How Youth Sports Desensitizes Us

No, a game that starts at 9PM shouldn't just be "how it is" in youth sports.

A bit of happy news, we got a new puppy! Please welcome Stitch to the world. I’m telling you all this because I think he’s pretty cute, and who doesn’t like to look at a cute puppy?

I didn’t really consider how Stitch would fit into the youth sports maze that is our lives. But this pup has a lot of baseball and soccer and basketball watching in his future. Any tips on keeping Stitch happy while being dragged to sports is much appreciated. Probably can’t just give him an iPad for five hours … unless I smother it in cheese whiz!

Before we proceed, Stitch did want me to tell you all that he would appreciate you subscribing to Good Game if you haven’t already. Woof Woof.

So, I’ve been working on a couple of features for you guys, one of which is a little off the beaten path. Part of this Good Game writing process is sending you various types of youth sports pieces that I think are relevant and/or intriguing and seeing if you agree. Those features will be coming but first a youth sports revelation that I can’t not write about.

When my older son was 8 and first playing travel baseball, his team played a tourney game that started at 8:30 PM. Some parents were annoyed for obvious reasons like the fact that most 8-year-olds still have bedtimes before 10:30 PM. I wasn’t at first. My kid was a night owl and would have been happy playing baseball at 2AM if it were an option. Plus, it felt so cool for them playing under the lights at a baseball megaplex. The wonderment and excitement were palpable. But then they started playing and kids were yawning and I thought, This is really fucking stupid.

But we stayed on the travel baseball hamster wheel and four years later, he’s played in more games that start at 8:30 PM than I can count. Over time, it’s become less of a nuisance because that’s just how these tournaments are run. You get used to the cadence. Plus, the kids are getting older. It becomes normal.

This weekend my older son’s team is playing in a tournament that’s about 90 minutes away. It’s just like any other of these travel tourneys. Any team can sign up until it’s “filled.” There’s no qualification other than paying the (hefty) fee. Teams play two games Saturday, and at least one, but up to three, on Sunday depending on seeding and performance. Some of the Sunday games are scheduled for 8AM which would be fine if it weren’t for the fact that there are three different Saturday games scheduled for 9PM. Yes, 9PM. Six poor teams play at 9PM. I’m sorry, that’s insane.

I don’t exactly know why 9PM has me riled me more than an 8:30PM start. My kid’s team lucked out and plays at “normal” times so it’s not personal. Perhaps it’s because the end time is likely within the same hour as midnight. Perhaps it’s sympathy for the soon-to-be-sleep-deprived kids that are playing that late and the soon-to-be-sleep-deprived siblings who are dragged along.

I was curious, are other sports this cruel with scheduling? I already knew hockey practices often run in the wee hours due to a lack of ice time. So I mentioned this tournament (ok, vented about it) on a Facebook group I love full of awesome youth sports mamas and suggested it’s a money grab. I asked who could relate to these late hours.

Most of the responses were yes, their kids often experience similar late start times in softball/AAU basketball/baseball/hockey. Some expressed mild annoyance. But, to my surprise, most pushed back on the notion that these late times were ridiculous. Some even laughed at my assertion that it’s a money grab because they are packing in too many teams. It’s just how it works. They just want to let as many teams as possible have the opportunity to compete.

The opportunity? As if these tournament outfits are rooted in altruism. I don’t think these tourney directors are evil by any means. They are running a business and providing an infrastructure with fields and umps that is significantly harder to achieve at the league level. But…so many of them have become yes, money grabs, and those of us immersed in this world are so desensitized we hardly notice.

In this weekend’s aforementioned tournament, they allowed TWENTY ONE 13U teams to enter. Again, this isn’t a special tourney like Cooperstown or anything other than a standalone event that will look identical to whatever the tourney was at this location last weekend and will be there next weekend. That is six teams that won’t finish until 11PM and TWENTY ONE teams that may have to stay up until 11 to find out what time they are playing Sunday which could be 8AM. If you’re a team that is 90 minutes away, you might find out at 11PM that you have to wake up at 5AM to hit the road by 5:30 to make warmups. Your kid will go to sleep knowing that the extra early wakeup call is a distinct possibility. And if you’re one of the teams that played at 9PM the night before, you better live nearby or get a hotel.

This is not healthy. This is not ok. This is a money grab. This is the kind of extreme scheduling that will inevitably make the affected kids tired and cranky heading into the school week. Sports science like the importance of proper circadian rhythm is completely tossed aside. And for what?

These tourneys could cap entries at, say, 14 teams instead of 21, making the last game at 6:30 and still raking in plenty of profit. But alas.

One of my missions with Good Game is if I’m going to vent I better offer a solution. Sadly, the choices here are limited. I see only two options assuming we want to keep our kids playing high-level sports.

1. Go with the flow and hope the crazy scheduling is few and far between.

2. If your kid is joining a new program, ask about their tournament philosophy. Do they request game times? Will they enter tourneys that have smaller caps and therefore don’t need to run games too late if they even exist?

At the very least, I hope you add greedy scheduling to the list of youth sports ills we shouldn’t consider normal.