Published: September 04, 2008 01:16 am            

DeKAY: Sports has enough rewards

“In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.”

—Andy Warhol

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We love sports in America. Some might say we idolize sports and, by extension, we idolize the athletes who play them.

We don’t care if they are swimmers, runners, baseball players, golfers or football players. We love them all when they win. Whether you are looking at a box of cereal, the sports section, television or the news, athletes and their accomplishments are everywhere. For many of us they have become the hero figures we need but are unable to find anywhere else.

In the past several weeks Jeffersonville and our neighboring city Louisville have experienced the best and the worst of times regarding young athletes. A few weeks ago the Jeff/GRC Little League team won the right to participate in the Little League World Series. Jeffersonville celebrated in earnest for these wee warriors of the baseball field. Even the mayor acknowledged the benefits that a winning sports team can bring to their city. “What they did for the city, we couldn’t have done for $100, 000,” said Mayor Tom Galligan.

This week we also sadly read the headlines about Max Gilpin, a 15-year-old football player for Pleasure Ridge Park High School in Louisville, who collapsed on the practice field after suffering a heat stroke, according a Jefferson County, Ky., deputy coroner, although no autopsy was performed. Gilpin died three days after his collapse of complications related to the heat stroke, the coroner said.

This is an awful thing to have happened, a terrible accident. It made me think about how far we have come in celebrating and celeb-ratizing our young athletes.

Twenty years ago, it was unheard of to air high school football games on local TV stations. Local coaches and players enjoyed some celebrity among their fellow teachers and students, but rarely did local news programs do much more than give the winning scores of local high school games. Now many high school football games are attended by agents looking for future NFL stars.

Many high school games are now aired on local channels, and the coaches and players have become recognizable to many. Does the increased visibility of high school athletes put more pressure on coaches and players to perform; to push past limits that otherwise would not be breached? Have we pushed our kids to perform because we as parents want to live vicariously through our children? Are we the ones who want winners while our kids make the sacrifices?

A 2001 study of young athletes between the ages of 15 and 35, published by the American Heart Association, said a young, competitive athlete is more than twice as likely to experience sudden death as their non-athletic counterparts. This does not mean young people should not become school athletes, but it may point to a need for more careful screening of young people to spot health problems before they enter a high school sports program.

What about the pressure our young people feel to perform? I know personally of two student athletes who take prescription acid-reduction medication to ease stomach cramps with which they are often stricken. Is this symptomatic of the pressure we put on our kids to compete? These kids go to practices, games and take summer clinics during the off season. Sometimes it seems all they do is compete.

Don’t get me wrong, I think that participating in sports builds character and enhances the ability to be a “team player.” It teaches children that hard work on the field pays off in games won. Children learn practice really does make perfect and dedication to a common goal makes that goal more achievable.

If you have attended a few Little League games with your child, you have witnessed the overzealous, screaming, demanding, want-to-live-my-life-through-my-kid parents that think losing is a personal affront to them. They scream at their child, at the coach, at the other players or anybody else who gets between them and their over-the-top obsession to win.

While we cheer the winners and give accolades to the victors, we must remember that behind every game, on every high school playing field and at every practice, is a young person who strives to do well, is doing the best that he or she can and deserves to be honored for hanging in there. Most Little League teams won’t make it to the Little League World Series (and neither will their coaches.

Most young swimmers who are swimming their heart out week after week will never become an Olympic gold medalist. Most of these kids will never be honored with a parade or be on a riverfront stage, but still they play, they practice and they do the best they can. And for all of us that should be enough. That should be enough.

“Pressure is a word that is misused in our vocabulary. When you start thinking of pressure, it’s because you’ve started to think of failure.” —Tommy Lasorda

“Thoughts from the Hungry Side of Daybreak” are written by Peggy DeKay of Clark County, a business and freelance writer. She can be reached at pldekay@insightbb.com.

        

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