Leave The Politics

Out Of Youth Sports

To The Editor:

Every year more kids quit youth sports or switch to another sport because of bad experiences with coaches or the league itself. Complaints are made to league board members and Parks and Rec, but no action is taken. The problem is that youth sports leagues are not held accountable and do whatever they want.

The goal of youth sports is to have fun, teach the game, and be fair to all kids, no matter what their abilities are. This is far from the truth. There are a few leagues in town, i.e., lacrosse, that makes the experience fun and fair for all kids. Most leagues are into winning and are designed for the top ten percent of the players, while the other 90 percent are treated like chopped meat.

Board members deserve credit for their time and hard work, but once the season starts, there is little time spent to monitor and improve the quality of the leagues. While there are a lot of good coaches and board members who care about the kids having fun and learning the sport, there are too many coaches and board members who are involved for the wrong reasons. My experience coaching boys and girls basketball for seven years found the program to be typical of other programs in town. The basketball program lacks quality and politics, not competency, runs the program. Fundamentals are not stressed and most kids in the program have poor basketball skills. The games are rough, unsafe, and out of control. You cannot properly teach kids how to play when games are rough and out of control. Most travel teams are picked before tryouts begin. The main criteria used to pick players is speed. If you can fly up and down the court, it doesn’t matter if you know how to play the game. Good thing Larry Bird did not live in Newtown, he never would have played basketball.

Every year, more kids quit playing basketball because they say the league is not fun and fair. The board needs to have people who are competent, have a good understanding of the game, and can put together a quality program that is fair and fun for all kids. There is talk of forming a new basketball league next year to make sure all kids have fun and are treated fairly. If the leagues fail to properly respond to complaints or change their current practice, they should not be allowed to use the town’s fields and facilities, or be charged a fee. Parks and Rec, or some other group, needs to enforce rules and ensure all kids are treated fair and equal. If we can’t leave politics and all this other nonsense out of youth sports, then maybe we should not have youth sports. Right now we are sending the wrong message and hurting a lot of good kids.

Thomas Faeth

6 Shadow Ridge Circle, Newtown                          October 29, 2003