's got talent. That is almost a year of State U. college tuition. Some people act like a Superbowl ring is on the line at every game. Our society treat sports more importantly than family, religion, or community events. Honestly, when did all these select teams become the norm and/or the only way to make the high school team? Remember when kids used to be able to be three sport athletes? Good luck doing that unless you are crazy athletically gifted or live in the sticks. Hell yes I want my kids to play on some team. We specifically choose a smaller district to help stack the deck so that our kids might try activities without having to be a prodigy. Obviously smaller school district don't guarantee spots on a team, but lower numbers help.

I just want society to step back and reconsider the place that athletics/sports/activities have in our lives. It is crazy out there.

/soapbox

[diggitydot]

DH and I are into sports. We watch it on TV when we can and enjoy attending various sporting events. DH works with some very high level athletes (college and Olympic) as one of the team docs for USA Weightlifting, so we have a pretty up-close view. We both played various competitive sports when we were kids and still enjoy playing for fun. DH also does oly lifting, so he trains with a special coach a couple times a month.

Our kids are only marginally into sports, but they are involved in several other extra-curricular clubs. We encourage our kids to try things that interest them and make them fulfill whatever obligations they take on, but we don't push them to join anything that they don't want to join.

[SuzySunshine]

We are also into sports, we have season tickets to our alma matter for football and basketball and I enjoy taking the kids to college sports like baseball, softball, women's basketball. I do this for a couple reasons, one is something we can do as a family, second I take A to the women's sports because while we tend not to watch women's sports on TV I want her to know they exist and are an option for her.

I will also admit that I am very competitive and I know that once my kids start playing sports I will have to bite my tongue. My mom and older sister are those crazies you hear in the stands when my nephew plays sports and I don't want that to be me for my own kids. We have a good friend who refs CYO and high school basketball he says the parents are by FAR the worst part of the job.

[houseelf]

Anyone following the Oscar Pistorious case?

The victim seemed so young and full of life. Pistorious had everything in the world going for him. Yet here lies another case in which we continue to be shocked by these oversimplified narratives of the heroic sports athlete with an oversimplified story arcs which inevitably comes crashing down. *I know* I sound like I'm anti-sports. I swear, I watch sports with enthusiasm, college, Olympics, etc. I simply loathe the unmitigated hero worship. Certainly there are far more cases of great athletes who have fantastic character than not. Still, this much power and fame often comes with a dark, seedy underbelly.

Esoteric commentary aside, Lance Armstrong, the family of Joe Paterno, Tiger Woods, et. al., are breathing a little easier tonight.

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

Apparently he was freaking out and sobbing in court today. They're saying it was mistaken identity and that she was shot through the bathroom door. I want to believe it was a mistake...but the law of averages says it was not.

[SuzySunshine]

I still don't know what to think about this story, supposedly he lived in a very secure neighborhood, but he was "scared" enough to shoot her 4 times through the bathroom door which says intruder to me but then there are reports if domestic issues...I also saw something that said she had snuck over to surprise him for Valentine's Day but if you knew he kept a gun in the house why would you do that? I also saw something that said they'd only been dating a few months. I have no idea what to believe and since their court system seems a little different them ours I wonder if we'll ever really know.

[MsSassyBaskets]

Ugh, this one is really horrible. I mean, doping does not shock me in any way, ever. But thankfully, murder still does.

[diggitydot]

South Africa has an extremely high crime rate, so many of the wealthy live in secured areas and still keep weapons for personal protection. However, this couple had what has been characterized as "previous domestic disturbances" at his home. I hope it was an unbelievably tragic accident, but I fear it may not.

[OrionGrad]

I read that the police were called to his house two hours before the shooting because neighbors heard loud arguing. It seems like if they would have removed one of them (Pistorius or the girlfriend) from the situation (which is what I think happens on domestic violence calls in the US) this may have been avoided. I feel so badly for everyone involved, but especially the girl's family.