Pandemic is Jeopardizing Youth Sports — In the Present and Future
By Ken Reed
From the time I was seven years old, I participated in various organized youth sports on a year-round basis. In the spring and summer it was baseball. In the fall, football. And in the winter, basketball. As I moved into my high school years, I added golf and tennis. At that point, I often was involved in two sports, to one degree or another, at the same time.
Sadly, thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, that kind of sports activity is nearly impossible for young people today — especially for kids in poorer communities.
Tom Farrey, director of the Sports and Society Program at the Aspen institute believes we’re in a “moment of historic crisis.”
Youth sports leagues are on hold. Community recreation centers are shut down. High school sports are being delayed, and in some cases skipped this year. Overall, youth sports participation is down significantly from a year ago at this time.
“Everything is closed down,” says Tyrone Riley, boys varsity basketball coach at Jordan High School in the Watts area of South Los Angeles and a youth sports parent.
It’s not only indoor gyms and recreation centers that are closed. In many parts of the country playgrounds and outdoor basketball courts are blocked off by fences, safety hazard tape or locked gates.
According to research by the Aspen Institute’s Project Play initiative, time spent on youth sports practices is down 54% during the pandemic and game time is down 59% as of September 2020 compared to June 2020. The average child is spending approximately 6.5 hours less on sports per week during Covid-19 relative to pre-pandemic levels.
The youth sports opportunity gap between poorer communities like Watts and middle-class and wealthy communities — which was already large pre-Covid — is growing during the pandemic. Many suburban communities have youth sports clubs that have started operations up again. Those sports opportunities typically don’t exist in communities like Watts.
The scary part for the future is that many kids have moved on to other activities, including sedentary activities like video games. According to the Aspen Institute study, 30% of young people likely won’t return to sports. That could negatively impact their physical and mental health moving forward.
“A lot of kids have checked out of sports,” according to Farrey.
The negative ramifications of this pandemic on our youth could last a while.
— Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans
Sports Forum Podcast
Episode #6 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: The Need for Quality Physical Education in Our Schools is Greater Than Ever – The guest is Clayton Ellis, a SHAPE America board member, former national physical education teacher of the year, and one of our nation’s leading advocates for getting our young people to be more physically active.
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Episode #5 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Youth Sports with Positive Coaching Alliance Founder Jim Thompson – Thompson started Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) in 1998 to help create a movement to transform the culture of youth sports from “win-at-all-costs” to a positive, character-building experience.
Episode #4 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: The Biggest Issue in Sports Today? Brain Trauma – The guest is Patrick Hruby, a journalist who has done extensive research and in-depth writing on the topic of brain trauma in sports, most notably football.
Episode #3 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Coaching Styles with Sports Sociologist Jay Coakley – The guest is veteran sports sociologist Jay Coakley, a former college athlete who went on to earn a Ph.D. in Sociology from Notre Dame.
Episode #2 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: College & High School Athletics: Where Do We Go From Here? The guest is John Gerdy, a former college athlete and NCAA and SEC administrator who became a sports reformer later in his career.
Episode #1: The inaugural episode of League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast. The topic is Title IX and equal opportunity in sports. The guest is long-time Title IX and civil rights activist Donna Lopiano.
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.
Sports & Torts – Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans – at the American Museum of Tort Law
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.
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