SportsLetter

So, like, lacrosse is TOTALLY a valley sport now

At least according to the Los Angeles Daily News in an article about the expansion of an old sport into new territory:

"Long considered popular around East Coast high schools, lacrosse is quickly gaining popularity out West, thanks to three men who helped spread their love for the sport over the past eight years.

Many local schools have adapted the sport, which is now CIF-qualified, and two of the more prominent schools that play - Mission League rivals Chaminade of West Hills and Harvard-Westlake of Studio City - meet tonight for the first time this season. The teams play again Thursday.

While certain parts of California have played it longer - central and northern California, Orange County and San Diego being several places - it is still relatively new to the greater Los Angeles area."

More on the Fugees

Last week we published an interview with "Outcasts United" author Warren St. John in which he touched upon the range of subjects that informed his book.  This morning NPR's Renee Montagne talked to Warren St. John and Fugees soccer coach Luma Mufleh.  Go to NPR's website to hear the interview:  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103516824&sc=emaf

WePlay's effort to become the Home of Youth Sports

Doug Krikorian of the Long Beach (CA) Press Telegram reported on an effort by former GeoCities COO and CFO Steve Hansen to create a "youth sports community website that connects players, parents, coaches and even professional athletes."  The Long Beach native envisions WePlay becoming "one-stop shopping for everyone involved in youth sports." 

The site has sections for parents, players and coaches, including a skills and drills section.  It also has footage of such sports stars as Brandi Chastain, Jennie Finch, Derek Jeter, Peyton Manning and Lebron James as youngsters, providing visitors with a rare opportunity to see Peyton Manning scrambling with the ball and Lebron James playing well below the rim.

SL Interview: Warren St. John on refugees, soccer, and starting over in America

The city of Clarkston is located about ten miles northeast of Atlanta, Ga.  In 1980, the town's population was 90 percent white, but that soon changed – and fast.  An abundance of inexpensive housing and Clarkston's proximity to Atlanta were two key factors why the town became, in the late 1980s, a resettlement hub for refugees from the world's most troubled corners: Afghanistan, Bosnia, Iraq, Kosovo, Liberia, Somalia and Sudan.

"From 1996 to 2001, more than 19,000 refugees from around the world resettled in Georgia," according to Warren St. John, author of "Outcasts United: A Refugee Team, An American Team" (Spiegel & Grau / Amazon).   "Some have endured unimaginable hardship to get here: squalor in refugee camps, separation from siblings and parents.  One saw his father killed in their home."

A reporter with The New York Times, St. John was intrigued by the inherent tension between the newly arriving refugees and the residents of Clarkston.  He chose to tell this modern-day American immigration story through three boys’ youth soccer teams formed from the teenage talent of the refugee families.  They decided to name themselves The Fugees.

A good chunk of St. John's book focuses on the extraordinary efforts of coach Luma Mufleh, herself an immigrant from Jordan, to keep the youth soccer program afloat.  She faces unique challenges, including language, cultural, and religious differences among her own charges.  And, in the course of the book, St John recounts how she faces her own demons.  

This is St. John's second book. His previous work, "Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer: A Journey into the Heart of Fan Mania," was his personal account of following the die-hard, tailgating corps of University of Alabama football fans. 

SportsLetter interviewed St. John by phone from his home in New York City.

–David Davis

Illinois High School Association and PED testing

On April 21 the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) released the following announcement:

The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) became one of three state high school associations in the country to test for performance-enhancing drugs with the implementation of the IHSA Performance-Enhancing Drug Testing Program earlier this school year.

IHSA Assistant Executive Director Kurt Gibson, who oversees the program, presented the IHSA Board of Directors with an update on the results of the winter sports testing at the Board’s regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, April 21, 2009.

Gibson reported that 178 athletes were tested in five sports (bowling, basketball, wrestling, swimming, competitive cheer) during the winter, representing 26 percent of the total number of tests that will be conducted during the school year. All 178 students were tested for stimulants, while 88 of those students were also tested for anabolic steroids. 177 of the 178 students came back with negative results, while the one student who tested positive was granted a medical exemption.

Overall, 442 students have been tested this school year, representing 66 percent of all testing that will be conducted. 334 students have been tested for stimulants, while 196 students were tested for anabolic steroids. The seven students who tested positive in the fall and winter were granted medical exceptions for this year. For reporting purposes, these results are considered positive, even though no penalty was assessed to any individual or school.

“Our membership has done a tremendous job in implementing our drug testing program this year,” said Gibson. “Their support for and cooperation with this initiative has enabled this first year to run smoothly. Based on the positive feedback from our schools and testing results, we believe that our testing program is successfully serving as a deterrent for student-athletes in Illinois.”

Injuries to young athletes

Last night Brian Williams and NBC Nightly News reported on what they called a "growing problem" in youth sports: "young athletes pushing themselves, perhaps, beyond their physical capacity to the point of injury."  In part one of the report, we met some young athletes who have sustained sports injuries.  Also on the NBC Nightly News site, a video report on knee injuries to young athletes.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

SL Interview: Author Mark Hyman on America's youth sports obsession

As a journalist, coach and sports parent, Mark Hyman has been immersed in the culture of youth sports.  His new book, entitled "Until It Hurts: America's Obsession with Youth Sports and How It Harms Our Kids" (Beacon Press / Amazon), is an indictment of what he sees as the myriad problems that have beset kids' sports.

In researching and writing the book, Hyman interviewed coaches, parents, children, psychologists, sports medicine experts and Olympic athletes.  What he discovered disturbed him.  "Across the country, young players are all too frequent victims of a sports culture that seemingly is turning its back on them," he writes in the introduction.  "Injuries are just one troubling manifestation.  With each passing season youth sports seems to stray further and further from its core mission of providing healthy, safe and character-building recreation for children."

Hyman assigns much of the blame on parents, who have usurped control of youth sports.  "It's not the presence of adults that is distorting youth sports," he writes.  "Rather, the issue is our well-documented impulse to turn sports for children into a de facto professional league." According to Hyman, "Only the kids are losers here.  Their voices are rarely heard, and then only to justify the questionable judgment of adults."

In the book, Hyman does not shy away from what he describes as his own "unflattering" behavior.  He writes about having his son, Ben, pitch in a baseball game despite being injured.  Writes Hyman: "I watched with regret and, in short order, remorse, as an injured boy attempting to please his dad lamely lobbed balls at home plate. . . Only one of us had anything to be disappointed about that evening.  It surely wasn't Ben."

From 1986-1997, Hyman was a reporter with the Baltimore Sun.  Today, the Baltimore-based writer is a contributing editor at Business Week.  This is his second book; previously, he authored "Confessions of a Baseball Purist" with broadcaster Jon Miller. 

As Hyman geared up for book promotion duties, SportsLetter spoke to him via phone.
– David Davis

A new kind of March Madness

Last week the Washington Post ran a story about high school basketball clubs masquerading as Prep Schools and a push for a high school basketball national championship.  And, no suprise, ESPN plays a prominent role.  Josh Barr of the Post writes:

The old school and new school are colliding once again in the debate about the future of high school athletics, and this weekend's ESPN-sponsored National High School Invitational basketball tournament at Georgetown Prep serves as the latest flashpoint.

The eight-team boys' field offers plenty of insight into the discussion. Findlay, Oak Hill Academy of Mouth of Wilson, Va., and Montrose Christian, which finished No. 1 in The Post's final high school rankings, are among those vying for what some, like Montrose Christian Coach Stu Vetter, are calling a high school national championship. All three teams are independents, unaffiliated with any conference or league, free to recruit from nearly all over the globe and play as many games as they choose, wherever they choose ...

... Public schools are unable to participate in the event because of National Federation of State High School Associations guidelines, which are against national tournaments. Also, most state high school associations declare that the playing season ends with the state championship game and that schools may not participate in events that are not sponsored by an educational entity ...

... A handful of private schools have long hosted elite basketball teams, such as Maine Central Institute and Winchendon (Mass.) School. But what is different now, according to some observers, is the growing number of start-up programs and the media attention paid to them.

You Deserve a Break Today

Miami Herald columnist Greg Cote rants against the McDonald’s All American High School Basketball Games taking place in Miami.  Cote writes:

The McDonald's game is the overglorified culmination of a dubious, sleaze-tinged underbelly of All-American excess and greed, in which certainly not all but far too many AAU “coaches” often are closer to self-promoters brokering deals for themselves to steer their star players to certain agents or colleges.

You wonder why so many athletes have inflated egos and a sense of entitlement by the time they reach college? Look no further than the McDonald's game, whose AAU teams are bankrolled by sneaker companies and flown all over the country to audition at exclusive tournaments.

The players -- who you would think should be concerned with a chemistry test or preparing for a prom -- are outfitted from head to toe in free gear and coddled like superstars at 17.

Anybody else find it strange that the ''Amateur'' Athletic Union allows its ''amateur'' athletes to receive, in some cases, thousands of dollars in free perks and gear?   …

Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy before Monday night's Magic-Heat game here about the McDonald's All-American Game phenomenon and what it represents. The topic worked on Van Gundy's face like a bite of lemon.

''I don't think it's healthy if you even know the kids out of your area,'' he said. ``Who gives a crap who the best freshman in the country is? The kid's 15! Youth sports in this country are going down the wrong path.''

Anita DeFrantz’s Contribution to Sport Recognized

ESPN.com is running a column by Richard Lapchick about Anita DeFrantz, president of the LA84 Foundation.  The article discusses DeFrantz’s influence in the Olympic Movement and her leadership role in youth sports in Southern California.

Lapchick writes of DeFrantz, “She is one of sports' true pioneers, both for her marvelous athletic career and for her position as perhaps the most powerful woman in international sport through her role in the International Olympic Committee. Her influence is written all over the Olympics … The focus of ESPN's coverage of Women's History Month this year is on young athletes in sports that are both traditional and non-traditional. DeFrantz's role as a positive influence in helping young women become competitive in sport makes her a perfect subject … I have no doubt that her greatest legacy will come from the millions of children who have participated in LA84, a foundation that she has led for 25 years. LA84 has undertaken programs to support sporting, health and fitness activities in Southern California and was funded originally by profits from the Los Angeles Olympics. Focusing on sports activities that historically have been denied to impoverished youth, the programs have helped jumpstart the careers of young athletes who became high school stars, won college scholarships, made Olympic teams and turned pro.”