— Dear Athletic Support: I feel like a lot of your columns lately have been putting youth sports down. Every parent who writes in seems to have some major complaint. Some problem they have with their child’s coach or practice schedule or whatever their latest issue is. In our house, we love sports. We live and…
Athletic Support: ‘Volunteering at Tournament No Fun’
— Dear Athletic Support: My son is an 8th grade basketball player, which basically means he’s a JV player for the junior high. Anyway, our town just hosted a big, preseason basketball tournament. My son’s coach made all the junior high players come to the tournament and serve as “managers.” That was his exact term. I…
Athletic Support: ‘Not Enough Help With Booster Club’
— Dear Athletic Support: My daughter just started playing the piano. We’ve had the piano in our house since she was a baby, but now, well into her junior year in high school, she’s just decided to start plinking away at the thing. She’s not taking lessons. She just sits there at the stool and…
Athletic Support: ‘Hoping My Son Quits Basketball’
— Dear Athletic Support: Hello again! I’m the same dad — “That Dad”—who wrote in last week asking about tiered practice times for players who aren’t starting. Great response to my question, by the way. I followed your advice and went to meet with the coach. As you guessed, the coach wouldn’t budge, and now my…
Athletic Support: ‘When Should My Son Start Football?’
— Dear Athletic Support: My son is two years old and will turn three in just a few months. He is obviously too young to be playing competitive sports, but he sure does love the football book we’ve been reading before bed! The book and the constant stream of football games on our television has…
Athletic Support: ‘Son Wants to Join Football Team Midway Through Season’
— Dear Athletic Support: We kept my son out of 7th grade football at the start of this year. Think back to August. You remember what was happening, don’t you? COVID everywhere. The Delta variant. Yeah. We weren’t about to let him play a full-contact sport in the middle of all that mess. But now things…
Athletic Support: ‘Auditions Getting in the Way of Volleyball’
— Dear Athletic Support: So, my daughter wants to audition for the school play but has a volleyball game the same day as auditions. She’s in high school. She’s been playing volleyball since she was nine, but she is really interested in the play this year for some reason. It seems really strange to me.…
Athletic Support: ‘Foul Language on the Sideline’
— Dear Athletic Support: I work the concession stand at the high school football games. It’s something I do out of service. My son is a junior linebacker for the team. I know it takes a village for these games to go off without a hitch, so I try to do my part. Lately, though, it’s…
Athletic Support: Hunting or Football?
— Dear Athletic Support: My son is a sophomore on the high school football team. His first game is the Friday before Labor Day. There’s no chance he’s getting to play, not for the varsity squad, but his coach is requiring all players to come back for practice on Monday even though there is no school.…
Athletic Support: ‘Inhalers and Bibbers; It’s Football Season, Y’all!’
— Dear Athletic Support: My son is going into seventh grade and has severe asthma. This will be his first football season. He has an inhaler but I don’t think he’s using it. I honestly think he’s just hiding it in his locker. It’s getting really hot where we live and I’m more than a little…
Athletic Support: ‘Laundry Stinks’
— Dear Athletic Support: Back when I was a kid, I remember my football coaches always washing all of our gear. It’s not like that anymore. My daughter is in junior high volleyball and we have to wash all of her stuff every night. It’s such a hassle. We can’t just not wash her stuff and…
Athletic Support: ‘Fit More Important Than Price When It Comes to Cleats’
— Dear Athletic Support: How much should I spend on a pair of football cleats? The prices I’ve found range from fifty bucks well up into the hundreds. I want my son to be properly equipped, but do I really have to fork out all that money, or is this more of a “style” thing? My…
Athletic Support: ‘Facebook Ads and too Many Practices’
— Dear Athletic Support: My son saw a Facebook ad for this basketball training tool that I think is ridiculous. It’s basically just a plastic hand attached to an elastic band. The hand covers the player’s face, simulating a defender, I guess? When he showed me the ad, I literally laughed out loud. I thought…
Athletic Support: ‘Coach Pushing Vaccine on Players’
— Dear Athletic Support: My son’s senior football season is right around the corner. He’s so excited, but also a little scared. He’s scared because of the new surge in COVID cases happening in our state. I must say, I’m a little worried too. I’m worried because I’ve seen how hard he’s worked for this year.…
Athletic Support: ‘Youth Sports Like a Cult’
— Dear Athletic Support: I wasn’t really into sports but my kid wanted to play, and now she really loves it. Loves all the camaraderie, the friend group. I like seeing her work toward a goal and achieve it. But why does every sport have to be year-round? Is there not a way to do…
Athletic Support: ‘Coach’s Pregame Speech Too Crazy for Kids’
— Dear Athletic Support: I recently overheard my son’s travel-league baseball coach giving the team a pre-game pep talk. This speech started off fine, but then ventured into the “success-at-all-costs” sort of rhetoric that you see in sports movies. I was flabbergasted. Here was a full-grown man, shouting and slobbering to a bunch of 9-year-old boys…