Here in the office as always.

I guess the bright side is that the volleyball team here has a setter for next season now signed, so we've got that taken care of.  Just as good we have been interviewing/checking resumes for coaching vacancies here and all of the candidates have been good.  It's a lot easier/less pressure when everyone is qualified!!

The next Jolly Roger product is proceeding slowly.  The pieces have been approved and all that is left is for the art to be finished.  Looks like it will miss Origins though which is a bit of a bummer, but I learned that lesson several years back--better to wait and get it right rather than rush a game through production and screw it up.  Patience is a virtue.

Of course, I'm antsy to get to the next games ready to go.  JRG is on a pretty good streak with quality games now...

Ultimately, the question is how to improve the situation.  There are concrete and tangible ideas that can be followed on a practical level rather than impossible to implement ideas.  These actions can be carried out by teachers, parents, and coaches with each of these providing reinforcement of the proper goals youth athletics aims to achieve.

The teacher’s role is most difficult because the teacher is not the authority figure in athletics.  That doesn’t mean a teacher isn’t vital.  Most teachers make an effort to stay up-to-date on students’ activities during the school year, and in many cases, the summer as well.  The teacher can make comments to the young athlete complimenting the player on his hustle, his sportsmanship, and demeanor.  Rather than ask if the player won or lost, the teacher can ask if the athlete had fun or gave 100% effort during the game.  For players that start or are “heroes”, a teacher can ask that player what teammates did during the game that helped create the opportunity to score more than the opponent.  Each of these reinforces issues like participation and sportsmanship.  Best of all, this isn’t done by lecturing, but by getting the young person to think for himself on the ideas and reflect on what happened and why—a skill that down the road in high school and beyond becomes invaluable when studying homework or analyzing tough equations.

For a parent, the solution is simple, but difficult to implement for a variety of reasons.  In the end, the solution is to love your children unconditionally.  This doesn’t mean a parent should throw his influence, money, or name around to overrule a coach’s decision—that isn’t parenting, nor is it good behavior to model for children.

Parents want to see their children on the court or field rather than the bench.  Most parents though if presented with the argument “Do you want your daughter to be a success in a high school sport or successful in life?” would choose the latter alternative.

Yet rather than sit back and let the child have the experience of being on a team (and everything good and bad that goes with that), many parents intervene and confront the coach about playing time and “winning”, and if the coach doesn’t do as the parent demands, that parent then moves up the ladder to speak with the A.D. or principal or a park commissioner about the “bad” coach.  The coach is now in a no-win situation as are the players.  If the parent’s child is improving and getting more playing time, now the athlete receives no credit—it was the parent’s doing.  Worse still, other parents will now change their attitudes and more readily confront coaches.

Rather than take such negative actions, parents need to be positive.  Congratulate all of the players, praise them for cheering on the bench and staying focused on the game or for little things such as hitting a cut-off man or passing a basketball rather than taking a shot while covered.  Parents should take the time to explain the role of bench and role players, and how everyone plays these roles as an adult.

Coaches can improve the athletic experience for young people with planning.  Create a roster and chart out playing time so it is balanced.  During a game, this means you won’t accidentally forget a player at the end of the bench.  A coach can also write notes for each player.  This will let the coach track how a player is improving and what still needs work; many players accept harsher written criticism on paper, and in many cases, if written down, they will keep the paper and focus on improving themselves, especially if the coach provides concrete areas for improvement.

Coaches can also help during games.  Rather than use famous coaches such as Bobby Knight or Tony LaRussa as examples, youth coaches should look at their peers.  Which coaches have teams having fun?  Which coaches in grade schools have twenty or thirty players when others only have ten or twelve?  During games, the coach can talk with players on the bench and explain what he is doing or what they can watch on the court that will help them when they do go in or to help them improve so they can increase playing time as well.  A coach doesn’t have to ignore what goes wrong, but by emphasizing the positive creates a better experience, better memories, and the criticism is taken better and not tuned out when paired with positive comments.

The issue of sports and its central purposes is important in helping young people.  Adolescence and puberty are rough stages to get through and often, sports is a release from other pressures such as physical change, emotional turmoil, or family issues.  Rather than add to the pressure, adults should strive to help children learn the lessons necessary to survive and grow rather than succumb to the problems stereotypically associated with today’s young people.

*This is the first part of an article I am writing.  Thoughts are welcome.

WINNING, LOSING, PARENTS, and JUNIOR HIGH SPORTS

For many people, the love of sports, indeed the passion for sports begins at an early age.  As a boy, I counted down the days until the start of baseball season and then to the first Little League practice of the year and then the games that followed.   Even now, well over twenty years later, I could probably name at least five or six of the other boys I played with but never saw at any other time of year.  Perhaps it is the romanticist in me, but I would like to think that the other boys on that team remember me as well.

Yet today in most states, a cursory glance at a newspaper’s sports page will show the schedules for five and six year old soccer, the standings at the YMCA or for Park District basketball as well as notices of tryouts for traveling softball, club volleyball, junior football, and other assorted “opportunities” for kids coached by parents or even the local school’s high school coaches.

When I started as a head coach almost a decade ago, I received some advice for a pretty good man, the newly hired athletic director where I was coaching.  He said he had few rules and if it was necessary to question a coaching decision or policy, he would only ask: “Is your decision in the best interests of the young people?”

From that point on, with every decision I made that affected the team, I asked myself that question: “Is it in the best interest of the kids?”  If I could tell myself “yes,” I proceeded without hesitation, and if I couldn’t, I rethought the answer and decision until I was sure that the decision benefited the kids.

Since then, I have moved on to coach at the college level, but I spend a great deal of time staying in touch with friends who continue to serve as athletic directors, coaches, and teachers of adolescents, especially in the Midwest (Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas), and I am concerned at changes within youth sports whether it be summer baseball or high school basketball.  I am not naïve; many of these problems were around when I was a child, but I believe the problems are growing worse, and we as coaches, parents, and teachers are missing precious opportunities to impart valuable life skills and lessons in the coming generations.

Ultimately, the first question must be what are the primary purposes of youth athletics?

Thinking mainly of elementary and middle school aged kids, I believe there is a short list of the true purposes:

Fun    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p;     ;         & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p;     ;         Sportsmanship

Teamwork    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p;     ;         & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p; Learning Diversity

Leadership    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p;     ;         & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;    Exercise

These are self-explanatory except for “learning diversity.”  Diversity in this sense means realizing that some people are superior to others at specific skills as well as learning how to accept being a role-player on a team rather than always being the central focus; this doesn’t mean the child does nothing bit sits the bench.  This is the toughest of the six to master since being 10-14 years old carries so many other problems with it (the joy of puberty!).

Adults have three central roles that let them help children learn these skills: coach, parent, and classroom teacher.  Children look to these three archetypes as adult role-models, people they will imitate and emulate.  Being children, they are not always able to understand the difference between right and wrong, so the behavior of adults and their attitudes towards athletics and participation in sports is absolutely critical for better or worse.  Unfortunately, many adults don’t realize or consider the damage they can do due to improper behavior while being involved with sports.

I guess it is natural in any game to want to divide players up into “winners” and “losers”.  This is natural, and every game we play, from checkers to Madden Football to P.E. dodgeball.   Here’s the nub.  How do we define “winning” and “losing”?  For me, being uncomfortable with doing that for several years, rather than define winning and losing, I chose to change how I asked the question.  Usually when I ask, “How did you do?” the reply comes, “Oh, we won.”  But that wasn’t my meaning so I always followed this with, “No, did you play well, did you have fun?”

So do you “win” if your team outscores the volleyball opponent 25-12, but no substitutions are made and the starters play the entire match?  Are those bench players “winners?”  How about a basketball game where a coach uses all of his players equally, but the team is outscored 43-42?  Are all of those kids “losers?”  When we look at questions like this, it becomes much harder to give clear-cut yes or no answers, thus what are the definitions of winning and losing?

Winning really has two definitions.  The most common is on a scoreboard.  Whoever has the higher point total has achieved victory and therefore has won.  But the other definition that applies is “Winning is defined as success in achieving an objective or goal.”  These are not synonymous.   You can clearly achieve one definition without succeeding in the other definition.  Indeed, they may even be at cross-purposes!

So what about the definition of losing?    There are many more definitions for losing in dictionaries, but the key ones for sports are that losing is defined as an ineffectual squandering of resources, to deprive someone of achieving an objective, or to be in the process of being destroyed.  Nuances between these definitions exist, but they are clearly similar in application towards sports and clearly they are the opposite of the definitions of winning.

So now back to the initial issue: Are youth athletics serving their purpose?  Are the youth of today “winning”?   Although there are exceptions to every generality, the answer is no, and the responsibility for this belongs with adults; likewise, the means to fix the problem is also within the power of adults!

First, the issue can be examined within the key aspects of winning in youth sports mentioned above.  In addition, the issue can be seen through the actions of adults in their roles as teachers, parents, and coaches.

Children like to have fun, and really, there are few things better than seeing an eight or nine year old doubled over in hysterical laughter or high-fiving after a play in a pick-up basketball game.  This fun though has no formal organization—it’s play, and adults strive to enforce discipline and impose order, so leagues and rules are created with strict practice schedules, games with trained officials and so on.  This creates a framework in many communities where “fun” becomes a synonym with victory, so that children on poorer teams are discouraged from continuing to play that specific sport.

A year ago, my son had a great time playing youth baseball even though most of the players on his team were superior in skills.  Why?  Because his coach, Coach Dean, spent time teaching and providing constructive criticism as well as praise when a skill improved.  There were high fives all the time, and the first question after the game to the players was almost always, “Did you have fun?”   Other than pitcher and catcher, my son played every other position at least once during the season.

In contrast, one of the other teams in the league had a coach that yelled at players, constantly stamping his foot when something went wrong, and making his son pitch every game because no one else on the team was able to.  Of course they weren’t!  None were ever given the opportunity; the coach’s son pitched every inning the league allowed.  The players played one position and bench players never came into a game if the score was close.  Are you, the reader, surprised to hear that the coach also used the post-game time to chew out players for mistakes during the game?

All of the boys on my son’s team eligible (due to age) to be back are back this year while the other team had several boys quit, no longer playing ball.  Three to five boys, not yet teenagers, no longer have a desire to play baseball.  Is a 12-0 record worth that price?

Sportsmanship is no different.  As a coach, the team I am most proud of is a team I coached and lost a chance to go the State Tournament because of an absolutely horrible official’s call (one of only three times in fifteen years of coaching I’ve seen that happen).  Winning the match, the other team piled up, jumping and shouting and that team’s fans shouted obscenities and taunts at my team.  Rather than retreat to the locker room, my players waited patiently and shook hands and even applauded while the Sectional plaque was awarded, even as they were ripped up inside.  Have I mentioned my pride?  Those young women were more mature than most adults.  Their coaches in youth and travel softball and club volleyball emphasized proper sportsmanship.

In contrast, recently at a state tournament game in one state, adult supporters of the school that finished second displayed a banner saying “2xxx Public School State Champs” because they were upset a private school won the game.  The game was close, a matchup between two balanced teams that also featured outstanding officiating and a huge crowd.  Yet as the trophies were presented, this banner was unfurled.  Why?  It cheapens a happy moment for both teams, young people who were enjoying a moment hundreds of teams dream about and never experience—and then adults put an asterisk on the happiness.

Three of the other goals of youth athletics are related or integrated with one another.  Teamwork, diversity (or perhaps more accurately “learning to play different roles”), and leadership are necessary skills for children and adolescents to learn if they are to succeed in high school, college, and especially as an adult member of society.    I wanted to come up with a great reference or illustration of this point and thought of a few things I have done in this fashion, and then it dawned on me that I had taken many of the suggestions from a book titled Coaching 101: Guiding the High School Athlete & Building Team Success written by Don Schnake, a man who played for the first real Illinois coaching legend, Centralia’s Arthur Trout.

Trout won at every level in every sport he coached, but he coached junior high athletes differently than high schoolers.  He wanted to instill the values of teamwork and leadership, figuring there was time enough once his boys were more mature to worry about winning and losing.  Trout sometimes chose starters by drawing names out of a hat, sometimes he rotated the starters.  He made sure each boy got to start at least one game so he could hear his name announced before the game, knowing it may be the only time it ever happened or may be a bright spot for a boy with problems at home.  At one point, he let the boys decide their own starters as well, but just as importantly Schnake recollects, Trout explained why he was doing these things.  As a coach, Schnake did these things as well and created successful programs of his own—not just success in terms of wins, but in the maturity and personal growth of his players.

In contrast, how is a young person supposed to learn how to perform under pressure if they only play in blowout situations?  How does the person learn if every time it’s close, the coach is yelling that Bobby has to take the shot since he is the team’s best player?  Bobby may want to pass the ball or not want the pressure, and there may be other players wanting the ball at crunch-time like a Michael Jordan for North Carolina in 1982.  What leadership skills are developed if the same person is “captain” every game or a coach doesn’t let players communicate their thoughts or provide feedback?

Indeed, there’s a sexist divide in how leadership is perceived.  A boy who takes charge is a little general or a natural born leader while a girl doing the exact same thing is bossy or an expletive.  How can this be overcome if adults don’t give young people, girls in this case, the chance to practice leadership.  It’s easy to say someone is a “born leader,” but show me that leader and I’ll show you someone who has had practice in leadership throughout their life.

The final area for success is exercise.  Many practices have the starters on the court or in the field while the non-starters stand around and watch.  As an aside, from observations, this seems to happen most often with basketball and girl’s volleyball.  Standing around does nothing for these young people whereas giving them a skill to practice or making sure to rotate all players through a drill gives them a sense of participation, exercise, and in the case of boys and girls growing rapidly, a chance to practice motor skills and learn to cope with their growing bodies.

The old Chinese proverb is again in my mind--"May you live in interesting times".

Jolly Roger has again changed production locations, and as always I tried to use U.S. companies first and when those prices were WAY WAY WAY off, looked at Germany, and when those were too high this time, I had to decide to have a product assembled in China--the price couldn't be beat.

Of course, there was little room for thought.  The prices:

US - $7.62/unit, minimum run of 5,000 copies (~$38,000), retail price would need to be roughly $35-38.00.

EUR - $5.28/unit, run of 2000 copies (~$12,000 including shipping), retail price would wind up roughly $25-28.00

PRC - $4.11/unit, run of 2000 copies (~$10,000 including shipping), retail price will wind up around $20-21.00.

How in the world can the same work have such a difference? I understand cost of living, etc, but how can a business be expected to use local suppliers with such a discrepancy in price--because there's no way a game buyer will pay $35 for a game that really should be in the $20 price range.  And if they won't buy it, then JRG is out tens of thousands of dollars.  Much better to have a price 50% lower, sell copies AND make a profit.

In the end, the question is how much people really do want the benefits of the open market.  It's great to complain about jobs and work heading overseas, but how many people are willing to pay 200% of current prices in those situations?

I admit to having an eclectic set of reading interests, and that when reading the news, a flashy or exotic headline will catch my eye.   The one that did it recently for me was an article discussing how killer bees came to dominate a great deal of the Americas.   The fear is that killer bees could breed with other types of bees more capable of withstanding the weather patterns farther north into the United States.  It hasn’t happened yet, but look out…it could any day now.

    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   Rather than being helpful and productive for nature, the killer bee is a great deal like other foreign fish, animals, and plant life spreading to different areas of the world and is a threat to entire ecosystems.  Even with twenty years of recognizing the threat this poses, nothing so far has been able to stop the killer bees, even though everyone knows that a solution must be found.

    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   Now at the same time I was reading this, I was participating in an online political discussion when a “conservative” (and that’s in quotations for a reason) declared me to be: “a typical kool-aid drinking anti-American jerk.”  Fair enough to assert, but the issues that caused this explosion—which was seconded by five others—were certain beliefs I hold:
1 – individual rights are the basis of our society and should be prized above all else

2 – tolerance of other cultures, religions, and skin colors leads to better understanding and prosperity

3 – a government has a responsibility to its citizens to maintain a balanced budget whether by limiting government spending or if spending is out of hand, by raising taxes; in all cases, the government MUST be watched by its citizens for impropriety

    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   Thus, the cause for concern.   I replied that those were basic tenets of conservative thought and wound up getting a flurry of hate mail over those points.   And then they cited four more reasons that I was a “flaming liberal.”   Because you are dying to know, those points were:

1 – I believe all judicial activism, whether from the radical left or right, is unacceptable.

2 -  I contended the invasion of Iraq was planned poorly and no thought was given towards post-war reconstruction

3 – Just because Germany and France refused to support the war, it does not mean they are enemies that should be hung out to dry by the United States

4 – We are sacrificing the long-term best interests of the United States for a temporary short-term “hard power” advantage.

    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   And here we are at my dilemma and where I questioned my beliefs.  Am I really conservative?  Or have I deceived myself horribly over the years?  Now with the bees and these comments both bouncing around inside my head, it dawned on me that yes, I –AM- conservative.

    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   What is happening to the conservative movement in the United States is quite similar to the bees invading the United States, and like the bees, the damage is continuing with no effective means of halting the destruction in sight.  Because in the end, the views espoused by the right in the U.S.  are not really conservative, but rather close to textbook fascism, right down to the branding of all disagreement liberal and disagreement with the occupation of Iraq as anti-American.

    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   The fear that people have of killer bees is not matched by a fear of these far-righters.   Combined with the radical elements of the far left, these “conservatives” are making the political landscape untenable for traditional liberals, traditional conservatives, as well as the dying breed of moderates.   That is a scary thought and it feeds the fears of the Founding Fathers, the fear of a country polarized into radical factions much like the French revolutionaries just before the rise of Bonaparte. 

    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   That must be avoided at all costs.  Conservative philosophy must remain a vital and contributing force in shaping American political thought.  U.S. prosperity over the past thirty years comes with the contribution of seminal conservative thinkers such as William F. Buckley and Barry Goldwater as well as politicians such as Ronald Reagan.

    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   Conservatives must remember that being conservative is not an issue of political party affiliation or using a person’s opinion on a single issue to decide if they are friend or foe; to be conservative is to have a weltanschauung, a philosophy, that is constantly seeking new information and critically thinking about the value of new concepts and ideas as they come on the scene.  To treat the words of any one commentator as Gospel is to lead to the conservative movement slipping down the slope towards fascism and the extinction of traditional conservative thought.

    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   In the end, if man cannot solve the issue of killer bees, history has shown that nature will solve the issue, sometimes with violence, and sometimes in unexpected ways.  The danger presented by the radical right is no different; either they are stopped from within by people who still abide by the basic principles of the conservative movement or unexpected events will surprise us and force the political system back to equilibrium.