SportsLetter

From the Really? Department

So you thought it was a joke several years ago when Hermann Wendorff of the North Carolina Fayetteville Observer wrote, tongue in cheek, about Nike signing the "unborn child of track stars Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery . . . to a 14-year apparel and shoe contract worth $188 million?"  Well, comes the news that new USC football coach Lane Kiffin has received a verbal commitment from 13-year-old quarterback David Sills of Bear, Delaware.  Sills’ personal coach, quarterback guru Steve Clarkson, gushes, "His skill set is off the chart …I've never seen anyone at his age do what he's been able to do."  Of course, this is the same Steve Clarkson who boasted: “And when I said if there was going to be a LeBron James of football it'd be Jimmy Clausen that turned out to be a pretty good prediction.”

Moving away from the hyperbole, ESPN writer Mark Saxon observed:

As recently as a few years ago, Pete Carroll wouldn't offer scholarships to juniors. When he realized that could dent his USC empire, which had been built largely by recruiting prowess, he relented. Now, apparently, Kiffin is taking things about as far as they can logically go. But he's not alone. Redell said most elite players' recruiting is practically wrapped up during their junior years.

The Redell mentioned in Saxon’s quote is longtime coach Bill Redell -- who actually coached Jimmy Clausen at Oak Christian in Westlake Village, California -- and who put a fine point on the issue by declaring: “to be honest with you, I think the whole thing's out of whack …There's so much money involved today, so many jobs at stake, that they're identifying guys in the seventh and eighth grades.”

As Saxon said, “I want to laugh, then take a shower.”

Hi Mom!

SportsLetter last week commented on the continuing professionalization of youth sports.  On Monday The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on ESPN’s impact on high school sports television coverage.  From high schooler Lebron James in 2002 to yesterday's high school football Letter-of-Intent signing day, ESPN has been there and been live, expanding the amount of exposure high school athletes are receiving and influencing the way high school sports are broadcast both on television and the Internet.

The Kids Are Alright ... really

Brett Singer over at parentdish.com had an amusing piece today on disgraced athletes who feel the need to demonstrate penitence by wanting to "work with kids."   Says Mr. Singer:  "whenever a professional athlete screws up, one of the first things we hear is about how he wants to work with kids. But do we really want some of these people spending time with children?  This is a familiar trope for athletes who fall from grace -- working with kids. Because it's all about the children. After the pros screw up, at least."

As the article points out -- and the Michael Phelps bong drama demonstrated -- athlete misdeeds also are fodder for the handwringing sports public, which worries about the impact these incidents will have on our impressionable youth.

Concluded Mr. Singer:

This isn't about The Children. This is about The Athlete.

Is it wrong for athletes who screw up, no matter what the offense, to try and make amends by doing some good for the world? Of course not. But can't they think of something to do that doesn't involve kids?

When the A-Rod story broke, Michael Kruse of the St. Petersburg Times asked Little Leaguers about the news. One of the kids said, "If you take steroids, you'll become mean, and you'll disrespect your friends or something. I learned that from my dad."

From his dad. Not from A-Rod. Let the athletes play ball. We'll take care of the parenting.

Her Life Depends On It II

Last December the Women’s Sports Foundation (WSF) published a new research report titled “Her Life Depends On It II.”  The first “Her Life Depends On It,” published in 2004, analyzed thousands of studies on women’s health and athletic activities and was the basis of the WSF’s successful GoGirlGo! program, which has had an impact on the lives of nearly 1 million girls nationwide.  This follow-up report, according to the WSF, “includes hundreds of new studies and draws critical conclusions that further emphasize the vital role that sports play in the physical and social health of girls and women.”

And on Wednesday, February 3rd, girls and women around the country will gather and celebrate the achievements of athletes past and the promise of athletes future as the WSF celebrates the 24th Annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day.  This year’s theme is “Stay Strong, Play On.”

Girls (and boys) just wanna have fun

We noted last week IMG’s plans to further professionalize youth sports with a series of “national championships” staged in Bradenton, Florida, with the intent of marketing IMG’s $60,000-a-year sports academies.  While this may appeal to some young athletes, Mark Hyman writes in the January 31, 2010 New York Times that most kids want to play sports to have fun.  Hyman, author of "Until It Hurts: America's Obsession with Youth Sports and How It Harms Our Kids," reports on a recent survey that found having fun “was the top response from football and basketball players, from boys and from girls, and from players in each grade from fourth to eighth. In the basketball survey, 95 percent of boys and 98 percent of girls cited fun as a reason for playing, nearly twice the number who mentioned winning.”  Hyman notes that the survey wasn’t scientifically rigorous, but argues that it mirrors findings of a 1989 national survey conducted by Michigan State’s Institute for the Study of Youth Sports.

Movement on concussion bills: correction

A sharp-eyed reader pointed out to SportsLetter that according to the California State Assembly Democratic Caucus website, Texas also has a law "requiring every high school coach to be trained in basic safety and emergency procedures, with special emphasis on concussions and second-impact syndrome."

Thanks for the correction.

Movement on concussion bills

This week Connecticut legislators detailed some of the specifics of a proposed bill to help protect student athletes from the effects of brain concussions.  Using the tagline, “When in doubt, sit it out,” the bill would:

•Prohibit students from participating in a game or practice on the same day they exhibit signs of a concussion or are diagnosed with one.
•Require athletes with suspected concussions to receive medical clearance before returning.
•Require coaches to be trained in recognizing concussion symptoms and seeking proper treatment.
If passed, Connecticut would join Oregon and Washington as the only states with legislation attempting to address the issue of concussions in youth sports.

Meanwhile, California Assemblymember Mary Hayashi of Hayward is shepherding her legislation through the state legislature.  The bill would amend sections of the California Education Code and would require:

 “all coaches taking or renewing first aid certification to take training that includes a basic understanding of the signs, symptoms, and appropriate emergency action steps regarding potentially catastrophic injuries including, but not limited to, head and neck injuries, concussions, 2nd impact syndrome, asthma attacks, heatstroke, and cardiac arrest.”

This legislation can’t come fast enough for some athletes.  According to previously published reports, most concussions in high school sports occur in football and soccer. 

Having trained coaches on the sidelines can make a huge difference when head injuries occur.  Would you have known how to handle this situation?

Eastbound and down

The CIF's Los Angeles City Section must cut $1.4 million from its high school sports programs next year, according to an article in today's Los Angeles Times.  The 20% reduction is part of larger budget cuts required by the Los Angeles Unified School District due to losses in state funding.  School districts around the state of California are facing huge deficits in academic funding and many are looking at athletic budgets as a way to reduce costs.  Coaching stipends, travel and tournament expenses, and sports below the varsity level are likely starting points for cuts.  Said Thom Simmons, spokesman for the CIF's Southern Section, "the reality is less programs, less budget for travel, less for tournaments, less altogether."
 
This news comes one day after a USA Today article detailed an effort by the National High School Coaches Association and sports conglomerate IMG to create official High School National Championships in a number of high school sports. 

According to the NHSCA website: "tournament-style team championships for 7-on-7 football, 7-on-7 lacrosse, boys’ and girls’ team tennis, and boys’ and girls’ team golf will begin at the Bradenton-based [IMG] Academy in summer 2010, with plans for possible national television coverage and expansion to national championships for 20 sports in upcoming years." 

With stories of NCAA athletic scandals occasionally in the headlines, critics of interscholastic national competitions are wary of the impact such commercially-driven enterprises might have on high school sports.

Says social activist and former pro quarterback Don McPherson:  "I'm an old IMG client, and I love what they do and have done from a business standpoint," he says. "But the bottom line for IMG is … they're not a philanthropic organization. They're not an educational organization. They're trying to make money."

Indeed, the article's author, Steve Wieberg, states that one of IMG's objectives is to highlight IMG's 350-acre Bradenton facility to athletes and their families.

Let’s take a look at one of the academies.

Full-time enrollment in the IMG Soccer Academy, with boarding, will run a family $44,670 a year.  Boarding includes: accommodations, three meals per day, sport program and local activities (i.e., trips to the movies, beach, grocery story or church, e.g.), and a PRIVATE locker.  The sport program includes an impressive array of services that would rival a small college; everything from performance screening and conditioning, to doping tests and athletic trainers. 

Then there is the academic thing.

High school-aged students at the IMG Academy (IMGA) actually attend school at the nearby Pendleton School.  While the school says it is a separate entity from IMGA, if a student leaves IMGA, “they may not remain enrolled at Pendleton.”  Tuition, paid in full and up front, is $15,975 per year.

Oh, and academic program at IMGA goes from Pre-K through High School.

From the USA Today article:

Sam Zussman, managing director of IMG Academies and senior vice president of IMG Worldwide, maintains that in getting athletes into the facilities — at a cost of up to $60,000 a year, including boarding and education — the goal also is to position them for college careers.

A typical school day sees our young superstars up at 6:45am for breakfast and in class by 7:30am until 12:30pm.  By 2:30, lunch is over and they are on the athletic fields until dinner at 6:30pm.  Homework starts at 7:30pm and, then finally, some undoubtedly coveted free time from 9–9:45pm before lights out at 10:30pm.

Zussman again:

"The pressure those kids experience from being drafted or not being drafted, being recruited or not being recruited, is already there," he says. "We'll actually develop an environment that we can control, that will focus on college placement, that will have the right values, as opposed to somebody just focusing on the commercial benefits of trying to develop and [sic] event."

Aaah.  They do it for the kids.

Be true to your ... club?

Eric Sondheimer, the Los Angeles Times high school sports beat writer and a perceptive observer of the changing high school sports landscape, was among the first to report on the increasingly difficult choices high school athletes have to make between playing for their club or high school sports teams. Sondheimer, in a 2008 SportsLetter interview, noted the growing number of sports clubs and said, “We're getting to the point now where they debate what's more important: high school sports or club sports? In certain sports, that debate is already over. The club sports have become more important to get a college scholarship in soccer, girls' volleyball, and softball. It's headed that way in basketball."

Et tu, boys volleyball?  In today's LA Times, Sondheimer writes about 6' 6" Michael Beals of Manhattan Beach's Mira Costa High School, who received a scholarship offer to play volleyball at 19-time NCAA champion UCLA, despite having never played for his high school volleyball team.  It was the first time in UCLA Assistant Coach Brian Rofer's 20 seasons recruiting volleyball players that he has signed a player who didn't play for his high school team.  

Because the two sports share a season, Michael, an avid baseball fan, played baseball for his high school team and volleyball for his club team.  After signing his Letter of Intent to play volleyball at UCLA, Michael thought he'd try out for his high school volleyball team.  He made the team, but will have to beat out two seniors for a spot in the starting lineup.  Said Michael,  "I still love baseball.  I'm a big fan ... I guess I'm just a volleyball player now."

Leave a beautiful corpse?

SportsLetter, over the years, has observed the persistence of journalists’ infatuation with the so-called Goldman surveys on drug use by elite athletes.  Year after year as journalists write about performance enhancing drug use at any level from the Olympic Games to high school sports, sooner or later someone will drag out Bob Goldman’s old surveys from the 1980s and early 1990s, present them as if they were scientific studies and then suggest that most elite athletes are dying to win through doping. 

It happened again in a December 20, 2010 New York Times blog by Gretchen Reynolds who wrote, “There’s a well-known survey in sports, known as the Goldman Dilemma. For it, a researcher, Bob Goldman, began asking elite athletes in the 1980s whether they would take a drug that guaranteed them a gold medal but would also kill them within five years. More than half of the athletes said yes. When he repeated the survey biannually for the next decade, the results were always the same. About half of the athletes were quite ready to take the bargain.”

What’s wrong with this?  Well, several things are.  As SportsLetter wrote a decade ago after contacting Goldman about his research, the findings came from the informal questioning of athletes with whom Goldman came in contact.  Subsequent surveys involved smaller samples than the first one.  The Goldman surveys did not employ accepted statistical sampling practices.  The findings were not peer reviewed, nor were they ever published in a scientific journal. 

SportsLetter also noted that the work of Penn State’s Charles Yesalis, who himself has questioned athletes about the risks of doping and authored several works about anabolic steroids, cast doubt on the Goldman findings.

But, even if the sampling and vetting of the Goldman surveys met the highest scientific standards, the fundamental premise would still be flawed because no athlete interviewed by Goldman really believed that he or she would be dead within five years.  This is a hypothetical question, a fantasy question.  None of the athletes was confronting the certainty of death in the near future.  There may have been a lot of bravado among those whom Goldman questioned, but none of them was entering into a genuine bargain that guaranteed death.

Let’s say that 20 gold-medal winners from the 2006 Torino Olympic dropped dead tomorrow, and it could be publically and conclusively proven that their deaths resulted from bargain they all made in 2005 to take drugs, win medals and die young.  Now imagine that a Tony Soprano-like character approaches a new group of elite athletes and offers them the same bargain with the ironclad promise that the death clause will be strictly enforced.  Think you’d get a 50%-plus positive response?  SportsLetter would bet the farm that you would not.

A summit on youth sports safety and legislation

In Sacramento, California, this week the Alliance to Address the Youth Sports Safety Crisis in America hosted a summit designed to "raise awareness about youth sports safety and promote legislation to improve health care for young athletes."  The alliance is comprised of 30 groups, including the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA), the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, the California Brain Injury Association and the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine.

From the NATA website on the summit:

Recent studies point to a significant increase in catastrophic injuries that result in death or permanent disability, despite best efforts to prevent and treat them. In fact, there were at least 115 sports-related deaths in 33 states over the past two years. Brain injury, devastating heat illness and sudden cardiac arrest are just a few of the serious conditions suffered by children on the playing field. The traditional sports philosophy of “playing through pain” can result in younger athletes, who are eager to make a good impression, continuing or returning to the playing field, when sitting out or going home would be the safer and more logical course of action.

Some of the speakers included Cindy J. Chang, MD, former head team physician for the University of California’s 27 athletic teams and assistant clinical professor at UC Davis and UC San Francisco;  Diane Claerbout, a board member of Parent Heart Watch, the national voice dedicated to protecting youth from sudden cardiac arrest and sudden cardiac death; Rebecca A. Demorest, MD, associate medical director of pediatrics and young adult sports medicine at Children’s Hospital Oakland; Beth Mallon, the founder of Advocates for Injured Athlete; and Leigh Steinberg, a nationally acclaimed sports attorney who has represented 150 professional and Olympic athletes.  Also speaking was Assemblymember Mary Hayashi, California’s 18th Assembly District, who planned on discussing California Assembly Bill 533, requiring coaches and athletic trainers to be licensed in first aid certification.

For more information on the summit and the Alliance to Address the Youth Sports Safety Crisis in America visit www.youthsportssafetyalliance.org

Bad gym teacher

A new study from the University of Alberta says a child's experience with a terrible gym teacher can cause the child to reject fitness later in life.  

Researchers interviewed a small sample of 24 adults about their attitudes to fitness and physical activity and sports.  Their research supports the common-sense assumption that those who had had a "rough time" in a physical education class as a child were more likely to have a negative attitude towards physical activity as an adult.

Some negative experiences revealed by participants were:

Being embarrassed or humiliated in front of classmates
Having a teacher who treated students unfairly
Having an apathetic teacher with low energy

Not surprisingly, researchers also found study participants had "better experiences from minimally organized activities such as a neighbourhood game of street hockey, compared to the more organized activities. "

The study was led by Billy Strean, a professor in the University of Alberta's Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation, and published in the journal Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise.