Where is Youth Sports Going?

Are we there yet, Dad?

My daughter Rosemary enters the world of Youth Sports this Summer. I’m preparing for my new role as Sports Dad. God help me.

Here’s my starting place:   

“Competition” is a human invention, and anywhere humans are involved, ego, bias, and error follow closely behind. If I accept injustice as constant (which it is and always will be), then the competition is never truly against another team, athlete, or organizer—it's against my own impulse to become bitter. 

Where is youth sports going?  “I’ll get what I look for.” If I look for corruption and incompetence, I’ll find it at every rink, court, and classroom. If I look for resilience, growth, and teamwork, I’ll find those are just as prevalent—often more so. I’m teaching Rosemary that the external world is messy. So we keep the internal world—the “culture” of our team and family—grounded in what we can control. Where is youth sports going? It will go wherever we decide to point our light.

We’re really strong, but it’s not enough to be strong. We have to use our strength to make things happen. That’s power. Rosemary doesn’t know how powerful she is yet. But I know.

I’m excited to discover how my perspective evolves when paired with the avalanche of real world experience I’m about to endure over the next 15 to 20 years. Just before Rosemary was born in the Summer of 2024, I wrote in my journal: “I can’t wait to be humbled a million times over.” 

Someone once told me that “humility” is a personal awareness that there is more left to learn. 

I expect things to go really really well.

And when I fall? She’ll be there.