Playing Time

So this morning before practice, one of the parents of a kid on the freshman team, sent her son into the gym to get his coach to go speak to her.

First mistake....don't get your child involved.

I happened to walk by as she was saying that every child should get a fair advantage to particpate on the team. I often feel torn on this issue, but I also feel that there are times in life when children can not expect to get everything they want. First of all, the team is not very good to begin with, so it can't say much for this kid's talent. They try to be fair and keep a decent amount of kids on the team, but then that means that not all of them get to play all the time.

My issue with parents getting involved is that I feel that kids have lost that "work hard" mentality to earn a spot on a team. They run home, tell their parents they are not playing, and the parents tell the kids that they don't understand. Our football team is a perfect example of this. The reason why they lose every game is all the coaches fault. It has nothing to do with the fact that their kids find excuses not to practice, that they don't always work hard, or even more so, that they just aren't as good as they think they are.

I just feel that so much has changed in the mentality of athletics. Instead of always complaining to the coach, why not teach your child that if you are not getting what you want, then work harder. Show the coaches that you deserve to be playing over someone else. Everyone is so quick to make a phone call to fire a coach, or reprimand them, or complain that their child deserves to be the starter, but shouldn't they instead be teaching their child perserverance, toughness, and a good work ethic?