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OT - Youth Sports Culture: Carl's Unscripted Insights · Let's Talk with Carl Lee

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  This is Overtime, a weekly moment of Off the Cup commentary on everything from
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  sports and politics. Two observations about every day life from NFL All Broke Pearl
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  League. Welcome to overtime. Hello, ladies and gentlemen. This is caral
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  Lee and this is an overtime. And I was had an interesting day.
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  I've been talking all day about youth sports and our young kids and too and
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  too much sports. I had a buddy who called me from Marshall and has
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  a has a nephew who plays soccer, and he was talking about him playing
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  five and six games of soccer in the course of a day, consuming practice
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  and league league and school balls from school ball. And if my memory serves
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  me correctly, and I could be off on this on his age, but
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  I think he's like thirteen, thirteen, fourteen. And I just asked the
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  question, you know, to a parent, when you think about yourself,
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  go back and look at yourself at thirteen and ask yourself, would that be
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  too much for you? Would you have thought that you could have left one
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  practice or game, then go to another practice and then go to another game,
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  or get out of school at or go to school at eight o'clock in
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  the morning and your sports carries over until eight thirty nine o'clock in the evening.
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  That's not even I mean, that's a that's a full day. And
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  I'm just wondering if we stop for just a second and step back and look
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  at not even if you're ignoring the safety aspect, and you don't buy that,
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  just ask yourself what the consumption of time that's taking that you have your
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  child here? And I get it, I truly get it, you know,
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  wanting your kid to be active and all those kinds of things, But
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  do we understand that there's also the the the opportunity of burning out. Is
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  there also the opportunity of potentially not even being interested in that sport going forward?
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  I think that we we just have to we have to stop for just
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  a minute and rethink having fun in sports. Youth sports are supposed to be
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  a learning process and having fun. It's not do or die, winning or
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  losing, do or die, whether or not you're starting, or you're the
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  star, or any of those kinds of things. It's it's never been that.
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  It's been for development. And I get it, you sports, you
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  all stars. We watched we watched adult men fight week in and week out
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  over your sports, and we've made it into something that is not a child
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  thing, because I don't think my mom and dad would want me to see
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  them in an altercation with another adult in the in the bleachers, or in
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  the school, or or anywhere I think they would be. They would hide
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  that from me. And we're not even hiding that, like we're like,
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  we don't even second guess ourselves in the idea of throwing a blow or saying
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  something that could potentially kick something off. So we put ourselves in a situation
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  where the consumption of sports and time that we're putting we're getting our kids to
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  to participate in and put them at risk. And yet and then there are
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  then we sit in the bleachers yelling and screaming and talking about who's playing,
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  who's not playing, whose kids, this, some kids, this, officials
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  did that. And next thing you know, we're thrown out of the game,
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  and now we're mad, and now we're confronting the official as though we
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  want to go to blows with him or her. Just stop for a minute,
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  hear all that that I said, and ask me, is that right?
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  Because if sports is supposed to teach kids teamwork, and all these good
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  lessons, what are we, as the adults, showing them when we're yelling
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  at the official, when we're yelling at the coach, when we're yelling at
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  our kids. Where's the fun in that? How can a kid? How
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  can a talented kid on the floor, on the field, on the court
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  have fun when mom or dad is are yelling at him because he missed the
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  shot or because he did something wrong, or yelling at his coach or fighting
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  with his coach for that matter, None of that's impossible anymore. And then,
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  and then, and I hate to hate to use an example, and
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  I won't use any names, but there's a there's a young kid that plays
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  for South Charleston's All Star team. Not even gonna name what level, but
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  it's an extremely talented young kid. Plays hard offense, defense, He's all
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  over the floor, He'll he'll do anything. Great shooter. Dad's calm,
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  sits and chills, watches the game, and and just you know him,
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  And and then you can if you watch him close, him and his son
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  has they have communications, but it's such it's so subtle that you you wouldn't
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  even know it. If if the kid looks at his dad, and looks
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  at him like he's distrap because something's happened. Dad gives him just to like
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  a wave off, like just wave it off, don't worry about it.
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  He calms down and plays very well right after that happens. But there was
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  a there was an incident that that took place in one of our recent All
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  Star games that upset the dad, and rightfully so, because of the situation.
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  His kid got hit and was on the floor, and he was worried
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  about him being hurt, and he got up ends up basically winning the game.
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  And I went up to I went up to to dad and said and
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  hugged him because I respect him and and and love his son to death.
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  And and I told him, I said, you have you don't have to
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  fight your son's battle on the court. I know that you're concerned about him
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  being hurt. But once he gets up, you saw what he I wanted.
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  Did you pay it to what he done? He basically went out and
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  won the game the for his team. That's who you have. He won't
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  need any motivation, he won't need you to be mad at what happens.
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  You can be mad if he gets hurt or something like that, because of
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  the a foul or whatever that may not have gotten called. And that's just
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  the vihible, But the point that I wanted him to understand, and I
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  want most of you all to understand. When you have a kid that is
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  talented, who is dug into the sport like loves it and can play it
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  and looking to do the best he can do for his team, you don't
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  have to say anything because that kid wants it more than you want it,
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  because he's not wanting it for you, he's wanting it for him. Sometimes
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  we get in a situation where we want it for us, and we got
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  to be careful of where we lie on that, you know, because I
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  think, especially again talking about the youth, we got to allow them to
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  have some fun, you know, and and games get tight and we all,
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  you know, all ten stuff, and you know, all heat it
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  up and mad at the officials and mad at the coaches and all that kind
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  of stuff. And our kids, when when, if and if and when
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  they lose, we've got to be able to say something to them. We
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  got to be able to talk to them and say, hey, that's all
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  right. You got next week, you got next year, you got next
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  season, you got next sport. You know, you'll be okay. This
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  is not the end of your life. This is just a game. But
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  we're making it like it's Every game is a super Bowl, every game is
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  the NBA Finals, every game is is the Championship for soccer, well you
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  know, the World Series. Every like everything has become drastically important and vital
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  that we win. No, we're wrong. We are wrong. Is what
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  it is is. We need to teach them teamwork, sportsmanship, having fun.
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  And then those who have the ability to play at the next level,
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  whether that's middle school, whether that's high school, whether that's college, any
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  division, and or whether it's not, whether it's Sunday, that'll take care
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  of itself. That'll take care of itself. But let's give them a reason
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  to want to get there. Because if I'm playing now, I don't want
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  to get yelled at. I'm getting yelled at from my coach, which is
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  understandable, but I'm getting yelled at from the bleachers. We're not even yelling
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  the same thing. And because we're not yelling the same thing, who am
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  I gonna pick? Whose choice is not gonna pick? I'm gonna do what
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  Dad tells me. I'm gonna do what the coach tells me, and the
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  confusion in that for these little kids is taking the fun out of it,
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  and let's don't do that. Let's rethink you sports. And again for those
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  for those politicians out there who who keep wanting to pass these loans for their
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  kids so that they can do it, please stop, please stop. Sports
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  are sports are fine where it's at, and travel sports they can't mix with
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  regular sports. They can't. It's just too much. And you want your
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  kid to do it, but you're gonna have that means everybody's gotta do it.
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  Every sport's gotta do it. And football can't do it. Soccer can't
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  do it. It's just too risky. And so just just let you kid
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  play and let him have fun, and this future will be his future.
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  That's all I got. I just needed to get that off my chest and
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  we'll be back at with you again on Tuesday. The opinions expressed on this
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  program do not necessary daily reflect the opinions of wvrc its management, employees,
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  or sponsors. Follow us on Facebook at Let's Talk carl It, visit wcchsnetwork
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  dot com slash Let's Talk for more