[LCDawg]

It does not necessarily have to be school sponsored. Little league baseball and youth soccer in Lawrence County are not school sponsored and have 200 plus kids involved. All it takes is an umbrella organization and volunteer coaches to teach fundamentals. Where I see problems is when folks think they can put together a better team than a local little league team for example. If there are 6 teams in the local league they pick the best 2 players off those teams and have a solid team. Of course this weakens the local league. The local league takes all comers, regardless of ability and has a fair draft system that puts teams on an even playing field. In other areas travel teams do not compete with local leagues but encourage participation in these leagues because they are great developmental leagues. We all know of players who at one time we would of thought they were mediocre at best because of size, ability, etc, but with some encouragement, practice and physical growth they became game changers later on. We have become to impatient and way to wrapped up in winning just for the sake of winning and have lost sight of developing the whole person. Travel teams are for players who want to go the extra mile and put in the work. Travel team coaches are only interested in the best players. That is why they have tryouts and expensive team fees. But my point is that both can work together to develop solid programs that helps all youth find their way in a very complicated life.

This is the key, IMO, and it's everywhere this is happening, not just Lawrence County. My opinion is that this comes mostly from the parents. Take soccer for example... you play games in U6/U8 and score is not even kept, but yet at the end of the game kids run to the parents and the first thing parents do is congratulate them on winning because they have kept the score... Myself, I would be happy as a coach if my youth team never won a single game, but at the end of the year they knew the sport for which they were playing... they knew the fundamentals.

As parents, people have become so obsessed with winning that the fundamentals of the game are lost and it's all about winning. Just an example, you take youth football. These kids don't know even how to block or tackle, why is that... because we are focusing on running some play???? Teach the kids how to block, how to tackle, etc.... then worry about plays down the road. Same goes for basketball, as a youth coach you should spend 90% of your practice teaching how to dribble the ball, pass the ball, play defense, shoot the ball, etc.... not run this play so "little johnny" can shoot the ball and score and we can win. This is the main reason we have kids that make it to the high school level and they don't even know what closing out means...