May 9, 2025 • 32 mins
according to the sports industry there's a loss of 50% participation in kids sports at the rec level. The culprit ...travel teams.
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Why Johnny Hates Sports is broadcast live Fridays at 11AM ET on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Why Johnny Hates Sports is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
Why Johnny Hates Sports Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:21):
W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
The National Alliance for Youth Sports was born out of
a desire to bring order to the world of organized
sports for children in America. While for the most part,
children have a great experience playing sports, far too often
parents and coaches lose perspective. This program is aimed at
bringing some of America's best experts to talk about what
(00:47):
we can do to change the atmosphere of win at
all costs and parent poor behavior to one that focuses
on children having a positive learning experience through sports. Here's
our host, Fred Ang, the founder of the National Alliance
for Youth Sports.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Good morning everybody, and welcome to the I think this
is now the fifteenth episode. I can't believe it. Of
why Johnny h Sports? And have you ever lost your
cell phone? I lost my cell phone this morning. I'm
panically running around looking for got my next door neighbor
(01:24):
to come and help me. And guess where it ends up.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
My wife and my daughter on their way from West
Palm Beach to Charleston, North or South Carolina and it's.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
In the car. So anyway, with that, I introduced this
morning our program which is about travel teams in youth sports.
And we couldn't have a better person to lead off
this four part series talking about travel teams.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
And her name is Misty Adams. And let me tell
you about Misty. She has I'm looking down here at
first of all, she's a board member of the National
Alliance for Youth Sports, and then she's a certified Youth
Sport administrator. But then she is a superintendent of the
National Trails Park District in Ohio, which is in Springfield, Ohio.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
And I know you probably might remember Springfield, Ohio, but
I'm not going to bring that up.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
So with that, let me welcome Misty Adams. Morning, Misty,
Good morning, Fred.
Speaker 5 (02:31):
How are you.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
I'm doing great? And I want to thank you very
much for being on the show. Like I mentioned, you
are leading a hitter in this whole thing. So tell
me something very briefly about the district that you're the superintendent.
Speaker 6 (02:50):
Well, I'm from National Trail Parks Recreation District in the
Clark County Park District. We oversee all of Clark County
in Ohio. Yes, Springfield High does fall into that, and
it's been an interesting year here in Springfield. But we
have multiple soccer fields, softball fields, an aquatic center, baseball fields,
(03:12):
nature parks, historical parks. So we kind of do a
little bit of everything here in our department.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
Yeah, doing everything you talk about, all the fields and
park areas and whatnot. I mean, I go back quite
a ways to where recreational sports was seeing ball fields
being leased by local parent groups and whatnot. And then
all of a sudden, you know, we start to see
(03:40):
those fields are filled with just recreational programs. You see
out there, these elite coaches and these.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Elite players and their parents. What you're taking all of that?
As a recreation superintendent, I've.
Speaker 6 (03:57):
Been doing this for quite a few years, so I
have seen the change from everything was recreation everybody just
goes and plays in their neighborhood.
Speaker 5 (04:07):
I have played sports my whole life.
Speaker 6 (04:10):
When I was younger and played sports, the travel team
was we traveled from one town to the next next
door and played an all star game. What I have
seen now is I truly believe there's a need for
a select program or a travel program for kids that
do want to take the next step. But it's kind
(04:32):
of starting to turn in my opinion that.
Speaker 5 (04:36):
That travel has become the new recreation league.
Speaker 6 (04:39):
That there are no longer the neighborhood teams where the
kids all get together, go to the same school, play together,
can ride their bikes to the fields for practices. That
has drastically changed over the last twenty years.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Well what does that do? I mean, it takes the
value of what recreational sports are all about. With kids
that are out there, they're just coming there and the
parents sign them up for whatever little league support that
happens to be, and they expect them to go out
and have fun with their friends and whatnot.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
And now with all of that, like you say, it's changing,
and what what do you suppose drove all this to happen.
Speaker 5 (05:21):
I believe there's a few different things. One, it's the
for the parents to be able to say, well, my
child's on a travel team or my child on a
select team kind of sounds more exotic, gives more credibility.
I guess to.
Speaker 6 (05:36):
A league that that my kids good enough, plays hard enough.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
I've taught my kid well enough to be on a
travel team.
Speaker 6 (05:46):
And when they when they first started years ago, again,
I believe there were that those group of kids that
do need the next level, that are a little more advanced,
that are a little more competitive. But now it's kind
of become I always laugh and say, you know, from
select sports to club sports, because if you have enough money,
you can join the club and they'll find a spot
(06:06):
for you somewhere, which is great. I hear all kinds
of kids love them and building memories and things like that,
But the time commitment. A lot of parents I don't
think they understand the huge time commitment and the financial
commitment it takes for those And when I'm finding a
lot of our travel select programs, maybe my coaches that
(06:28):
coached for me in the recreation department last year that
are now moved up to the travel or whatever, and
the fee has increased, you know tenfold, but they're same coach,
same fields. They're just traveling further away to play teams.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
You know, when I wrote the book Why Johnny Hates Sports,
one of the things I said in there the people
ask of what drives parents to do what they're doing
with their kids in sports, and a couple of these
the said was, it's ego and greed. And the ego
(07:03):
part of it is something you touched on a minute ago.
You know, my kid is now he's not just arect player.
He's not just out there playing with these little kids
that don't really know how to play. My kid is
really an elite player. And then the other part of
it is greed. I mean having all the money that
they have to put into it.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
I mean I have a friend of mine that probably
spends five thousand dollars a year just to travel around,
and that's kind of really hurt a family budget unless
you got a boatload of money.
Speaker 6 (07:40):
Yeah, they're only paying five thousand dollars a year, They're
getting off pretty cheap. I've heard of families that pay ten, fifteen,
twenty thousand dollars a year and something that we just
had some school levies up here in OHIOI how we
fund our schools are a little weird, but some school
levies and it always amazes me the people who won't
be willing to pay, you know, out of their taxes
(08:01):
one hundred and fifty dollars a year to support their schools,
but those same people are paying ten, fifteen, twenty thousand
dollars a season for their kid to play sports. It's
in my mind, is kind of like where has our
priorities gone?
Speaker 5 (08:17):
That we're telling kids our schools aren't worth one hundred
dollars a year.
Speaker 6 (08:21):
But we'll let you go play baseball for you know,
five thousand dollars.
Speaker 5 (08:26):
And so it's kind of a.
Speaker 6 (08:29):
Our priorities have shifted of what we think our kids need.
I don't know that we've ever stopped to think and
ask our kids what they want. I try to ask
a lot of kids, you know, what do you want?
They want to play with their friends, they want to
have fun, they want to get out and do stuff,
they want to learn new things. A lot of kids.
(08:50):
I was very fortunate, you know, my daughter had the
opportunity to play travel ball. We were ready for to
play some and she said, you know what, Mom, I'd
rather on the weekends go to the lake and swim.
I'd rather hang out with my friends on the weekend.
I don't want to be traveling every weekend to go
play a sport. I want to play sports just because
I enjoy them. So that kind of opened my eyes
(09:10):
because I was kind of like, oh, if my daughter's
not playing you know, the elite volleyball, she's not going
to keep up with her friends or all that stuff.
So I've kind of seen it from I also coach volleyball,
so I've seen it from a coaching aspect, a youth
sports and interestrator aspect, and a parent aspect. And it's
there's a fine line that you have to walk between
(09:31):
all of those.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
Yeah, you use some word that I remember using so
many times talking about parents, and that's to bodycariously living
through your child. Some of the things that you just
said sounded like you were vicariously living through your child. Yeah,
it's hard not to, that's right, it's absolutely you know,
it's kind of like a disease that we all.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Have is you know, when our kids play sports. You know,
our kids, we wanted them in everything.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
My sport was wrestling in high school and college and
you know, yeah, I had three of my kids at
the wrestled.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Did they want to? I think so?
Speaker 4 (10:17):
But you know, the big question I have many times
is that here you have a six year old, and
that six year old you determine many times, most times
that that Billy or Mary is going to play little league, baseball, softball,
whatever sport it is.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
We never asked them. We never say, all right, I'm
going to give you a list of things.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
I'm going to give you art and music and drama, sports,
and what check off one of those and tell tell
us what you want to do. I think if parents
did that, it would help tremendously for them to be
able to say, maybe Billy is not an athlete, so yeah,
(11:06):
what do you think?
Speaker 6 (11:08):
We again, at National Trail, we are a multi programming
type of thing, and we just hired a person. She's
been there for about a year now, and she is
very artistic, very arts and crafts oriented, and I was
actually just talking to her this morning. I spoke to
a group of fifth and sixth graders yesterday about what
they want from parks and recreation, what they see, and
(11:31):
over half of.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
Them were like, I really like art and I want
to do drawings and things.
Speaker 6 (11:34):
So it's it's been interesting for me for the past
few years to see the transformation that we're not just
a sports league at Naturra Trail, that kids are loving
arts and crafts and they want to have time to
do that, and they want to have time to be
in the band.
Speaker 5 (11:48):
They want to have time to just be a kid.
Speaker 6 (11:51):
And I think so often, you know, the kids are like, oh, yeah,
I really enjoy travel baseball. But they're hearing the parents
at the hotels, sitting down in the lobbies or whatever, going, oh,
this is cosy.
Speaker 5 (12:03):
You know, this is our family vacation.
Speaker 6 (12:05):
This year, we can't afford to go on to family
vacation because we had to come to this.
Speaker 5 (12:09):
The kids hear that, and they know that, Oh, I
don't want.
Speaker 6 (12:11):
To say I don't want to do this because my
parents are put not necessarily directly to the kid, but
kids hear things. I see a lot of memes on
Facebook or Instagram or something that are funny and it's
you know, it's like the baseball mom and she's got
you know, luggage and stuff and all this, or the
baseball mom's vacation, the baseball dad's vacation and it just
(12:32):
kind of joking, kind of poking at we do spend
thousands and thousands of dollars on our kids' sports, to
where what could.
Speaker 5 (12:39):
We be doing with that else?
Speaker 6 (12:41):
Whise, you know, could we be going to Disney World,
Could we be going to the lake to fish? Could
we be going, you know, to Grandma's house in Kentucky
or anything like that.
Speaker 5 (12:51):
But that so much has been put into that.
Speaker 6 (12:53):
Sport that that child's kind of afraid to say, oh,
I don't want to do this anymore, because I've heard
how mom and dad have got so much invested in
this as well. And I think sometimes we just need
to step back and you know, pull that back a
little bit. I would love to see like maybe a
combination of like more of the local leagues that travel,
you know, maybe one or two weekends as opposed to
(13:14):
every weekend or every other weekend or things like that.
We also have a college level baseball stadium that we
hold a lot of tournaments in, and those tournaments start
at nine o'clock on a Thursday morning. And I'm like,
as a parent, what kind of job do you have
that you can be there all day Thursday, all day Friday,
(13:35):
all day Saturday all day Sunday and still have a job.
I guess that's my thing. It's putting such a strain
on all aspects of the family life, not just the
evening sports teams.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Yeah, that's amazing. It makes me recall back to a time.
I remember when the kids were playing and in Florida
they had a like the baseball championship, but it was
only in the state of Florida. And I remember reading
an article of paper about this guy that his kid
(14:14):
was on that team. And this was before travel teams.
It was like you were talking.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
About, you know, you could go to the next town
and win the championship.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
In this case, it was a state. And this guy's
going to go regardless.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
And they told him at his job, now, if you go,
you're going to be fired because you got to be here.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Guess what, He went and got fired. So it's it's
a thing that we talked about.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
A few moments ago, and that you know, falling down
in this deep hole of our child that's our flesh
and blood. But I wonder if it's more than that,
and I well, I say more than that. What I
mean is that there is some kind of vicarious thing
(15:08):
that we cannot escape unless somebody puts the pressure on
us to escape. By that, what I'm saying is, you
know you're on a leadership team with certified youth sports
administrators across a country. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be
able to say that we certified youth sports administrators are
(15:31):
going to do a national survey about the effects of
travel team on kids and surveying and ask the kids,
after they've been through travel team play, what was their
overall experience. Would they rate it the greatest thing or
the worst thing that happened to them? Wouldn't that be
(15:52):
rather interesting? And then take those statistics if they showed,
like you mentioned that a lot of kids would say,
I'd rather be at the late going swimming with my friends.
You found out that that was the overwhelming results of
a survey, wouldn't that be the impetus to make some
kind of national rule that says that travel teams can
(16:16):
only do so much, like you said, maybe two times
a month or whatever.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Just witted all the nonsense.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
Yeah, I've always thought of something asking kids that way.
Speaker 6 (16:28):
Or you know a lot of people you here were
they got to get this because you know, they want
to play in college or they're going to do that.
I wish looking back now, my daughters graduated from college,
but those five or six years when she you know,
could have been playing travel ball, should have been playing
travel ball whatever, asking okay, how much did you spend
(16:48):
this season? You know it was two thousand dollars to
get in the league. We spent you know, three thousand
dollars on hotels, food, whatever, and said, okay, I'm going
to take that five thousand dollars my daughter.
Speaker 5 (16:59):
Didn't spend for that season and put it in a
bank account.
Speaker 6 (17:03):
By the end of you know, her five or six
years through middle school and high school, we probably would
have had more than she would have ever gotten for
a scholarship. You know, there's all kind of stats out
there about how many people actually, you know, high school
athletes school on to play.
Speaker 5 (17:17):
D one D two get athletic scholarships and all of that.
Speaker 6 (17:20):
Again, I at my coaches meeting a lot of times,
I'm like, you know, this is great if kids want
to do this, but really there's way more or you know,
scholarship money for academics and education and things like that.
So instead of a pitching coach, maybe you should buy
your kid an English tutor, you know, something along those
If that's your mentality of it. This is going to
help them get in college, and this is going to
(17:41):
pay for their college.
Speaker 5 (17:42):
Chances are it's not there are that. Again, there are
that few that absolutely they do need that. They are
absolutely rock stars and they just have that God given
talent that's going to get them that athletic scholarship.
Speaker 6 (17:57):
But for the most part, most kids are not gonna
going to get full right scholarships or anything like that
to they're not getting a good return on their investment,
I guess, is what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Yeah, I was fortunate enough. A couple of weeks ago,
we had a guy that was the minor league baseball
player in the Cincinnati organization, and I asked him a
number of questions about.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
You know, when you started out. You know, he was typical.
He said, I started six years old, and you know,
my dad gave me glove.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
We did all the things in the backyard, and I advanced,
and I got all the way up to the.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
College All Stars and destined in the majors.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
And he got signed and then all hell broke clues
that he just didn't make it and so you know,
I was thinking while you were saying that that I
was saying to him, you know that the statistics are
that the baseball player kids that sign a major league
(19:07):
contract less than two percent ever playing the major leagues,
And you know, you put that in front of parents
and say, okay, you know, probably the statistics are pretty
much the same for like scholarships, as you mentioned, and
beyond the scholarships or making the Olympic team. The argument
(19:30):
would come back from parents of saying, yeah, but they
got to try, and we're going to try to give
them because they have this god given talent that says
they are just this elite, tremendous athlete. And how do
you respond to that. It's it's just so difficult when
that parent sees that child and feels that, you know,
(19:53):
if I don't spend that five or fifteen thousand dollars,
I'm to blame. I'm guilty for that because I rob
of them of this opportunity. Even though you tell me
that it's less than two percent, I'm still gonna do it.
Speaker 6 (20:08):
Freda, If I had that answer, I would be a
wealthy woman. It is a battle that we go on.
I get a lot of people. We have a very
large rec soccer program that you know the kids, Oh,
I move my kids to select to make it more competitive.
They get more competitive, and I'm always like, well, can
you imagine if we brought those thirty forty kids that
(20:30):
are wanting to be competitive back to our rec league?
Would you would have that competitiveness all in that league
and you wouldn't have to travel anywhere if we brought
that back. You know, fifteen years ago, we were the
only volleyball program in town for.
Speaker 5 (20:49):
Fifth, sixth, seventh or fifth and sixth graders.
Speaker 6 (20:51):
It's kind of before the whole travel volleyball hit this area,
and we had some great I use my niece as
a perfect example.
Speaker 5 (20:59):
She went through our rec pro started in fifth grade.
Speaker 6 (21:01):
Played fifth and sixth grade volleyball, also played in our
basketball program, played softball, multi sport athlete, never did any
type of.
Speaker 5 (21:11):
Select or travel until she was a freshman in high
school and she did get a scholarship.
Speaker 6 (21:16):
I mean she went to a Division two school for volleyball,
but she it wasn't until she was in high school
that she started doing more of the.
Speaker 5 (21:27):
Travel.
Speaker 6 (21:27):
I guess the Junior Olympic volleyball type of thing, and
I asked her a lot and she's like, yeah, it's
because it was fun. I enjoyed playing. It wasn't a job.
And I feel like so much of this when you
have to go every weekend and you have all your
time it's designated or assigned for certain sports, that it
does start.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
To feel like a job.
Speaker 6 (21:45):
And as we all know as adults, we have a
long time to work and have a job. So I
always try to make you know, the kids have time
again to be kids.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
I employ a lot of high.
Speaker 6 (21:56):
School kids at our different facilities that we have, and
it's tough for a high school athlete to have a
summer job because they are having summer leagues three nights
a week, they have workouts three mornings a week, they
have all this different stuff going on that for them
to have a job, which they're going to probably need
to help pay for college, they don't want to miss
(22:19):
their sports stuff.
Speaker 5 (22:20):
So it's a it's.
Speaker 6 (22:22):
A snowball effect that kind of just keeps going and
then at some point in time, you know, will sports
go that way to where high school sports school sports
don't exist anymore and everything is club.
Speaker 5 (22:34):
Again.
Speaker 6 (22:35):
We had a school levee up just this last week,
and if it failed, we have pay to play sports
in our high school, which right now it's like one
hundred dollars and you pay, and I had They were
talking about how if our levee failed, it was going
to go up to six hundred dollars to play, and
a parent literally said, well, I can't afford six hundred
dollars for my kid to play in high school.
Speaker 5 (22:55):
We already pay one thousand dollars for them to play club.
So unfortunately, you know, it used to be the ultimate
goal was you got to play varsity in your high
school team.
Speaker 6 (23:05):
Now high school sports are almost kind of like just wreck.
You know, it's you get on the bus with their
uniform that's been handed down from three different generations.
Speaker 5 (23:15):
You know, you travel, you play, you come home.
Speaker 6 (23:18):
Or you can be on a club team where they
get the nicest, newest uniforms every day with matching bags,
and you know, you go stay in nice hotels and
all that. It's kind of pushing high school sports out
of the way. So I don't know if that's a
trend will see as we go along, or if at
some point in time the bubble will burst and it'll
(23:39):
go back to why am I paying nine hundred dollars
for my kid to go play soccer in you know,
three states away when we have a great soccer program
right here in town that's you know, seventy five dollars
and I don't have to go away every.
Speaker 5 (23:50):
Weekend, and they're they're getting just as much out of it.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
You said the word I wanted to hear, the bubble
will burst. Sorry that the bubble burb burst. To me
is if I get understand that the.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
Whole idea of travel teams has got its purpose and
it's got his motivation for.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
Parents to pay all that money, do all that travel
the social benefits. I get that and understand that what
I don't get is the.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
Reason that I got into recreation anyway is because of
seeing the value of kids being able to play sports,
and not just at.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
That elite high level.
Speaker 4 (24:44):
I look out in the ballfield right across from my house.
I have the perfect place in the world for a
recreation person to have the.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Windows that opens up to a huge.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
Park, and I see, I'm not kidding hundreds of kids
playing soccer for fun. Now I know I live here
in South Florida and for Hispanics soccer is just a
tremendous sport that they grew up with in love. But
to see them out there playing and enjoying and laughing,
(25:21):
no referees, nothing, just having fun for hours and hours.
It's dark out there, and I still see them out
there playing. So when you say the bubbles to burst,
who's going to burst the bubble?
Speaker 3 (25:36):
Somebody? To me, it seems.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
Somewhere somebody ought to be making a decision to say, yeah,
there's a place for everything. Can people like yourself and
others certify you sports administrators? Can they be the ones
to be able to say, Okay, we're going to burst
the bubble. We're not going to do away.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
With trying teams or whatnot. We know that we can't
tell parents not to do it. It's already reached there.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
But we got to come up with something that combats that,
that says you don't have to spend fifteen thousand dollars,
You don't have to deny your kid being able to
play other events and not have money for scholarships or whatever.
But there has to be something that can be done
to be able to say, look, this is an alternative
(26:30):
that the parents say, yeah, why do we spend all
that money and all that travel and away from work
when we could actually be doing with the rec department
here has created what that is? I have no idea,
but I think brilliant minds in the field of.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Rectory collection, and if they don't, we just continue the
same old thing.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (27:00):
I just think as a recreation professional, our big challenge
in my departments, we just got to keep doing what
we know is right, doing the best program.
Speaker 5 (27:11):
As possible getting.
Speaker 6 (27:15):
You know, we have certified youth sports administrators, we have accountability,
we have credibility. You hear so often of little leagues,
independent groups with effect in their accounts and their banking accounts.
I hear a lot of it's very cliquish or political,
(27:35):
where the softball president only become president and that's the
only reason her child gets to be the star pitcher.
They I just think as a recreation you know, I
tell a lot of people and they're like, well, my child,
you know, my kid, my kid, my kid, And I
have to explain to them, I understand you're concerned about
your kid, but I have six hundred kids in this program.
Speaker 5 (27:57):
That are all my kids.
Speaker 6 (27:59):
So I have to do what's best for everyone to
make sure they are getting playing time, to make sure
they have the safest places to play, make sure their
coaches have been background checked, and that you know they
are in a safe place with the best that we
can do. I don't care guarantee you're getting that in
other areas.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
Hopefully they are.
Speaker 6 (28:20):
Hopefully these travel groups are doing all the things that
they're supposed to do.
Speaker 5 (28:26):
But I have backing.
Speaker 6 (28:27):
I have, you know, I have an agency, I have
a phone number that's going to be the same this
year as it is next year. You have the same
person that's running this league for twenty years, as opposed
to once their child ages out, then someone else takes
it over. My favorite is I get people that call
us all the time and want to use our fields
because we're a public park, but they don't understand why
(28:49):
they can't.
Speaker 5 (28:49):
They started this team, but they don't have a place
to play their games.
Speaker 6 (28:53):
I was going to laugh and think, well, that probably
should have been a thing you might have wanted to
get first before you started a team.
Speaker 5 (28:59):
You need a place to play, and we're full. You know,
we run leagues, We have these things. We work with
certain groups.
Speaker 6 (29:05):
That follow our philosophies that you know, we're giving them
first crack at the field because that's our partner with that.
So I guess just we just have to keep as
you know, wrec departments, youth sports administrators, we just have
to keep doing our best and hopefully, you know, keep
proving that we are the professionals, we know what we're
(29:25):
talking about, that we have the training, the certifications, the.
Speaker 5 (29:28):
Background that you know, it's the credibility to prove that our.
Speaker 6 (29:33):
League is just as good, if not better fundamentally wise
as some of these these pop up groups.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Six hundred kids are my kids, that's what you.
Speaker 5 (29:45):
Said, So all of them are my kids.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
Well yeah, but that's that's a great statement to be
able to say, especially for a recreation person that is
overseeing all these kids playing. And you know, one of
the good things about this podcast Simulcast is the fact
that it goes out to twelve thousand and five hundred
(30:09):
recreation people, and I just wish so much that this
episode would go out directly to every single one of
them with a lot of promotion to say, watch this
because this is what's happening in your community and listen
to what Miss Adams has to say about this whole area.
(30:31):
Of recreational sports for kids in your community. So Missy listen,
I want to thank you very much for being on
the show. It's wonderful having you as a member of
the board of Directors of the National Alliance for Youth
Sports and.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
Can thank you again so much for being on. So
we'll see you at the next sport beating.
Speaker 6 (30:56):
All right, Well, thank you Fred for being such a
great mentor over all these years, for having an organization
that does help give us that credibility in that backing
and keeps us moving in the right direction.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
All right, I have a great weekend.
Speaker 5 (31:09):
All right, you two. Hope you find your phone soon.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Okay, I hope I find my phone.
Speaker 7 (31:20):
Fred Angs. Billy Jones's Father is more than just a
story about a boy and his father. It's an eye
opening journey into the emotional struggles faced by children in
the world of competitive sports. As you turn the pages,
you'll see how unrealistic expectations and unchecked ambitions can shape, mold,
(31:41):
and sometimes break a child's spirit. This book dives deep
into the human experiences that resonate with so many and
calls on us to reflect on the roles we play
in the lives of Young Athletes.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
Well, that's another show I think. Like I mentioned in
the beginning, this is either the fourteenth or fifteenth that
is on every Friday morning at eleven o'clock. So if
you're got kids and kids are playing sports or thinking
about them playing sports, I think you'll learn a lot
from listening to many of the experts around the country that.
Speaker 4 (32:21):
Give their advice. So hope to see you here next
Friday morning at eleven am on Why Johnny Hates Sports.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
This program is sponsored by sir Derff Publishing in the
interest for better sports for kids, better kids for life.
The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are
solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not
those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
or products mentioned on air or on our web. No
liability explicitor implies shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio
or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should
be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing
(00:21):
W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
The National Alliance for Youth Sports was born out of
a desire to bring order to the world of organized
sports for children in America. While for the most part,
children have a great experience playing sports, far too often
parents and coaches lose perspective. This program is aimed at
bringing some of America's best experts to talk about what
(00:47):
we can do to change the atmosphere of win at
all costs and parent poor behavior to one that focuses
on children having a positive learning experience through sports. Here's
our host, Fred Ang, the founder of the National Alliance
for Youth Sports.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Good morning everybody, and welcome to the I think this
is now the fifteenth episode. I can't believe it. Of
why Johnny h Sports? And have you ever lost your
cell phone? I lost my cell phone this morning. I'm
panically running around looking for got my next door neighbor
(01:24):
to come and help me. And guess where it ends up.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
My wife and my daughter on their way from West
Palm Beach to Charleston, North or South Carolina and it's.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
In the car. So anyway, with that, I introduced this
morning our program which is about travel teams in youth sports.
And we couldn't have a better person to lead off
this four part series talking about travel teams.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
And her name is Misty Adams. And let me tell
you about Misty. She has I'm looking down here at
first of all, she's a board member of the National
Alliance for Youth Sports, and then she's a certified Youth
Sport administrator. But then she is a superintendent of the
National Trails Park District in Ohio, which is in Springfield, Ohio.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
And I know you probably might remember Springfield, Ohio, but
I'm not going to bring that up.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
So with that, let me welcome Misty Adams. Morning, Misty,
Good morning, Fred.
Speaker 5 (02:31):
How are you.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
I'm doing great? And I want to thank you very
much for being on the show. Like I mentioned, you
are leading a hitter in this whole thing. So tell
me something very briefly about the district that you're the superintendent.
Speaker 6 (02:50):
Well, I'm from National Trail Parks Recreation District in the
Clark County Park District. We oversee all of Clark County
in Ohio. Yes, Springfield High does fall into that, and
it's been an interesting year here in Springfield. But we
have multiple soccer fields, softball fields, an aquatic center, baseball fields,
(03:12):
nature parks, historical parks. So we kind of do a
little bit of everything here in our department.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
Yeah, doing everything you talk about, all the fields and
park areas and whatnot. I mean, I go back quite
a ways to where recreational sports was seeing ball fields
being leased by local parent groups and whatnot. And then
all of a sudden, you know, we start to see
(03:40):
those fields are filled with just recreational programs. You see
out there, these elite coaches and these.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Elite players and their parents. What you're taking all of that?
As a recreation superintendent, I've.
Speaker 6 (03:57):
Been doing this for quite a few years, so I
have seen the change from everything was recreation everybody just
goes and plays in their neighborhood.
Speaker 5 (04:07):
I have played sports my whole life.
Speaker 6 (04:10):
When I was younger and played sports, the travel team
was we traveled from one town to the next next
door and played an all star game. What I have
seen now is I truly believe there's a need for
a select program or a travel program for kids that
do want to take the next step. But it's kind
(04:32):
of starting to turn in my opinion that.
Speaker 5 (04:36):
That travel has become the new recreation league.
Speaker 6 (04:39):
That there are no longer the neighborhood teams where the
kids all get together, go to the same school, play together,
can ride their bikes to the fields for practices. That
has drastically changed over the last twenty years.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Well what does that do? I mean, it takes the
value of what recreational sports are all about. With kids
that are out there, they're just coming there and the
parents sign them up for whatever little league support that
happens to be, and they expect them to go out
and have fun with their friends and whatnot.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
And now with all of that, like you say, it's changing,
and what what do you suppose drove all this to happen.
Speaker 5 (05:21):
I believe there's a few different things. One, it's the
for the parents to be able to say, well, my
child's on a travel team or my child on a
select team kind of sounds more exotic, gives more credibility.
I guess to.
Speaker 6 (05:36):
A league that that my kids good enough, plays hard enough.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
I've taught my kid well enough to be on a
travel team.
Speaker 6 (05:46):
And when they when they first started years ago, again,
I believe there were that those group of kids that
do need the next level, that are a little more advanced,
that are a little more competitive. But now it's kind
of become I always laugh and say, you know, from
select sports to club sports, because if you have enough money,
you can join the club and they'll find a spot
(06:06):
for you somewhere, which is great. I hear all kinds
of kids love them and building memories and things like that,
But the time commitment. A lot of parents I don't
think they understand the huge time commitment and the financial
commitment it takes for those And when I'm finding a
lot of our travel select programs, maybe my coaches that
(06:28):
coached for me in the recreation department last year that
are now moved up to the travel or whatever, and
the fee has increased, you know tenfold, but they're same coach,
same fields. They're just traveling further away to play teams.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
You know, when I wrote the book Why Johnny Hates Sports,
one of the things I said in there the people
ask of what drives parents to do what they're doing
with their kids in sports, and a couple of these
the said was, it's ego and greed. And the ego
(07:03):
part of it is something you touched on a minute ago.
You know, my kid is now he's not just arect player.
He's not just out there playing with these little kids
that don't really know how to play. My kid is
really an elite player. And then the other part of
it is greed. I mean having all the money that
they have to put into it.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
I mean I have a friend of mine that probably
spends five thousand dollars a year just to travel around,
and that's kind of really hurt a family budget unless
you got a boatload of money.
Speaker 6 (07:40):
Yeah, they're only paying five thousand dollars a year, They're
getting off pretty cheap. I've heard of families that pay ten, fifteen,
twenty thousand dollars a year and something that we just
had some school levies up here in OHIOI how we
fund our schools are a little weird, but some school
levies and it always amazes me the people who won't
be willing to pay, you know, out of their taxes
(08:01):
one hundred and fifty dollars a year to support their schools,
but those same people are paying ten, fifteen, twenty thousand
dollars a season for their kid to play sports. It's
in my mind, is kind of like where has our
priorities gone?
Speaker 5 (08:17):
That we're telling kids our schools aren't worth one hundred
dollars a year.
Speaker 6 (08:21):
But we'll let you go play baseball for you know,
five thousand dollars.
Speaker 5 (08:26):
And so it's kind of a.
Speaker 6 (08:29):
Our priorities have shifted of what we think our kids need.
I don't know that we've ever stopped to think and
ask our kids what they want. I try to ask
a lot of kids, you know, what do you want?
They want to play with their friends, they want to
have fun, they want to get out and do stuff,
they want to learn new things. A lot of kids.
(08:50):
I was very fortunate, you know, my daughter had the
opportunity to play travel ball. We were ready for to
play some and she said, you know what, Mom, I'd
rather on the weekends go to the lake and swim.
I'd rather hang out with my friends on the weekend.
I don't want to be traveling every weekend to go
play a sport. I want to play sports just because
I enjoy them. So that kind of opened my eyes
(09:10):
because I was kind of like, oh, if my daughter's
not playing you know, the elite volleyball, she's not going
to keep up with her friends or all that stuff.
So I've kind of seen it from I also coach volleyball,
so I've seen it from a coaching aspect, a youth
sports and interestrator aspect, and a parent aspect. And it's
there's a fine line that you have to walk between
(09:31):
all of those.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
Yeah, you use some word that I remember using so
many times talking about parents, and that's to bodycariously living
through your child. Some of the things that you just
said sounded like you were vicariously living through your child. Yeah,
it's hard not to, that's right, it's absolutely you know,
it's kind of like a disease that we all.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Have is you know, when our kids play sports. You know,
our kids, we wanted them in everything.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
My sport was wrestling in high school and college and
you know, yeah, I had three of my kids at
the wrestled.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Did they want to? I think so?
Speaker 4 (10:17):
But you know, the big question I have many times
is that here you have a six year old, and
that six year old you determine many times, most times
that that Billy or Mary is going to play little league, baseball, softball,
whatever sport it is.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
We never asked them. We never say, all right, I'm
going to give you a list of things.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
I'm going to give you art and music and drama, sports,
and what check off one of those and tell tell
us what you want to do. I think if parents
did that, it would help tremendously for them to be
able to say, maybe Billy is not an athlete, so yeah,
(11:06):
what do you think?
Speaker 6 (11:08):
We again, at National Trail, we are a multi programming
type of thing, and we just hired a person. She's
been there for about a year now, and she is
very artistic, very arts and crafts oriented, and I was
actually just talking to her this morning. I spoke to
a group of fifth and sixth graders yesterday about what
they want from parks and recreation, what they see, and
(11:31):
over half of.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
Them were like, I really like art and I want
to do drawings and things.
Speaker 6 (11:34):
So it's it's been interesting for me for the past
few years to see the transformation that we're not just
a sports league at Naturra Trail, that kids are loving
arts and crafts and they want to have time to
do that, and they want to have time to be
in the band.
Speaker 5 (11:48):
They want to have time to just be a kid.
Speaker 6 (11:51):
And I think so often, you know, the kids are like, oh, yeah,
I really enjoy travel baseball. But they're hearing the parents
at the hotels, sitting down in the lobbies or whatever, going, oh,
this is cosy.
Speaker 5 (12:03):
You know, this is our family vacation.
Speaker 6 (12:05):
This year, we can't afford to go on to family
vacation because we had to come to this.
Speaker 5 (12:09):
The kids hear that, and they know that, Oh, I
don't want.
Speaker 6 (12:11):
To say I don't want to do this because my
parents are put not necessarily directly to the kid, but
kids hear things. I see a lot of memes on
Facebook or Instagram or something that are funny and it's
you know, it's like the baseball mom and she's got
you know, luggage and stuff and all this, or the
baseball mom's vacation, the baseball dad's vacation and it just
(12:32):
kind of joking, kind of poking at we do spend
thousands and thousands of dollars on our kids' sports, to
where what could.
Speaker 5 (12:39):
We be doing with that else?
Speaker 6 (12:41):
Whise, you know, could we be going to Disney World,
Could we be going to the lake to fish? Could
we be going, you know, to Grandma's house in Kentucky
or anything like that.
Speaker 5 (12:51):
But that so much has been put into that.
Speaker 6 (12:53):
Sport that that child's kind of afraid to say, oh,
I don't want to do this anymore, because I've heard
how mom and dad have got so much invested in
this as well. And I think sometimes we just need
to step back and you know, pull that back a
little bit. I would love to see like maybe a
combination of like more of the local leagues that travel,
you know, maybe one or two weekends as opposed to
(13:14):
every weekend or every other weekend or things like that.
We also have a college level baseball stadium that we
hold a lot of tournaments in, and those tournaments start
at nine o'clock on a Thursday morning. And I'm like,
as a parent, what kind of job do you have
that you can be there all day Thursday, all day Friday,
(13:35):
all day Saturday all day Sunday and still have a job.
I guess that's my thing. It's putting such a strain
on all aspects of the family life, not just the
evening sports teams.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Yeah, that's amazing. It makes me recall back to a time.
I remember when the kids were playing and in Florida
they had a like the baseball championship, but it was
only in the state of Florida. And I remember reading
an article of paper about this guy that his kid
(14:14):
was on that team. And this was before travel teams.
It was like you were talking.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
About, you know, you could go to the next town
and win the championship.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
In this case, it was a state. And this guy's
going to go regardless.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
And they told him at his job, now, if you go,
you're going to be fired because you got to be here.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Guess what, He went and got fired. So it's it's
a thing that we talked about.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
A few moments ago, and that you know, falling down
in this deep hole of our child that's our flesh
and blood. But I wonder if it's more than that,
and I well, I say more than that. What I
mean is that there is some kind of vicarious thing
(15:08):
that we cannot escape unless somebody puts the pressure on
us to escape. By that, what I'm saying is, you
know you're on a leadership team with certified youth sports
administrators across a country. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be
able to say that we certified youth sports administrators are
(15:31):
going to do a national survey about the effects of
travel team on kids and surveying and ask the kids,
after they've been through travel team play, what was their
overall experience. Would they rate it the greatest thing or
the worst thing that happened to them? Wouldn't that be
(15:52):
rather interesting? And then take those statistics if they showed,
like you mentioned that a lot of kids would say,
I'd rather be at the late going swimming with my friends.
You found out that that was the overwhelming results of
a survey, wouldn't that be the impetus to make some
kind of national rule that says that travel teams can
(16:16):
only do so much, like you said, maybe two times
a month or whatever.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Just witted all the nonsense.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
Yeah, I've always thought of something asking kids that way.
Speaker 6 (16:28):
Or you know a lot of people you here were
they got to get this because you know, they want
to play in college or they're going to do that.
I wish looking back now, my daughters graduated from college,
but those five or six years when she you know,
could have been playing travel ball, should have been playing
travel ball whatever, asking okay, how much did you spend
(16:48):
this season? You know it was two thousand dollars to
get in the league. We spent you know, three thousand
dollars on hotels, food, whatever, and said, okay, I'm going
to take that five thousand dollars my daughter.
Speaker 5 (16:59):
Didn't spend for that season and put it in a
bank account.
Speaker 6 (17:03):
By the end of you know, her five or six
years through middle school and high school, we probably would
have had more than she would have ever gotten for
a scholarship. You know, there's all kind of stats out
there about how many people actually, you know, high school
athletes school on to play.
Speaker 5 (17:17):
D one D two get athletic scholarships and all of that.
Speaker 6 (17:20):
Again, I at my coaches meeting a lot of times,
I'm like, you know, this is great if kids want
to do this, but really there's way more or you know,
scholarship money for academics and education and things like that.
So instead of a pitching coach, maybe you should buy
your kid an English tutor, you know, something along those
If that's your mentality of it. This is going to
help them get in college, and this is going to
(17:41):
pay for their college.
Speaker 5 (17:42):
Chances are it's not there are that. Again, there are
that few that absolutely they do need that. They are
absolutely rock stars and they just have that God given
talent that's going to get them that athletic scholarship.
Speaker 6 (17:57):
But for the most part, most kids are not gonna
going to get full right scholarships or anything like that
to they're not getting a good return on their investment,
I guess, is what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Yeah, I was fortunate enough. A couple of weeks ago,
we had a guy that was the minor league baseball
player in the Cincinnati organization, and I asked him a
number of questions about.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
You know, when you started out. You know, he was typical.
He said, I started six years old, and you know,
my dad gave me glove.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
We did all the things in the backyard, and I advanced,
and I got all the way up to the.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
College All Stars and destined in the majors.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
And he got signed and then all hell broke clues
that he just didn't make it and so you know,
I was thinking while you were saying that that I
was saying to him, you know that the statistics are
that the baseball player kids that sign a major league
(19:07):
contract less than two percent ever playing the major leagues,
And you know, you put that in front of parents
and say, okay, you know, probably the statistics are pretty
much the same for like scholarships, as you mentioned, and
beyond the scholarships or making the Olympic team. The argument
(19:30):
would come back from parents of saying, yeah, but they
got to try, and we're going to try to give
them because they have this god given talent that says
they are just this elite, tremendous athlete. And how do
you respond to that. It's it's just so difficult when
that parent sees that child and feels that, you know,
(19:53):
if I don't spend that five or fifteen thousand dollars,
I'm to blame. I'm guilty for that because I rob
of them of this opportunity. Even though you tell me
that it's less than two percent, I'm still gonna do it.
Speaker 6 (20:08):
Freda, If I had that answer, I would be a
wealthy woman. It is a battle that we go on.
I get a lot of people. We have a very
large rec soccer program that you know the kids, Oh,
I move my kids to select to make it more competitive.
They get more competitive, and I'm always like, well, can
you imagine if we brought those thirty forty kids that
(20:30):
are wanting to be competitive back to our rec league?
Would you would have that competitiveness all in that league
and you wouldn't have to travel anywhere if we brought
that back. You know, fifteen years ago, we were the
only volleyball program in town for.
Speaker 5 (20:49):
Fifth, sixth, seventh or fifth and sixth graders.
Speaker 6 (20:51):
It's kind of before the whole travel volleyball hit this area,
and we had some great I use my niece as
a perfect example.
Speaker 5 (20:59):
She went through our rec pro started in fifth grade.
Speaker 6 (21:01):
Played fifth and sixth grade volleyball, also played in our
basketball program, played softball, multi sport athlete, never did any
type of.
Speaker 5 (21:11):
Select or travel until she was a freshman in high
school and she did get a scholarship.
Speaker 6 (21:16):
I mean she went to a Division two school for volleyball,
but she it wasn't until she was in high school
that she started doing more of the.
Speaker 5 (21:27):
Travel.
Speaker 6 (21:27):
I guess the Junior Olympic volleyball type of thing, and
I asked her a lot and she's like, yeah, it's
because it was fun. I enjoyed playing. It wasn't a job.
And I feel like so much of this when you
have to go every weekend and you have all your
time it's designated or assigned for certain sports, that it
does start.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
To feel like a job.
Speaker 6 (21:45):
And as we all know as adults, we have a
long time to work and have a job. So I
always try to make you know, the kids have time
again to be kids.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
I employ a lot of high.
Speaker 6 (21:56):
School kids at our different facilities that we have, and
it's tough for a high school athlete to have a
summer job because they are having summer leagues three nights
a week, they have workouts three mornings a week, they
have all this different stuff going on that for them
to have a job, which they're going to probably need
to help pay for college, they don't want to miss
(22:19):
their sports stuff.
Speaker 5 (22:20):
So it's a it's.
Speaker 6 (22:22):
A snowball effect that kind of just keeps going and
then at some point in time, you know, will sports
go that way to where high school sports school sports
don't exist anymore and everything is club.
Speaker 5 (22:34):
Again.
Speaker 6 (22:35):
We had a school levee up just this last week,
and if it failed, we have pay to play sports
in our high school, which right now it's like one
hundred dollars and you pay, and I had They were
talking about how if our levee failed, it was going
to go up to six hundred dollars to play, and
a parent literally said, well, I can't afford six hundred
dollars for my kid to play in high school.
Speaker 5 (22:55):
We already pay one thousand dollars for them to play club.
So unfortunately, you know, it used to be the ultimate
goal was you got to play varsity in your high
school team.
Speaker 6 (23:05):
Now high school sports are almost kind of like just wreck.
You know, it's you get on the bus with their
uniform that's been handed down from three different generations.
Speaker 5 (23:15):
You know, you travel, you play, you come home.
Speaker 6 (23:18):
Or you can be on a club team where they
get the nicest, newest uniforms every day with matching bags,
and you know, you go stay in nice hotels and
all that. It's kind of pushing high school sports out
of the way. So I don't know if that's a
trend will see as we go along, or if at
some point in time the bubble will burst and it'll
(23:39):
go back to why am I paying nine hundred dollars
for my kid to go play soccer in you know,
three states away when we have a great soccer program
right here in town that's you know, seventy five dollars
and I don't have to go away every.
Speaker 5 (23:50):
Weekend, and they're they're getting just as much out of it.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
You said the word I wanted to hear, the bubble
will burst. Sorry that the bubble burb burst. To me
is if I get understand that the.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
Whole idea of travel teams has got its purpose and
it's got his motivation for.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
Parents to pay all that money, do all that travel
the social benefits. I get that and understand that what
I don't get is the.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
Reason that I got into recreation anyway is because of
seeing the value of kids being able to play sports,
and not just at.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
That elite high level.
Speaker 4 (24:44):
I look out in the ballfield right across from my house.
I have the perfect place in the world for a
recreation person to have the.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Windows that opens up to a huge.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
Park, and I see, I'm not kidding hundreds of kids
playing soccer for fun. Now I know I live here
in South Florida and for Hispanics soccer is just a
tremendous sport that they grew up with in love. But
to see them out there playing and enjoying and laughing,
(25:21):
no referees, nothing, just having fun for hours and hours.
It's dark out there, and I still see them out
there playing. So when you say the bubbles to burst,
who's going to burst the bubble?
Speaker 3 (25:36):
Somebody? To me, it seems.
Speaker 4 (25:39):
Somewhere somebody ought to be making a decision to say, yeah,
there's a place for everything. Can people like yourself and
others certify you sports administrators? Can they be the ones
to be able to say, Okay, we're going to burst
the bubble. We're not going to do away.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
With trying teams or whatnot. We know that we can't
tell parents not to do it. It's already reached there.
Speaker 4 (26:08):
But we got to come up with something that combats that,
that says you don't have to spend fifteen thousand dollars,
You don't have to deny your kid being able to
play other events and not have money for scholarships or whatever.
But there has to be something that can be done
to be able to say, look, this is an alternative
(26:30):
that the parents say, yeah, why do we spend all
that money and all that travel and away from work
when we could actually be doing with the rec department
here has created what that is? I have no idea,
but I think brilliant minds in the field of.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Rectory collection, and if they don't, we just continue the
same old thing.
Speaker 5 (27:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (27:00):
I just think as a recreation professional, our big challenge
in my departments, we just got to keep doing what
we know is right, doing the best program.
Speaker 5 (27:11):
As possible getting.
Speaker 6 (27:15):
You know, we have certified youth sports administrators, we have accountability,
we have credibility. You hear so often of little leagues,
independent groups with effect in their accounts and their banking accounts.
I hear a lot of it's very cliquish or political,
(27:35):
where the softball president only become president and that's the
only reason her child gets to be the star pitcher.
They I just think as a recreation you know, I
tell a lot of people and they're like, well, my child,
you know, my kid, my kid, my kid, And I
have to explain to them, I understand you're concerned about
your kid, but I have six hundred kids in this program.
Speaker 5 (27:57):
That are all my kids.
Speaker 6 (27:59):
So I have to do what's best for everyone to
make sure they are getting playing time, to make sure
they have the safest places to play, make sure their
coaches have been background checked, and that you know they
are in a safe place with the best that we
can do. I don't care guarantee you're getting that in
other areas.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
Hopefully they are.
Speaker 6 (28:20):
Hopefully these travel groups are doing all the things that
they're supposed to do.
Speaker 5 (28:26):
But I have backing.
Speaker 6 (28:27):
I have, you know, I have an agency, I have
a phone number that's going to be the same this
year as it is next year. You have the same
person that's running this league for twenty years, as opposed
to once their child ages out, then someone else takes
it over. My favorite is I get people that call
us all the time and want to use our fields
because we're a public park, but they don't understand why
(28:49):
they can't.
Speaker 5 (28:49):
They started this team, but they don't have a place
to play their games.
Speaker 6 (28:53):
I was going to laugh and think, well, that probably
should have been a thing you might have wanted to
get first before you started a team.
Speaker 5 (28:59):
You need a place to play, and we're full. You know,
we run leagues, We have these things. We work with
certain groups.
Speaker 6 (29:05):
That follow our philosophies that you know, we're giving them
first crack at the field because that's our partner with that.
So I guess just we just have to keep as
you know, wrec departments, youth sports administrators, we just have
to keep doing our best and hopefully, you know, keep
proving that we are the professionals, we know what we're
(29:25):
talking about, that we have the training, the certifications, the.
Speaker 5 (29:28):
Background that you know, it's the credibility to prove that our.
Speaker 6 (29:33):
League is just as good, if not better fundamentally wise
as some of these these pop up groups.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
Six hundred kids are my kids, that's what you.
Speaker 5 (29:45):
Said, So all of them are my kids.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
Well yeah, but that's that's a great statement to be
able to say, especially for a recreation person that is
overseeing all these kids playing. And you know, one of
the good things about this podcast Simulcast is the fact
that it goes out to twelve thousand and five hundred
(30:09):
recreation people, and I just wish so much that this
episode would go out directly to every single one of
them with a lot of promotion to say, watch this
because this is what's happening in your community and listen
to what Miss Adams has to say about this whole area.
(30:31):
Of recreational sports for kids in your community. So Missy listen,
I want to thank you very much for being on
the show. It's wonderful having you as a member of
the board of Directors of the National Alliance for Youth
Sports and.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
Can thank you again so much for being on. So
we'll see you at the next sport beating.
Speaker 6 (30:56):
All right, Well, thank you Fred for being such a
great mentor over all these years, for having an organization
that does help give us that credibility in that backing
and keeps us moving in the right direction.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
All right, I have a great weekend.
Speaker 5 (31:09):
All right, you two. Hope you find your phone soon.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Okay, I hope I find my phone.
Speaker 7 (31:20):
Fred Angs. Billy Jones's Father is more than just a
story about a boy and his father. It's an eye
opening journey into the emotional struggles faced by children in
the world of competitive sports. As you turn the pages,
you'll see how unrealistic expectations and unchecked ambitions can shape, mold,
(31:41):
and sometimes break a child's spirit. This book dives deep
into the human experiences that resonate with so many and
calls on us to reflect on the roles we play
in the lives of Young Athletes.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
Well, that's another show I think. Like I mentioned in
the beginning, this is either the fourteenth or fifteenth that
is on every Friday morning at eleven o'clock. So if
you're got kids and kids are playing sports or thinking
about them playing sports, I think you'll learn a lot
from listening to many of the experts around the country that.
Speaker 4 (32:21):
Give their advice. So hope to see you here next
Friday morning at eleven am on Why Johnny Hates Sports.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
This program is sponsored by sir Derff Publishing in the
interest for better sports for kids, better kids for life.
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