The Wild Wild West Of Youth Sports During a Pandemic
By Ken Reed
While most school fall sports seasons across the country have either been cancelled, postponed, or allowed to continue under heavy restrictions due to COVID-19, youth sports have — for the most part — continued on with few changes.
Youth sports organizations have a ton of freedom to do what they want in this country. There is no national youth sports organization with any policy clout. There is no national youth sports policy. There is no national sports minister overseeing sports (like many countries have). In the United States, youth sports leagues and tournaments are free to look for any loopholes in local COVID safety policies they can find in order to keep the games going — and the revenue flowing for youth sports entrepreneurs.
“There are loopholes,” said a frustrated D.C. soccer dad whose son is sitting out his travel team’s games to keep his vulnerable family members safe. “And this virus loves loopholes.”
For the most part, club teams and elite travel teams have continued on unabated, pandemic be damned. If per chance a given youth sports team’s county or state limits youth sports gatherings and activities, these teams will often travel to counties and states that are allowing youth sports competitions.
“He played about 60 games this summer,” said one baseball mom about her son’s team.
Kids (and their parents) that decide to sit out this youth sports season because of family concerns about spreading the coronavirus to vulnerable family members worry that they will fall behind their teammates who continue to compete. It’s not an unfounded fear. Kids across the country have been dropped from their elite club teams for sitting out this season due to COVID-19.
It’s a strange situation. In many cases, kids aren’t allowed to go to school due to COVID safety policies, but are allowed to gather in fairly large groups to practice and play games.
“How come we can’t send our kids to school but this (playing youth sports) is okay?” asked one parent.
Good question. Good question indeed.
— 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.
Episode #26 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: How Can We Fix Youth Sports? – John O’Sullivan is Founder and CEO of Changing the Game Project and author of “Changing the Game: The Parents Guide to Raising Happy, High Performing Athletes and Giving Youth Sports Back to Our Kids.”
Episode #25 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Physical Education Should Be a Critical Component of K-12 School Design – Michael Horn is co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation.
Episode #24 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Mental Health and Athletes: Ending the Stigma – Nathan Braaten and Taylor Ricci are the founders of Dam Worth It, a non-profit created to end the stigma around mental health at colleges and universities through sport, storytelling, and community creation.
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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