For all the youth sports coaches and parents of kids who play the games, this blog’s for you. And your athletes. Take a deep breath. Now exhale, and we’ll begin. We need to examine the way we send our children out to play sports, and the way we bring them home. And the way we lose our temper when events don’t the way we want. Think about some of the vitriol you’ve heard, or used, watching 6-year-olds playing a sport you think you know so well _ and they can barely understand. I coached youth soccer a few decades ago. I coached my son, and my daughter, when they were under 10. I admit it. I have a temper. Don’t believe I ever lost it when coaching, but I’m sure I had more than a few choice words of “advice” on the drive home after a loss. These days, we’re reading stories about youth coaches instructing players to tackle game officials (yes, it happened in Texas). We’ve seen parents running on to the field to confront coaches. More and more pro athletes get into trouble. Coaches, too. Yes, social media spreads the news almost as it’s happening, but it’s simply accentuating a real problem we need to solve. And I think it is starting here, at TonySegretoSports. When I heard about Tony’s vision, my eyes locked on two words: positive athletics. We need to get back to that philosophy. Soon. Almost every move on the field, from T-ball to pro ball, from Pee Wee football to the NFL, from travel soccer to the World Cup, seems to spark some sort of controversy. I believe digging in at the grass roots level is the right way to make the sports we love so much so much more positive.
