This Week in Youth Sports: 👏👏👏 for this Minnesota Rec League
It's Friday, which means it's time to bounce around the never boring world of youth sports.
Hi, and Happy St. Patrick’s Day to those who celebrate. Hope you enjoy all the green decorations we put up just for you! 🍀
I received some nice feedback on last week’s inaugural roundup so let’s do this every Friday, shall we? There are so many ills swirling around youth sports but so much goodness as well. Let’s start there.
Why St. Paul, Minn is offering youth sports for free
Very cool news from the St. Paul parks and recreation department. They are thought to be the only parks department in the US using American Rescue Plan funds to make youth sports free, in this case for the next three years. It’s all an effort to increase participation rates which dropped dramatically during and after Covid. The Aspen Institute (who will be frequently cited in this newsletter) reported that 27.8 percent of kids who played sports before the pandemic have lost interest. The number jumps to 32.7 percent for Black kids.
So far, so good in St. Paul. Participation rates in the city’s recreation soccer and basketball programs are up to 1500 kids, double the number from last year. Parks and rec officials rightfully tout rec sports as a low-key, low-pressure way to return to playing sports, unlike the travel circuit which is as bonkers as ever.
Bowling is a sport and your kid might want to try it
A junior bowler in Missouri is trying to inspire younger kids to try out the sport (yes, sport) of bowling after hitting a 7-10 split. Emma Shaner has been bowling competitively and successfully for eight years and is slated to bowl collegiately at Columbia College starting in the fall. Shaner is hoping her success - she’s helped her team win a boatload of tourneys and earned $10,000 in scholarship funds - will help kids realize that there are ample opportunities in bowling.
Good thing Joe Burrow became an unflappable NFL QB and not the next Dexter
Not super-duper youth sports-y but a fun story about Joe Burrow on the Caps Off podcast. The whole story, including its presentation by Wingo, is worth a watch. But in summary, after 9-year-old Burrow led his AAU basketball team to a miraculous comeback, scoring nine points in 30 seconds, his coach, a sociology professor at the University of Ohio who studied crime told Burrow’s parents that their son has even-keeled attributes seen in both policeman and serial offenders.
Elsewhere in youth sports
Sad but familiar story in The Guardian about all the particularly egregious ways a mega-hockey organization in Toronto is profiting off its young athletes….Bravo to this CPR-trained mom who saved her daughter’s life after she went into cardiac arrest during a cheerleading competition….A third-grade girls basketball team in Paramus, NJ is on a 40-game win streak after parents made a travel team due to lack of other local playing options for the girls.…Sweet piece on the mom of a 10-year old soccer player who was on life support as a newborn and had to have a heart transplant at four months old. Her soccer league is sponsored by Seattle Children’s, the same hospital where she got her heart….A powerful op-ed from a lifelong Ohio trans athlete and coach fighting Ohio’s House Bill 6 which would ban transgender women and girls from playing sports.
And finally, a dose of beautiful sportsmanship to kick off the weekend. ❤️
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