SportsLetter

When funding youth sports raises red flags

A Worcester, Mass., district attorney who has spent over $260,000 in the last three years on youth sports programming in his community using public money from a law enforcement fund has come under fire for the practice.

District Attorney Joseph D. Early, Jr. has used some of the "forfeited funds" on scholarships, equipment, uniforms, youth sports facility improvements and to "repave a basketball court at an elementary school in one of the city's wealthiest neighborhoods," according to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. 

From Telegram.com:

In Massachusetts, money seized from alleged drug dealers is split evenly between the police department that confiscated it and the district attorney's office that handled the civil forfeiture proceeding in court. State law requires that most of the money must be spent on investigations and law enforcement operations, but allows district attorneys the leeway to spend up to 10 percent of their share of forfeited funds on “drug rehabilitation, drug education and other anti-drug or neighborhood crime watch programs which further law enforcement purposes.”

Worcester District Attorney's office accounting records obtained by the Telegram & Gazette under the state Public Records Law show Mr. Early's largesse is often not directly related to anti-drug efforts, does not exclusively target at-risk kids, and last year was more than triple the amount allowed by law. In addition, the money is doled out haphazardly without any formal application process as employed by other district attorneys.

In two cases contractors who were contributors to Mr. Early's political campaign received non-competitive contracts for work.  One of the contractors sponsors a baseball team in a youth baseball league in which Mr. Early’s wife serves as member of the board of directors.  Perhaps unavoidable in a small community, but the lack of oversight is causing some concern:

While youth sports may be a worthy cause, critics note that simply spreading money across scores of teams and leagues, including some in solidly middle class neighborhoods, does not constitute a coherent, effective anti-drug strategy and that the seized money at issue is not a pot of cash for Mr. Early to spend at his whim.

Mr. Early sees no problem:

In an interview, Mr. Early defended his spending of public money on youth sports, in amounts that have increased dramatically in each of the last three years, as a proven crime-fighting strategy that has resulted in falling rates of juvenile delinquency. He said giving children something to do after school under the supervision of responsible adults is a core part of his crime prevention efforts.

“It's about giving kids opportunity. It's about prevention, prevention, prevention,” Mr. Early said, later adding, “I can't think of a better use of these funds.”

Boy kicked off HS field hockey team for being too good

The star player of a New York high school field hockey team will not be permitted to play next year because he's too dominant a player.

Yes, he.

According to news reports 13-year-old Keeling Pilaro of Southampton, N.Y, was removed from his Southampton High School's varsity team, where he has played the last two years, because his overwhelming skills were causing “a significant adverse effect on some of his opposing female players," according to Ed Cinelli, the executive director of the area high school association.

Keeling's family is appealing the ruling.

From Athletic Business:

The issue of equality is often raised whenever a male athlete wishes to compete in a female sport, and vice versa, with opponents arguing that males’ size and strength provide an unfair advantage or create a safety concern when competing amongst girls. But it’s hard to make that argument in this case — Pilaro is 4 feet, 8 inches tall and weighs in at 82 pounds. Pilaro’s advantage may simply be that as a native of Ireland, he grew up playing the sport and has had more practice.

At greater issue might be the increasing popularity of field hockey among male athletes. "As a sport, it's a girls’ sport," Cinelli told MyFoxNY.com. "When a boy plays, it leads the way for other male players to come in and take over.”
 
From IrishCentral:

Keeling first started playing field hockey while living in Ireland, where it is both a popular men’s and women’s sport. Back in the US, however, the sport is typically reserved for girls.

The 13 year old’s removal from the varsity team has led to conversation as to whether or not the actions taken are in compliance with federal law Title IX, which that states both men and women should have an opportunity to play a sport if the school offers it to the opposite sex,

Dana Edell, the executive director for girls activist organization SPARK, said "If he's not allowed to try out for the team, that opens up the door for all kinds of discrimination.” She went on to say that young Pilaro should be permitted to at least try out for the team, or be granted the option to start a boys’ field hockey team at the school. If not, then the girls team should be disbanded.

"It's the coaches responsibility to make sure the players are safe," added Edell. "And a boy should not be penalized because he's good."

Keeling just wants to play.

"I do hope they let me play," he said. "I really like these girls -- they are my family."

Are HS sports dumbing down public education?

Has the current explosion of interest in high school sports lead to a "general dumbing down of public education?"  So asks Steven Conn, a professor of history at Ohio State University, in an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

From the Chronicle of Higher Education:

There is a widespread consensus that our public-education systems are in serious trouble. But amid the conflicting diagnoses of the problem—teacher training, standardized testing, socioeconomic conditions—we have missed this obvious one: The growth of high-school athletics over the past generation has necessarily meant fewer resources devoted to academics, especially in the zero-sum budgetary environment of so many school districts. How many other educational systems pay for sports out of their education funds?

The issue isn't simply money. Perhaps more important, the growth of high-school athletics has resulted in more time than ever spent by students in practicing and competing. Basketball games played on school nights (with travel time, if they're away games), swimming and gymnastics "invitationals" that draw kids from hundreds of miles and last all weekend. And the proliferation of summer sports camps. In one of his pleadings as president of the NCAA, even the late Myles Brand complained to The New York Times, "The youth sports culture is overly aggressive."

Certainly the commercialization of youth sports is at an all-time high.  Over the past several years high school sports has seen the construction of multi-million dollar high school football stadiums, an increase in the number of year-round camps, tournaments and showcases, and an explosion of recruiting magazines, services, websites, and "street agents.”  

Writes Conn,

… To balance the time necessary for sports with academic demands, how many students are opting for easier classes? How many districts are not offering a more rigorous curriculum because there is not enough student demand for AP calc but plenty for JV football? To what extent has the growth in seriousness of high-school athletics contributed to the general dumbing down of public education?

Education Week's Bryan Toporek agrees:

That point got some backing from ESPN analyst and former Duke basketball player Jay Bilas on Thursday, according to the Chronicle's Players blog. At the annual conference of the College Sport Research Institute, Bilas spoke out against the NCAA's academic progress rate, saying, "I would have chosen different classes if there were an APR in place. I wouldn't have wanted to put my teammates at risk."

Conn also writes,

As professional sports grew into a multibillion-dollar enterprise, colleges followed suit. Small programs grew big; big programs grew huge, all chasing ESPN glory and cash. So, in turn, high-school athletics programs grow, emulating their big siblings on campuses.

If that is truly the case then the news from Florida, outlined in this Forbes.com article, should alarm everyone:

The University of Florida announced this past week that it was dropping its computer science department, which will allow it to save about $1.7 million.  The school is eliminating all funding for teaching assistants in computer science, cutting the graduate and research programs entirely, and moving the tattered remnants into other departments.

... Meanwhile, the athletic budget for the current year is $99 million, an increase of more than $2 million from last year.  The increase alone would more than offset the savings supposedly gained by cutting computer science.

A 30 day waiting period for HS transfers?

High schools in California soon will decide whether to change the "sit out" penalty for athletes who transfer schools from the current one varsity season to a simple 30-day period.

Eric Sondheimer of the Los Angeles Times reports that the transfer rule change is just one of a number of changes California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) sections will be considering at meetings over the next couple of weeks. There are 10 regional sections in the CIF.  A final vote will come next month.

Sondheimer fears that the transfer rule change would dramatically alter the competitive landscape and threaten the mission of high school athletics.

From the LA Times: 

If a 30-day sit-out period is voted in, it will accelerate the trend of schools forming all-star teams, and that is sucking the life out of those coaches who used to believe in building programs by getting players to show up as freshmen, teaching them fundamentals and seeing them blossom as seniors. The problem is they don't stick around for four years anymore.

and,

The decision to support or reject transfer revisions should revolve around whether the mission of high school sports will be preserved or further tarnished.

That mission has been about teaching lessons to teenagers far beyond winning championships.

Leave it up to the club programs to recruit, build all-star teams and welcome transfer students with open arms.

There has to be someone left to stand up for the kid who sticks around through the good and bad times, shows loyalty for four years, practices hard, then gets sent to the bench in favor of the new kid.

Interscholastic polo champions

Work to Ride, a not-for-profit program from the “inner-city of Philadelphia,” recently won the 2012 United States Polo Association (USPA) Open National Interscholastic Championship, making them back-to-back champions.

From Philly.com:

For the second year in a row, the Cowtown/Work To Ride team won the United States Polo Association's interscholastic national championship.

The kids from the weather-beaten barn that used to serve as a stable for Philadelphia's mounted police won the national title March 11 at the University of Virginia, topping teams from California in the semifinals and finals - including a dramatic, double-overtime victory in the championship game.

Last year, Cowtown/Work To Ride became the first all-black team to win the national title in the tournament's 42-year history. This year, the twist to the Philadelphia team was that its leader and most consistent player was one of just two girls who competed in the national tournament.

And from Yahoo Sports’ Prep Rally:

When you think of polo, the images that come to mind usually evoke the likes of princes and their aristocratic cohorts. Yet for the past two seasons, the program which was won the national Interscholastic Polo Championship was comprised of teenagers from backgrounds about as far from Prince Harry as possible: They're all natives of inner-city Philadelphia.

...To win the 2012 crown in March, the Work To Ride squad had to knock off a perennial blueblood squad, California's El Dorado, at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. While the championship match was a tight-fought contest, Work To Ride eventually emerged victorious after a double-overtime shootout, locking up back-to-back prestigious national polo titles for the least likely victors of all.

"You couldn't have written a movie any better than what that was," Work To Ride Executive Director Leslie Hiner told CNN's Sarah Hoye. "It was so clutch."

They're at it again

"They" are college coaches who offer college athletic scholarships to kids who've yet to enter high school.

This past Sunday eighth grader Eron Gordon was offered a basketball scholarship by Indiana University coach Tom Crean.  Not coincidently Eron is the youngest brother of New Orleans Hornets and former Indiana University star Eric Gordon.

From IndyStar.com:

The 6-1 Gordon played in the IndyBall.com Shootout over the weekend, playing up an age group with the 15-and-under Eric Gordon Central Stars.

Eron's father, Eric Gordon Sr., said Eron will take an unofficial visit Wednesday to Purdue. He could receive another offer ...

... Gordon is an eighth grader at Westlane Middle School and plans to attend North Central as a freshman. Eric Gordon Jr. was Indianapolis Star Indiana Mr. Basketball at North Central in 2007, then played one season at IU before heading to the NBA.

Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Xavier and Wisconsin have also started to recruit Gordon.

SL Interview: Author Mark Hyman on the commercialization of youth sports

In "Until It Hurts: America's Obsession with Youth Sports and How It Harms Our Kids" (Beacon Press), author Mark Hyman drew upon his years-long experience as a coach, parent, and journalist to examine the harmful side effects of youth sports.  Hyman's report from the front lines was bluntly honest: "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."

Now, three years later, Hyman has returned to the topic.  His latest book, titled "The Most Expensive Game in Town: The Rising Cost of Youth Sports and the Toll on Today's Families" (Beacon Press), examines every aspect of the business of youth sports -- including the dizzying array of products designed for kids, the rising cost of travel and club sports, the increased media coverage (driven by ESPN) and corporate sponsorship of high school sports, and the disparity between the financial haves and have-nots.

Hyman notes that, for companies catering to youth athletes and their pocketbook-wielding parents, times are good.  More children are playing organized sports -- an estimated 41 million of them -- than ever before.  Hyman writes about the cumulative toll of commercialization: "How is the youth sports economy affecting our kids?  And what stresses, financial and otherwise, is it imposing on families?  How is the great sloshing of dollars distorting the experience that we want for children when they leap off the starting block or dribble down the lane?"

And, Hyman wonders, "Is there any way to turn off the spigot?"

A longtime journalist, Hyman also teaches at George Washington University in the sports management program, on topics ranging from sports law to sports communications.  SportsLetter spoke with Hyman by phone from his home in Baltimore.

--David Davis