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Template for Football Player Book
Football Coaches: Click on this link for the template for your football game sign-in books. Make sure the player's face and jersey number are in the photo. Each coach will need a photo as well. Rules allow only a total of 4 coaches on the sidelines. Please inform your parents they must stay in stands. If you need assistance with these books contact Amanda at 420-4724
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"Success without honor is an unseasoned dish; it will satisfy your hunger, but it won't taste good."- Coach Joe Paterno
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"TOO LONG ON THE PLAYING FIELD? Why More Young Athletes Are Specializing In One Sport - And Why It's Not A Good Idea" by Parenthood.com
"It [specialization] is one of the worst developments imaginable at the youth sports level. Physically, emotionally, developmentally, it's a huge, huge mistake. And it absolutely is happening. It is sweeping the country." -- Bruce Svare, Ph.D., director of the National Institute for Sports Reform
"I'm seeing kids having to choose, at age 10, whether to play baseball or lacrosse," says Richard Ginsburg, Ph.D., a sports psychologist and co-author of the new book Whose Game Is It, Anyway? "I'm seeing some kids deciding not to play basketball in the winter because they need to play soccer all year-round."
FACT: By age 13, about 70 percent of kids involved in a youth sport will have quit. One of the most cited reasons kids give for quitting is that it "isn't fun anymore."
Institute for the Study of Youth Sports
Michigan State University
But that's not all that Ginsburg and other health-care providers are seeing. Kids at younger ages are suffering serious injuries from overusing muscles, bones and joints in their particular sport.
"If you talk with any orthopedic or pediatric person, they'll tell you the same thing," says Bruce Svare, Ph.D., director of the National Institute for Sports Reform and a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the State University of New York in Albany. "These kids are showing up now in their offices at increasing rates with injuries that sometimes are career-ending."
Svare, Ginsburg and others also see increasing numbers of kids feeling pressure from parents and coaches to play in just one sport. The pressure, injuries and an overwhelming sense that the sport simply "isn't fun" anymore have led many young athletes to burn out, quitting the sport before even reaching high school.
The dream - and drive - to become the next Olympian or professional sports star isn't new. Nor is the reality check that most parents and kids eventually confront: Not every child is destined to be the next Tiger Woods or Mia Hamm.
"There is this drive to get your kids into the best situation possible," he says. "And you're being told by coaches that you have to follow a certain path. That creates anxiety for parents, who are thinking that if they don't, they're somehow putting their kid at a disadvantage."
Sperekas agrees: "I think a good coach or teacher needs to tell parents, 'Get a grip. Only a small percentage of kids go on to play high-school varsity. A smaller percentage go on to play college and a smaller percentage go on from there.' You can ruin it for your kids. They may be good enough to eventually get there. But if it's not done right, you're going to ruin it for them and they're not going to get there."
FURTHERMORE, SHE SAYS, YOUTH SPORTS COACHES ARE OFTEN VOLUNTEERS, EVEN PARENTS THEMSELVES - NOT PORFESSIONALS TRAINED IN SPORTS PHYSIOLOGY.
"Kids' training habits are not being overseen by someone really knowledgeable," she says. "They don't have trainers or professional people keeping track of how much practicing is going on and how the kids are practicing. It's not like it is in college or at the professional level."
"And that can be dangerous, leading to injuries, stress and burnout that might have been prevented otherwise.
The Right Time:
Specialization in any pursuit isn't necessarily a bad thing. A child has to be interested, however, and physically and emotionally ready for it. Young kids, experts say, are not ready.
Ginsburg recounts seeing anxious 10-year-olds worrying that if they miss a practice, they won't play in an upcoming game. "It creates a frenzy," he says of the pressurized culture of youth sports. "And what is lost is the perspective about what actually is good for the child."
The high school years may be the best time to start specializing, say physicians, psychologists and youth sports advocates.
In childhood, "our bodies are not meant to be just doing one thing," says Ginsburg. "We need time to rest, grow and develop." Trying different things and using different muscles is healthy both physically and emotionally, he says.
Specializing in a sport at any age can lead to overuse injuries, such as shin splints, chronic-use injuries (often to the ankles or knees), and bone fractures; children are particularly vulnerable. Sperekas points to an increase in child athletes suffering elbow, knee, back and wrist injuries that physicians used to see only in aging or older athletes.
And then there's the anxiety, pressure and eventual burnout experienced by many kids who specialize too soon.
"I've seen some kids, anywhere from 13 to 16, quit a sport they were actually fairly good at and had been playing for years, and they'll say, 'It's not fun anymore,'" Sperekas says. And some of these kids wanted to quit a year or two earlier but didn't know how to bring it up to their parents, she adds.
Often, children who don't want to let their parents down will continue to complain about a sports injury that has long healed, or feign fatigue or illness, to be able to skip practice.
"You might see kids actually become depressed, not sleeping well, getting more withdrawn and irritable," adds Ginsburg. It's a "slow, developing burnout" in children who are "so tuned in to parents who are really invested in them doing well," he says. "The key is to try to catch those signs"
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