Sports thoughts

Nothing is constant in life except for birth, taxes and death. American sports change right before our eyes and sometimes we don’t notice it.

Gone are the days when the neighborhood kids got together after school and in the summer and chose their own teams and modified the rules to fit their needs. There was no adult supervision, children became leaders, peacemakers and showed initiative. Very few leagues where you were told what to do and how to do it. So the baseball score was 28-23, and it took three hours or until your parents called you for dinner or darkness. Kids had to be responsible and get along.

Today, thousands of different leagues with sponsors, uniforms, fees, parents, cheerleaders, etc. Every sport imaginable has an organized league with parent coaching. Some cities and towns let sport businesses set up leagues, fields, officials and concessions. Most have a price, little kid leagues make money. Is this bad? No, not necessarily, just the way little kids’ sports have evolved.

When in high school, you better pick a sport and play it all year round. You see, you won’t get a scholarship or get to play if you don’t stick to your sport. Whatever happened to playing two or three sports in high school? Hundreds of thousands of kids across America play club sports

or are on traveling teams. For the most part these are businesses, with the idea of making a profit. The price range for each kid can range from $1,000 to $15,000. Is this wrong? No, just new and different.

You see, kids today don’t have to stay at their neighborhood high school. Why should they? The school has a losing record, why would you not transfer to a winner. You might not like the coach, why put up with him or her. Go where the winners are, go to where you can be recognized or get a better chance at a scholarship. You think I’m fooling, Arizona had over 3,500 transfers last year. Saguaro High School in Scottsdale has 17 Division 1 commits on the same team. Want them on your