How’s everyone’s weekend going? Thanks for spending a portion of it with the Six.
About a month ago, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Jason Gay, published a story on the state of youth sports in the United States.
He wrote the piece in the heels of proposed North Carolina legislation to ban trophies solely based on participation.
Gay rightfully objected to the legislation––if it walks and talks like government overreach, it usually is, regardless of ideological alignment––and gave his interpretation of what ills youth sports in this country.
His take: an emphasis on winning over experience.
“Gone are the unstructured games that many of us grew up playing, with no stakes, uniforms, or time limits. Instead we hear embarrassing stories of adults tangling with each other in the postgame parking lot,” Gay writes. “We’re not rewarding youth sports too much. We’re forgetting to prioritize the fun.”
I’ve been a youth sports coach in various capacities for two decades. What ‘experience’ means for a one-parent inner city kid (the make up of the majority of kids I saw in the RBI Baseball program in Chicago) is likely different for a suburban kid with the means of a two-parent household (the background of most the kids I coach now).
But non-negotiable components that make up any youth sports experience, regardless of background, should be hard work, teaching, development and, ultimately, fun. Winning is the sum total, the by-product of all variables when applied together. That’s the sell at least. Kids understand that sometimes you lose, the other team is just better. Outcomes shouldn’t define experience.
Here’s the biggest challenge I see in the youth market today: product over saturation.
Pent up demand from Covid Hysteria has predictably led to a glut of options in the marketplace (although the trend towards over saturation was hurdling forward well before 2020). Parents are bombarded with messaging on their phones, on social media, on email, about camps, combines, clinics, training, early bird sign ups, private coaching, etc, etc. It’s impossible to consume everything sent their way, let alone decide what to do.
(I’m a marketplace guy so give me abundance over scarcity any day. The last thing we need is federal, state or local government dipping its chubby toes into the muck, threatening regulation or even softly imposing guidelines. Stay out of it.)
Here’s what would be helpful––assimilated and available pathways. And honest communication as to the merits of those pathways.
Example: the parents of an aspiring middle school-aged athlete wants to sign their son up for baseball. They have a variety of options; the local house league, the travel program that most of his buddies play on, or how about pitching lessons from the guy who did a short stint in MLB but is back in the area offering privates?
Or how about the 11-year-old girls basketball player who has taken private lessons with @The Shot Doctor (that’s his handle on Instagram) who says she shows promise and offered more sessions. The private middle school she attends has a team but they are not very good. A mailer just came into the house promoting a 4-week long winter clinic and “evaluation” for an opportunity to join an elite spring travel team, the same team that three local high school players are on (all of them got college offers by their junior year, or so the organization’s Twitter feed claims).
Sound familiar? Anyone been here before?
These scenarios are playing out in households across Chicagoland and America every day.
What the heck is a parent supposed to do?
Here’s what: they have to be diligent in researching options. They need to have honest conversations with their kids and coaches as to the right path to take. Coaches and private organizations need to be transparent about what their mission and goals are for each athlete they take on. If a kid isn’t good enough for an “elite” team, a coach should say that. Recommend the park district-sponsored house league option instead (this is tricky as travel leagues must fill rosters and the less talented kids in effect subsidize the more college-worthy players).
Public school coaches could be less stubborn about advising parents and athletes on outside training if asked. Better communication amongst public and private sectors would be helpful but we know that’s a pipe dream in most industries, not just youth sports.
Participation trophies are not a symbol of what’s wrong with the youth market.
It’s deciding what shape, size and color of the trophy to buy that is.
Let’s proceed with the Six.
1. How The Teacher’s Union Broke Public Education.
No confusion in the marketplace when it comes to public education. A destructive milieu of union hubris, government subsidies and administrative impregnation has led to the downfall of a once-cherished American institution. This article from Tablet Magazine is told from the point of view of a former public school teacher who documents the profound betrayal of America’s students. "Today, the union is a captured institution, and it argues that the country must be remade for education to even be possible. Favoring ideological indoctrination over academic achievement fundamentally devalues teaching and learning. It is this devaluing that was the nail in the coffin for the school system." Strong stuff and compelling read.
2. LuLulemon Employees Fired After Shoplifting Incident.
For many, LuLulemon is more than a clothing line, it is a way of life. The totality of sheer existence is threatened minus a pair of Commission Classic Fit Oxfords. As the owner of four or five pairs of LuLu shorts, I can vouch for the motives of shoplifters…short of committing an actual crime. But here’s the thing––we now protect suspected criminals over the rights of employees that attempt to intercede while a crime is occurring. As this article explains, two Atlanta-area LuLuers are out of a job and I’m betting the shoplifters won’t suffer any consequences. As Tupac would say, that’s f’ed up.
3. Who Was The Woman Who Fell To Her Death Almost 20 Years Ago?
One day in 2004, a woman arrived at a London office block. She went up to the 21st floor and bought a coffee. Then she opened the window and jumped. There were no clues to the identity of the body and nobody has ever claimed her. Well-groomed and smartly-dressed, she is an anomaly among the unidentified dead. In the modern world, how is it possible to be so anonymous? A good read via The Guardian.
4. RFK, Jr. And The Populist Wave.
Modern elections have become sporting contests with daily winners and losers. One early winner in the 2024 presidential race is Robert Kennedy, Jr., a legacy politician (son of RFK) who jumped into the Democratic candidate’s pool a few months ago. I say winner only because he’s polling well (20 percent) for someone attempting to unseat a sitting president. No reasonable political strategist believes Kennedy has any chance of leapfrogging President Biden as long as he retains a pulse (questionable based on recent public appearances). But Kennedy is an intriguing candidate, in spite of wacky comments about vaccines (he hates them all and leans hard into conspiracy theories). He sees himself as an anti-Trump, non-partisan populist and how, “a lot of populist movements are idealistic in their core. My father was a populist, but he was appealing to something better, those parts of ourselves that say we have to step outside of our narrow self-interest and see ourselves as part of a community and resist this seduction of the notion that we can advance ourselves as a people by leaving our poorer brothers and sisters behind.”
5. The Grinders Who Saved A College Golf Team.
I absolutely loved this story from Golf Digest. Two golfers at a D3 program in South Carolina combine to shoot a single-round 434––for 18 holes! Here’s an excerpt from the lede graph: “It was a cold, rainy morning, they had just made the turn, and the fatigue from three days of play at the USA South Conference Championship had finally taken its toll. When they overheard another player call them "embarrassing," something cracked. This is rock bottom, they thought. How can it get worse?” The women stuck it out and in turn, saved the program. Great sports—and human interest—story.
6. Taylor And The Swifties Invade Chicago.
The phenomenon that is Taylor Swift occupies Chicago this weekend. By now we’ve all seen the news footage of lines outside Solider Field––not to get into the stadium, but for the opportunity to spend $75 on a t-shirt (a quick Stub Hub search found obstructed-view tickets for Swift’s Sunday show going for a few bucks shy of $1,000). Advice for the non-alpha, millennial or Z Generations: stay home, lock the doors and shut the window blinds. Otherwise, there is no resistance against the Swiftie Mob; obedience the lone path towards enlightenment.
Thanks for reading everybody and enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Have a suggestion for The Sunday Six? Send email to jonjkerr@gmail.com.