There is a crazy amount of money plowed into Youth Sports each year (this is a blog, not a research report, so I'm not planning to quantify "crazy amount", but probably in the bazillions). Lots of parents think their six year old kid is the next Lionel Messi - funding camps, private lessons and jerseys, not to mention club and tournament fees.
For our part, we've encouraged sports with our kids from an early age. But we are also putting away money in a college fund because we have no illusion that our kids will be doing anything professional with sports, unless it is from inside a press box or perhaps figuring out multi-state income allocations (likely scenario...we even have a family powerpoint on that topic).
A couple years ago, though, I found myself not-so-tongue-in-cheek signing my emails "Youth Sports Agent" as we navigated a situation with one son's soccer team. This fall, I'm finding myself navigating similar (if not so dramatic) waters, this time with our delightful Captain Chaos. And let me tell you...I NEVER would have thought he would be in a position of getting to choose which sport to play, and being "invited" to join a team.
But here's the deal - Youth Sports is WAY more than setting your tiny little kid up for a college scholarship or a huge payday. In fact, it's pretty much not that at all for almost every kid. When you Google the crazy amount of money we're paying, also check out the stats on how many little kids on the Saturday community ball field end up playing in college or the pros. Like three of them (that's my number...look it up while you're pretending to watch practice).
Youth Sports is about community. On any given weekend day, we can go to our local Sports Park and find a half dozen or more kids and parents who really know our kids. Families we trust and can call on when we're in a bind. Parents who our kids will seek out if they're lost in the park. Or when they are teenagers and aren't quite sure how to talk to Mom and Dad about something. Families who vacation together, backup childcare for each other, rush a little guy to the ER for head staples when Dad's on the golf course (true story). These are families who met through baseball, soccer, flag football, but who stay together now whether we are on the same field, same sport, same team or not.
Youth Sports is about goal setting, hard work and leadership. Turtle, our "natural" athlete, has been playing soccer since he was four, joining a club team as soon as he was able, but not starting on the "A" team. He was having fun (always our #1 question), but he also knew he wanted to move up. Eventually, he earned that spot, starting as basically "practice squad", but each year, he is setting goals for himself to improve, earn a starting spot, earn the coveted "six" position (I have no idea what that means, but he talked about it for twenty minutes after a recent practice. I think it may be the point guard of soccer). We've translated this into the classroom also - "I KNOW fractions are hard. But once upon a time, you couldn't shoot a layup. But you kept working on it and you now can with both hands." Teachers call this Growth Mindset. Coaches call it practice.
Youth Sports is about inclusion. My favorite and least favorite thing about Little League baseball is the tryout/draft. Is it crazy that 9 year olds are getting drafted? Yep. But is it crazy that because of the draft, the 8-10 teams come out relatively balanced? Nope. Every team has a slugger or two. Every team has the kid who would rather twirl around with his glove on his head. (ok, full disclosure, Turtle, our "athlete" has been spotted as a 10 yr old, twirling with his glove on his head. Baseball can be slow). There are going to be some "unknowns" who are pleasant surprises and others not so much. There are going to be a lot of kids out there who LOVE baseball, but just aren't very good, but still deserve a chance to play on that team. This is where Captain Chaos comes into the picture.
This kid is PASSIONATE about sports. Pretty much all sports, but none quite like baseball. Last week, he had a 20 minute chat about the San Diego Padres with a random soccer dad. I've never heard so many facts and I've never heard such perfect articulation from this kiddo with a severe speech delay. He can play fake baseball for hours. He will play with a plastic badminton racquet, he will play with a pool noodle, but in a real pinch, he will play with his incredible imagination. For HOURS.
We started his Youth Sports adventure with the Miracle League - an AMAZING adaptive baseball program. Each player is paired up with a youth 'buddy' who helps them as needed. Sometimes just on where to be during the game. With some kids, the buddies will help hold their athlete's hands on the bat and push their wheelchairs all around the bases. Sometimes they play catch in the outfield, other times duck-duck-goose. But if you ever want to see baseball as it is meant to be - families and community coming together on a Saturday for fun and sportsmanship and baseball - find a local Miracle League game to watch.
But eventually, Captain Chaos' development nudged him out of Miracle League and we thought we'd give Little League a try. Due to his unique disabilities, we've worked with our local Little League board and Player Agent (yep, unlike my title, this is an official LL position) to get him placed on a team where he can be most successful. That typically involves "knowing" the coach or at least a couple kids on the team. He is now in the age bracket/division with a tryout and draft. He still tries out like all the kids, but it's quite obvious that he will not be the 'surprise slugger' in the draft, so we've been fortunate to find a couple dads who have been willing to bring him on board as their "last pick". We are very open to his coaches about his disability and how he best responds to coaching (example - he has auditory processing disorder, so eventually, he can respond to a verbal command, but when he is learning, he responds much better to being shown rather than told). There's a lot more I could write about how to have a successful sports experience for a Special Needs child. Let's pause that for now.
This past spring, Captain Chaos joined a team coached by a dad we did not know. But through Turtle's soccer team, we knew one of the assistant coach dads and relatives of the head coach. The prior year, this kid was terrified of kid pitch, and even with some encouraging, patient coaches, got one connection to the ball on pitching machine, only in the final game. After some amazing patience by his coaches (including a very special Coach Grandpa who worked for countless hours with him, just on hitting), this kid struck out swinging in his first game against kid pitch. For those of you who know nothing about baseball, let me just say this was huge. Long story short, this team of 7-10 year olds ended up winning their playoff championship game and our Captain Chaos even contributed a hit and a run in the game. But that's not the important part of this story.
Yesterday, I got a call from his coach, inviting him to join his Fall Ball team. When I told Captain Chaos this after school, he had the BIGGEST smile on his face, and immediately said "Yes! My teammates need me. I am the MVP of cheering!" You see, while CC made a few hits this spring season, and not too many errors, his biggest contribution to the team was an important one - he was the most enthusiastic cheerleader at practices and in the dugout at games. He rallied the kids and the crowd (ok, the kids. the moms on this team did a GREAT job of rallying the crowd). He also made many new friends on this team. Most of these kids are a year or so younger than he is, but each of them helped him when he was struggling with getting his gear on, were patient with him when he was learning to catch, and were kind to him when his speech was unclear or when he got nervous and began to stutter, or when he freaked out if it started raining. This is certainly a testament to some great parenting. But it's also a testament to the culture of Youth Sports in our community that our child with Special Needs can find a place in this group of kids where he feels so important as the MVP of cheering (who gets a hit now and then).
So this fall, we will be running back and forth between Turtle's soccer games and Captain Chaos' baseball games watching them both have fun, play hard and swing for the fences (which in layman's terms means put it all out there...whether you're playing "the six" or the bench.)
"'Tis better to have swung at strike three and missed than to never have swung at all."
For our part, we've encouraged sports with our kids from an early age. But we are also putting away money in a college fund because we have no illusion that our kids will be doing anything professional with sports, unless it is from inside a press box or perhaps figuring out multi-state income allocations (likely scenario...we even have a family powerpoint on that topic).
A couple years ago, though, I found myself not-so-tongue-in-cheek signing my emails "Youth Sports Agent" as we navigated a situation with one son's soccer team. This fall, I'm finding myself navigating similar (if not so dramatic) waters, this time with our delightful Captain Chaos. And let me tell you...I NEVER would have thought he would be in a position of getting to choose which sport to play, and being "invited" to join a team.
But here's the deal - Youth Sports is WAY more than setting your tiny little kid up for a college scholarship or a huge payday. In fact, it's pretty much not that at all for almost every kid. When you Google the crazy amount of money we're paying, also check out the stats on how many little kids on the Saturday community ball field end up playing in college or the pros. Like three of them (that's my number...look it up while you're pretending to watch practice).
Youth Sports is about community. On any given weekend day, we can go to our local Sports Park and find a half dozen or more kids and parents who really know our kids. Families we trust and can call on when we're in a bind. Parents who our kids will seek out if they're lost in the park. Or when they are teenagers and aren't quite sure how to talk to Mom and Dad about something. Families who vacation together, backup childcare for each other, rush a little guy to the ER for head staples when Dad's on the golf course (true story). These are families who met through baseball, soccer, flag football, but who stay together now whether we are on the same field, same sport, same team or not.
Youth Sports is about goal setting, hard work and leadership. Turtle, our "natural" athlete, has been playing soccer since he was four, joining a club team as soon as he was able, but not starting on the "A" team. He was having fun (always our #1 question), but he also knew he wanted to move up. Eventually, he earned that spot, starting as basically "practice squad", but each year, he is setting goals for himself to improve, earn a starting spot, earn the coveted "six" position (I have no idea what that means, but he talked about it for twenty minutes after a recent practice. I think it may be the point guard of soccer). We've translated this into the classroom also - "I KNOW fractions are hard. But once upon a time, you couldn't shoot a layup. But you kept working on it and you now can with both hands." Teachers call this Growth Mindset. Coaches call it practice.
Youth Sports is about inclusion. My favorite and least favorite thing about Little League baseball is the tryout/draft. Is it crazy that 9 year olds are getting drafted? Yep. But is it crazy that because of the draft, the 8-10 teams come out relatively balanced? Nope. Every team has a slugger or two. Every team has the kid who would rather twirl around with his glove on his head. (ok, full disclosure, Turtle, our "athlete" has been spotted as a 10 yr old, twirling with his glove on his head. Baseball can be slow). There are going to be some "unknowns" who are pleasant surprises and others not so much. There are going to be a lot of kids out there who LOVE baseball, but just aren't very good, but still deserve a chance to play on that team. This is where Captain Chaos comes into the picture.
This kid is PASSIONATE about sports. Pretty much all sports, but none quite like baseball. Last week, he had a 20 minute chat about the San Diego Padres with a random soccer dad. I've never heard so many facts and I've never heard such perfect articulation from this kiddo with a severe speech delay. He can play fake baseball for hours. He will play with a plastic badminton racquet, he will play with a pool noodle, but in a real pinch, he will play with his incredible imagination. For HOURS.
We started his Youth Sports adventure with the Miracle League - an AMAZING adaptive baseball program. Each player is paired up with a youth 'buddy' who helps them as needed. Sometimes just on where to be during the game. With some kids, the buddies will help hold their athlete's hands on the bat and push their wheelchairs all around the bases. Sometimes they play catch in the outfield, other times duck-duck-goose. But if you ever want to see baseball as it is meant to be - families and community coming together on a Saturday for fun and sportsmanship and baseball - find a local Miracle League game to watch.
But eventually, Captain Chaos' development nudged him out of Miracle League and we thought we'd give Little League a try. Due to his unique disabilities, we've worked with our local Little League board and Player Agent (yep, unlike my title, this is an official LL position) to get him placed on a team where he can be most successful. That typically involves "knowing" the coach or at least a couple kids on the team. He is now in the age bracket/division with a tryout and draft. He still tries out like all the kids, but it's quite obvious that he will not be the 'surprise slugger' in the draft, so we've been fortunate to find a couple dads who have been willing to bring him on board as their "last pick". We are very open to his coaches about his disability and how he best responds to coaching (example - he has auditory processing disorder, so eventually, he can respond to a verbal command, but when he is learning, he responds much better to being shown rather than told). There's a lot more I could write about how to have a successful sports experience for a Special Needs child. Let's pause that for now.
This past spring, Captain Chaos joined a team coached by a dad we did not know. But through Turtle's soccer team, we knew one of the assistant coach dads and relatives of the head coach. The prior year, this kid was terrified of kid pitch, and even with some encouraging, patient coaches, got one connection to the ball on pitching machine, only in the final game. After some amazing patience by his coaches (including a very special Coach Grandpa who worked for countless hours with him, just on hitting), this kid struck out swinging in his first game against kid pitch. For those of you who know nothing about baseball, let me just say this was huge. Long story short, this team of 7-10 year olds ended up winning their playoff championship game and our Captain Chaos even contributed a hit and a run in the game. But that's not the important part of this story.
Yesterday, I got a call from his coach, inviting him to join his Fall Ball team. When I told Captain Chaos this after school, he had the BIGGEST smile on his face, and immediately said "Yes! My teammates need me. I am the MVP of cheering!" You see, while CC made a few hits this spring season, and not too many errors, his biggest contribution to the team was an important one - he was the most enthusiastic cheerleader at practices and in the dugout at games. He rallied the kids and the crowd (ok, the kids. the moms on this team did a GREAT job of rallying the crowd). He also made many new friends on this team. Most of these kids are a year or so younger than he is, but each of them helped him when he was struggling with getting his gear on, were patient with him when he was learning to catch, and were kind to him when his speech was unclear or when he got nervous and began to stutter, or when he freaked out if it started raining. This is certainly a testament to some great parenting. But it's also a testament to the culture of Youth Sports in our community that our child with Special Needs can find a place in this group of kids where he feels so important as the MVP of cheering (who gets a hit now and then).
So this fall, we will be running back and forth between Turtle's soccer games and Captain Chaos' baseball games watching them both have fun, play hard and swing for the fences (which in layman's terms means put it all out there...whether you're playing "the six" or the bench.)
"'Tis better to have swung at strike three and missed than to never have swung at all."
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