SportsLetter

Old school post-youth-baseball-game family brawl

The end of a youth baseball game saw an 84-year-old great-grandmother shoved to the ground and one grandfather hit another in the head with a baseball bat. 

The incident occurred at the end of a baseball game at the Peaster, Texas, Little League field.

Donna and Bryan Willmott, along with Donna's 84-year-old mother, approached the Willmott's grandson after the game only to be thwarted by the boy's mother.  The boy's parents are separated.

From the Star-Telegram:

Donna Willmott said as they approached the dugout, they told the boy's mother they only wanted to hug him.

However, the mother became alarmed as the trio got closer and screamed "don't touch my son!" said Donna Willmott, 53.

"She pushed my 84-year-old mother and made her fall to the ground," Donna Willmott said.

The situation worsened, according to Donna Willmott, when the boy's other grandfather picked up an aluminum bat and pounded Bryan Willmott on the back of his head, hitting him three times.

She said her husband had to get five staples to close the wound and that he suffered a concussion.

Bystanders and other, presumably, more peaceable relatives pulled the feuding family members apart as an ambulance and sheriff's deputies were called.

No arrests were made.

From the Star-Telegram:

Sheriff's spokeswoman Danie Huffman explained that, because the deputies did not witness the assault and nobody was in danger when they arrived, they could not make an arrest.

"It isn't that the deputies refused to arrest anyone," Huffman said. "The parties were separated so the threat was resolved."

At least until the next family picnic.

"Own the Couch," perhaps

Canadian kids aren't spending enough time in physical activity according to a "Report Card" just released by Active Healthy Kids Canada.

From CBC News:

An "F" grade was assigned in active play and leisure, with 46 per cent Canadian kids getting three hours or less of active play each week — including weekends. What's more, 63 per cent of kids' free time after school and on weekends is spent being sedentary.

At lunch and after school, kids are getting only 24 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity. It is recommended children and youth get at least 60 minutes of such activity daily.

In 2010 the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) in the US released its “Shape of the Nation Report” which stated: 

-In one study, 65% of high school students did not meet recommended levels of physical activity—activity that increased their heart rate and made them breathe hard some of the time for a total of at least 60 minutes per day–on 5 or more of the previous 7 days.

-35% of high school students watch television 3 or more hours per day on an average school day.

-25% play video or computer games or use a computer for something that is not school work for 3 or more hours per day on an average school day.

-Nationwide, fewer than one-third of all children ages 6 to 17 engage in vigorous activity, defined as participating in physical activity for at least 20 minutes that made the child sweat and breathe hard.

Turn that off and go outside and play!

An article in today's Wall Street Journal outlines the benefits of children (and adults) spending more time outdoors.

Author Jonah Lehrer cites a "recent study" which concluded that "American children between the ages of 8 and 18 currently spend more than four hours a day interacting with technology."

From the article:

As a result, there's no longer time for nature: From 2006 to 2010, the percentage of young children regularly engaging in outdoor recreation fell by roughly 15 percentage points.

This shift is occurring even as scientists outline the mental benefits of spending time in natural settings. According to the latest research, untamed landscapes have a restorative effect, calming our frazzled nerves and refreshing the tired cortex. After a brief exposure to the outdoors, people are more creative, happier and better able to focus. If there were a pill that delivered these same results, we'd all be popping it.

Lehrer goes on to describe a variety of studies that showed that people who spend more time outdoors than others score better on tests of creativity, attention and short-term memory.

From the article: 

This also helps to explain an effect on children with attention-deficit disorder. Several studies show that, when surrounded by trees and animals, these children are less likely to have behavioral problems and are better able to focus on a particular task.

So, this Memorial Day Weekend, go take a hike. 

With your kids, of course.

Youth sports and the local economy, again

A Memorial Day youth baseball tournament in Palm Beach County, Florida, may bring in $14 million to the local economy.

From the Palm Beach Post:

The 1,700 baseball players, coaches and family members expected at north county's Memorial Day Madness this weekend - most from outside the area -- are part of the booming youth baseball tournament business in Palm Beach County.

"That's a big boost for local hotels and restaurants. These quick two-to-three-day events have a big economic impact," said Ed Chase, president and CEO of the Northern Palm Beach County Chamber of Commerce.

Last year, 24 youth baseball tournaments -- up from 18 six years ago -- drew about 15,300 hotel room nights. The total economic impact was about $14 million, said George Linley, executive director of the Palm Beach County Sports Commission.

and

About 60 Memorial Day Madness teams, each with about 13 players between the ages of nine and 16, will play about 112 games starting Friday night. Each team usually brings about a dozen friends and family and about three coaches, said Eric Hungenberg, the Florida baseball director for Fort Collins, Colo.-based Triple Crown Sports, the producer of the annual event.

Those aren't boos, they're saying LUUUUUURES

And now, a fish story.

Earlier this year the Kentucky High School Athletic Association (KHSAA) announced that it had added high school bass fishing as a state championship sport.

And Kentucky isn't even the first state to do so.  According to a recent article in USA Today, Illinois high school participation in the sport has grown from 199 schools to 232 over the past four years.

Dan Gannaway, former Illinois High School Association (IHSA) assistant executive director who helped helped bass fishing become a state championship event first in Illinois and now in Kentucky says:

"It's more than just going out in a boat and throwing a lure in the water. It's trying to teach the kids the sciences about fishing. There's a lot of science involved in fishing, whether people believe it or not. Water temperature and clarity and dealing with all of that relative to color, where the oxygen is in the water at different times."

Reported early concerns are student safety, liability, and availability of suitable equipment, including bass boats.  Also, reports USA Today:

In addition to having a valid Kentucky fishing license, each participant will be required to join Student Angler Federation (SAF), an arm of The Bass Federation that organizes numerous youth fishing tournaments around the country.

Mark Gintert, national youth director with The Bass Federation, isn't worried:

"I tell people, and this may sound kind of simplistic, but I tell people this is just exactly like the Field of Dreams. If you build it, they will come," he said. "Now you may have to work a little bit to get your volunteers, but once you publicize to the world that you have a school fishing club and you need some help, you'll get those volunteers."

And, he added,

"The great thing about fishing is it's the greatest equal opportunity sport in America," Gintert said. "It's a Title IX dream for a school. It doesn't matter if you're a girl, a boy, if you're four-foot-six or six-foot-four, 300 pounds or 30 pounds, that fish has no idea who's on the end of that rod….So boys and girls can stand side-by-side, shoulder-to-shoulder, and fish in these tournaments and win."

I got your role model right here!

A youth rugby team has been suspended after its president and a coach were accused of offering team players money for "big hits" on players from opposing teams.

According Dan Noyes from ABC's KGO-TV in San Francisco, Wesley Van Tonder and his son, Wes Jr., allegedly offered cash payments to members of their Bay area youth rugby club, the Martinez Raptors, for hard hits on opposing players. 

The Van Tonder's have denied offering the bounties but a player from the Raptors under-14 team confirmed that "that the Van Tonders offered that boy and his teammates money for hits that would knock Lamorinda [Rugby] players out of the game."

From KGO-TV:

"And the father was particularly upset that once the investigation began that apparently there had been a meeting of some sort telling the kids, 'Don't say anything about it or else,' and 'or else' was kind of left open," said [Northern California Youth Rugby Association (NCYRA) disciplinary chairman Matt] Eason.

Also from KGO-TV:

The league announced its decision in an email to coaches and parents:

•All of the Raptor teams are suspended until Jan. 1; they'll miss the summer season
•They forfeit all of last season's matches
•Wesley Van Tonder and his son are suspended from rugby for three years

There has been some speculation that the idea of bounties came from the recent NFL scandal involving the suspension of New Orleans Saints players and coaches for cash payments made to Saints for injuring opposing players, including members of the San Francisco 49ers.

Said one parent from another rugby club:

"There's no room for that at this level of youth sports or in any level. There's no room for bounties."

Nix high school sports? NFHS says nay nay

Bob Gardner, executive director of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), reacts to former basketball coach Len Steven's suggestion that the European model of club sports would be a better system for high school athletes than school sports.

From the NFHS website:

What Mr. Stevens probably doesn’t know is that many of those countries employing the “European model” would trade their model in an instant for the education-based philosophy of high school sports in the United States. After listening to my report at the 9th International Session for Educators at the International Olympic Academy in Greece last summer, representatives from many nations marveled that our programs receive little or no government support in our schools, and the universal wish of the delegates from other nations was that their programs could be more like ours ...

...What Mr. Stevens doesn’t account for is that if sports were removed from American high schools, the focus would not be on education. The focus would be on trying to locate students who abruptly left school – dropouts – when sports were taken away ...

...How many of those 7.6 million [student-athletes involved in high school sports] would still be around if the only option was to join a club team? The clubs only want the very best athletes, and fees can range from $5,000 to $10,000 a year to be involved with a year-round travel team.

A large majority of high school students who are involved in sports are there to have fun, to be with their friends, to compete and learn and to be a part of a team. Kids have a need to be needed and to be a part of something positive, to be involved with their peers and coaches who care. Many students involved in sports do not have a support system at home – their high school teammates and coaches are their lifeblood. This concept simply does not exist through club sports.

And finally,

Certainly, there are challenges in many states, mainly due to funding issues. But even in those situations when funds become tight, more often than not the community responds because it sees the value of these programs for young people. With all due respect to Mr. Stevens, there are 7.6 million reasons we’re going to keep sports within our schools.

Running like it's 1928

The more things change ...

There are 10 states in which girl high school cross country runners run shorter distances than boys during the regular season.  In all other states the distance run by both girls and boys is the same. 

In most of those 10 states the girls run four-kilometer (2.5-mile) races instead of the standard five-kilometer (3.1-mile) courses run by boys; and in Oklahoma the girls run an even shorter distance, 3.2 kilometers (or roughly two miles). 

From ESPN:

ESPNHS reached out to the cross country representatives at each of the 10 state associations in which girls run shorter distances than the boys. Nine associations responded. (Representatives from Iowa did not respond to repeated inquiries.) Every athletic association implied that the state would be open to increasing the distance, provided that the coaches' associations voted to do so.

For coaches, the main deterrent is the perception that it will negatively affect participation numbers. Particularly in smaller classifications, coaches worry that increasing the distance from 4K to 5K will turn away girls who either aren't as serious about the sport, use cross country mostly to train for other sports, or both.

"Nobody has ever said that a girl can't run a 5K," Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association assistant director Marcy Thurwachter said. "The No. 1 issue is what will happen to our smallest teams and their participation numbers."

For high school senior and Gatorade National Runner of the Year Molly Seidel any changes made by her home state of Wisconsin to its tradition of 4K races for girls will come too late.  Molly's open letter to the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) was reprinted on ESPN and said, in part:

Like the shag carpeting glued to the floor of our home's guest bedroom, I realize some things won't be shed easily. Some girls simply don't want to switch to the longer racing distance. Some even believe that they're not fast or strong enough to handle the 5K. This is not only untrue; it's ridiculous. Cross country is about pushing limits, and our state should be encouraging its female runners to push their own limits, not holding them back with outdated rules and regulations.

Pay-to-play is shutting out some low income kids

Nearly 1 in 5 children from lower income families "decreased their sports participation" according to a new report just released by University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health (NPCH). 

The nationwide poll asked parents of middle- and high-school-age children what they spent on school sports and how much their kids participated. 

From a University of Michigan press release:

Overall, 61 percent of children playing middle or high school sports were charged a pay-to-play fee. The average fee was $93, according to the poll respondents, but 21% of children faced a pay-to-play fee of $150 or more.

However, pay-to-play fees are only one component of the school sports costs reported by parents. Including equipment, uniforms and additional team fees,, the average cost for a child’s sports participation was $381.

Researchers found that 12 percent of parents overall said that the cost of school sports caused a drop in participation for at least one of their children. However, that varied substantially based on income. Among lower-income families, those earning less than $60,000 per year, 19 percent said their children’s participation decreased because of costs. But among families earning more than $60,000 per year, only 5 percent reported costs had caused their children to participate less.

“As pay-to-play becomes the norm, nearly 1 in 5 lower-income parents reported their kids decreased their sports participation – that’s significant,” says Sarah Clark, M.P.H., Associate Director of the Child Health Evaluation and Research (CHEAR) Unit at the University of Michigan and Associate Director of the National Poll on Children’s Health.

The NPCH report can be found here:  http://www.mottnpch.org/reports-surveys/pay-play-sports-keeping-lower-income-kids-out-game

Your Lady Caused Sorrow

A fundamentalist Catholic school in Phoenix chose to forfeit a championship baseball game rather than play a team fielding a female player.

Our Lady of Sorrows was scheduled to play Mesa Preparatory Academy in Wednesday's Arizona Charter Athletic Association (ACAA) state championship at Phoenix College.  Our Lady of Sorrows had played Mesa Prep twice earlier in the season and both times an accommodation had been made to keep Mesa Prep's freshman second baseman Paige Sultzbach off the field.  Mesa Prep won both games.  For Wednesday's game, however, Mesa Prep said Paige would play.

From Fox Sports Arizona:

"I think the championship game was something she had earned the right to play," Mesa Prep athletic director Amy Arnold said. "The (Mesa Prep) players are all very supportive of Paige. They consider her very much a part of the team, and they want her to play."

And:

"We respect the stance of Our Lady of Sorrows Academy," Arnold said. "They are obviously taking a moral stance on their beliefs, and we have to respect that. It's a sad situation that the championship game cannot be played. No one wants to win or lose a championship by forfeit."

Our Lady of Sorrows told Fox News:

...the school had no choice but to forfeit: "Teaching our boys to treat ladies with deference, we choose not to place them in an athletic competition where proper boundaries can only be respected with difficulty,” the statement said. "Our school aims to instill in our boys a profound respect for women and girls."

ACAA's executive director Randy Baum worked with the schools throughout the year to address the differences in school policies and said he simply wished Mesa Prep "had been more consistent in its policy rather than sitting her in the regular-season games and insisting she play in the state championship."

Said Paige's mom Pamela,

"This team has worked so hard," she said. "They're undefeated. They had one game left. At our school, we're taught that when you start something you complete it, and they weren't done."