Recruiting Youth Athletes
Affects of Early Recruiting on Youth Athletes
Molly Sanders was beyond upset. She was confused, disappointed, and above all else, felt more worthless than she had once believed possible. She felt a vibration in her pocket, but angrily tossed her phone across the table. She knew it was just her mom or dad, and frankly, she didn’t want to see her friends, her family, or even her once safe haven: the lacrosse field. The Starbucks employees all awkwardly looked up from their work as Molly burst out into another sobbing fit. She had always wanted to play Division 1 Lacrosse, but after all the recruiting interest she had received as a freshman, she had not received any offers as her sophomore lacrosse season began. Her grades were dropping, and her …show more content…
The fact that colleges are applying extra pressure to these teens at such an important stage in their life can have many negative impacts.
Sports have always been popular, but they are bigger than ever before. Around 21.5 million kids from ages 6-17 participate in team sports during the year of 2011 in the United States (Kelly). With this immense popularity has come extremely competitive recruiting for college sports. Recruiting youth athletes can have negative impacts on the youth’s high school experience. This all begins as athletes attempt to earn scholarships, or look to maintain the level of play that comes from signing with a college. These kids train year round and travel from game to game, tournament to tournament, and match to match. Gone are the days where you can excel at multiple sports. Now coaches pressure athletes to choose one sport and drop all the others. They claim this is the only way to keep up with the competition and access your full potential. This is believed to increase risk of injury, peer isolation, burnout, and psychosocial problems, and attrition (Merkel). Anxiety and stress are pretty common
Molly Sanders was beyond upset. She was confused, disappointed, and above all else, felt more worthless than she had once believed possible. She felt a vibration in her pocket, but angrily tossed her phone across the table. She knew it was just her mom or dad, and frankly, she didn’t want to see her friends, her family, or even her once safe haven: the lacrosse field. The Starbucks employees all awkwardly looked up from their work as Molly burst out into another sobbing fit. She had always wanted to play Division 1 Lacrosse, but after all the recruiting interest she had received as a freshman, she had not received any offers as her sophomore lacrosse season began. Her grades were dropping, and her …show more content…
The fact that colleges are applying extra pressure to these teens at such an important stage in their life can have many negative impacts.
Sports have always been popular, but they are bigger than ever before. Around 21.5 million kids from ages 6-17 participate in team sports during the year of 2011 in the United States (Kelly). With this immense popularity has come extremely competitive recruiting for college sports. Recruiting youth athletes can have negative impacts on the youth’s high school experience. This all begins as athletes attempt to earn scholarships, or look to maintain the level of play that comes from signing with a college. These kids train year round and travel from game to game, tournament to tournament, and match to match. Gone are the days where you can excel at multiple sports. Now coaches pressure athletes to choose one sport and drop all the others. They claim this is the only way to keep up with the competition and access your full potential. This is believed to increase risk of injury, peer isolation, burnout, and psychosocial problems, and attrition (Merkel). Anxiety and stress are pretty common