Championship High School Football Coaches Promote Multi-Sport Participation
By Ken Reed
It was refreshing to read this week about two highly successful high school football coaches promoting the positives of multi-sport participation on the part of their athletes and how they detest the recent trend toward one-sport specialization at the youth and high school levels.
Rod Sherman of Valor Christian High School and Jay Madden of Pomona High School were at a press conference talking about their championship football game in Colorado’s 5A classification this Saturday. The questions were about the matchup but then a reporter asked them what they thought about multi-sport athletes and the trend towards single sport specialization at the high school level.
Here are their responses — refreshing responses I might add:
Rod Sherman, head coach Valor Christian High School:
“I think one of the things that’s worst about our youth sports culture, is the early push for specialization. I think that’s why you see more student-athletes burn out as they get older. I look out here at our young men and I see a young man that’s a scholarship lacrosse player to the University of Delaware. And I would actually encourage that it’s not just about multiple sports. It’s about multiple activities. We have a young man on our team that’s in the school play. I see many young men travel across the world on mission trips.
“I see some of our coaches who were able to play at the highest level, in the NFL. And none of them woke up everyday and just thought about football and worried about football. They were able to be young men that grew in wisdom and stature in multiple sports and activities. And I think that kids should do that more. But I think, unfortunately, there’s a push from, at times, outside trainers, parents, to specialize earlier.”
Jay Madden, head coach Pomona High School:
“I agree 100 percent. I look out here at my players I have here, and all of them play more than one sport. And if I could get them to play three, I would. You’re only young once. Life is all about experiences, and experiences is not lifting in the weight room. … (It’s about) basketball practice, or wrestling practice, or track. Obviously, my brother’s a baseball coach, so I love all the other sports. I wish this club sports thing would disappear, but obviously we know it’s not going to.
“With all of the scholarship money out there … that everyone thinks you’re going to get by specializing — great athletes are great athletes. You don’t create a great athlete, folks. It doesn’t happen. If you’ve got the talent, you’ve got the talent. Christian [McCaffrey, the Valor Christian graduate who is now a Heisman Trophy candidate at Stanford] played three sports, didn’t he? And he’s probably going to make money playing sports someday. But most people are not. So why not play as many sports as you can while you’re young?”
— Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans
Sports Forum Podcast
Episode #29 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: The Honorable Tom McMillen Visits League of Fans’ Sports Forum – McMillen is a former All-American basketball player, Olympian, Rhodes Scholar and U.S. Congressman, and has a long involvement with the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sport (now called the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition). We discuss the state of college athletics today, given the pressures of NIL, the transfer portal, sports gambling and huge media contracts. McMillen then provides great perspective on the poor state of physical fitness our young people are experiencing today.
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Episode #28 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: A Chat With Mano Watsa, a Leading Basketball and Life Educator – Watsa is President of PGC Basketball, the largest education basketball camp in the world. We discuss problems in youth sports today.
Episode #27 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Kids’ Sports: How We Can Take Back the Game and Restore Quality Family Time In the Process – Linda Flanagan is author of “Take Back the Game: How Money and Mania Are Ruining Kids’ Sports and Why It Matters.” We discuss how commercialized and professionalized youth sports are hurting kids and their families.
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Media
"How We Can Save Sports" author Ken Reed appears on Fox & Friends to explain how there's "too much adult in youth sports."
Ken Reed appears on Mornings with Gail from KFKA Radio in Colorado to discuss bad parenting in youth athletics.
“Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Ken Reed on The Morning Show from Wisconsin Public Radio
Ken Reed appears on KGNU Community Radio in Colorado (at 02:30) to discuss equality in sports and Title IX.
Ken Reed appears on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour (at 38:35) to discuss his book The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place, and to talk about some current sports issues.
- Reed Appears on Ralph Nader Radio Hour League of Fans’ sports policy director, Ken Reed, Ralph Nader and the New York Times’ Tyler Kepner discussed a variety of sports issues on Nader’s radio show as well as Reed’s updated book, How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan. Reed's book was released in paperback in February, and has a new introduction and several updated sections.
League of Fans is a sports reform project founded by Ralph Nader to fight for the higher principles of justice, fair play, equal opportunity and civil rights in sports; and to encourage safety and civic responsibility in sports industry and culture.
Vanderbilt Sport & Society - On The Ball with Andrew Maraniss with guest Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director for League of Fans and author of How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan
Sports & Torts – Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans – at the American Museum of Tort Law
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