Like many folks, I like to watch many sporting events on TV and read the results in paper or on the web. I played sports in middle and high school and decided that college was not for me (at that time) and turned down a partial scholarship to play football. I also participated in several different sports in the military.

We all probably know or have at least heard about parents who pushed their children into sports sometimes to gain attention that the parent missed out on in school. We’ve seen the videos or read about the parents who went too far at a game. Many years ago as a football referee I ran into a few parents who forgot that the fourth and fifth grade flag football was just a game. As a former T-ball coach, I ran into a few coaches who wanted to steal bases and keep score.

Recently I heard (here in Montana) about some children being “red-shirted” or held back a grade in elementary or middle school by their parents so they would be stronger and faster when they got to high school and maybe have a chance at a college football scholarship. For those of you who do not follow sports, the term “red shirt” is normally a college term that means the player sits out a season to develop skills and get some more maturity to help the team down the road.

It’s pretty ridiculous for parents to do that to their children in middle or elementary school.

For some reason many folks expect perfection from the players on middle and high school teams. It appears, at least in Helena, when a player is not perfect, the sports reporter is supposed to look the other way.

That brings me to the reason for this column:

I happened to catch an opinion piece in the Helena Independent Record (IR) dealing with sports and a story written by one of the IR’s sports reporters. Continue reading →