One game in, and the basketball season is over

This is a first, as far as I know. The College of Notre Dame in Baltimore just canceled the basketball season due to a rash of serious injuries. Its depleted roster now stands at six. Its first - and only - game of the season was a 73-19 loss to Goucher.

From the Baltimore Sun's article:

"School officials scrapped the Gators' season after one game...because of injuries to nearly half the team. Five of the 11 players on the roster, including [Heather Krolicki, a senior guard](torn knee cartilage), are sidelined indefinitely, leaving six to shoulder the load of a 25-game season."

The legend of the Magic Hockey Helmet

If anyone is thinking we're due for some uplifting news in this space, point taken. Today's posting is such a story.

Miller Donnelly is 12. When he was nine, he penned a speech to deliver to his school class. A few months later, his father taped the speech - dubbed, "The Magic Hockey Helmet" - and posted it on YouTube so his uncle could watch. (Thus, the reference to "Uncle Mike").

Through a series of events, mostly serendipitous, "The Magic Hockey Helmet" has gotten considerable attention throughout Canada, played at arenas before games, been linked to by several hundred Web sites. On YouTube, it's at 284,000 views.

This is Miller's clever way of telling us we're squeezing the fun out of sports.

Footnote: You can tell the Donnellys didn't expect this to attract a global audience - the video was shot in the basement of their home in Ontario, with Miller in his pajamas.

The advice Dominique Wilkins should have given

Dominique Wilkins might have been a great NBA player, thus the nickname "The Human Highlight Film." He fails to make the grade for inclusion on our list of pro athletes who see excesses in youth sports and speak up about them.

Not suggesting that Wilkins commits some huge faux pas in this video. But he seems dazzled by the between-the-legs dribbling and swishes from the three-point line and unconcerned that Dakota Sims, despite his talent, enthusiasm, gifts, is nine.

He might have added: Nice jump shot, son. Take tomorrow off.

Flash: Kids who do nothing but play tennis get hurt

Here's more evidence that kids who specialize in a single sport at an early age are (1) terrific players (2) prone to injury and (3) because of point two at great risk of never reaching their potential.

Loyola University Health System recently released a study of 519 kids whose one and only sport is tennis. These are talented, promising junior players aspiring to big things in the sport. The study followed these kids through more than 3,000 competitive matches, finding that they dropped out of events at a much higher rate than non-specialists, often due to injury.

The kids in the study began playing tennis at an average age of 6, began competing at age 9 and began to specialize at age 10. They practiced a median of 16 to 20 hours per week, and 93 percent said they competed at least ten months per year. The study's authors counsel parents not to follow this example.

Why prep athletes need a Hall of Fame - or don't

Officials behind a new High School Sports Hall of Fame and Museum say that being a great athlete - as in one who goes on to super stardom in the Olympics or pro ranks - isn't the only credential needed for induction. Apparently, it doesn't hurt either. Past inductees include NBA stars LeBron James and Dwight Howard, American League batting champ Joe Mauer, and Olympic gold medal swimmer Allyson Felix.

I wish I could be unreservedly enthusiastic about this idea. No doubt it will be a big draw for Easton, Pennsylvania, a good and under-rated place. The city already has the Crayola Factory (300,000 visitors last year). Imagine the influx of kids to tour a $20 million palace dedicated to kids like them who made it big playing sports?

On the other hand, it will be a $20 million palace. According to the AP, "The 20,000-square-foot complex is still being planned but will likely include exhibit space for memorabilia, a holographic theater, a testing and training center for current athletes, an education center for coaches seeking certification, and a "Hall of Achievement" featuring standout prep athletes who went on to attain career success." And a 350-space parking garage.

All celebrating high school athletes.

If you're less a grinch than me (a distinct possibility) and want to help make this happen, there's still time. A $150 donation buys a paving brick with your name on it.

Agassi, LeBron on what's wrong with youth sports

As noted here before, I'm compiling a list of pro athletes who speak out about adults messing up sports for kids. Today, two new, high-profile additions, LeBron James and Andre Agassi.

I just finished Shooting Stars, James's recent book chronicling his early basketball life, with an emphasis on bonds forged with his rec league and later high school teammates. Not your typical "How I Overcame Impossible Odds" story. A good read.

James makes the list for opposing the national schedules played by the top high school basketball teams, including his, St. Vincent's, in Akron, Ohio. The last half of the book is filled with stories about this small Catholic school sending its basketball team on the road for games at Pauley Pavilion (Los Angeles), the Palestra (Philadelphia), Trenton, NJ, on and on. (In LA, James writes, scalpers were getting $250 for a ticket - to a prep game). It's what you do if the goal is achieving USA Today's No. 1 high school ranking, as St. V's was.

LeBron writes: "Was it insane for a high school basketball team to jet around the country? At the time, I thought it was exciting, going places I never ever thought I would get to see in my life when I was a scared, lonely young boy. Now I believe it was excessive. I believe it was too much, for us and every other high school around the country that followed a schedule similar to ours....I can virtually guarantee that when we traveled, there were plenty of promoters who enjoyed a nice payday on us as high school kids, knowing that our presence would fill arenas."

Agassi's new book, Open, is getting attention for admissions about his drug use. Descriptions of what his dad did to raise a tennis champ were as disturbing to me. Actually, more.

This is an excerpt printed in Sports Illustrated:

"I'm seven years old, talking to myself, because I'm scared, and because I'm the only person who listens to me. Under my breath I whisper: Just quit, Andre, just give up. Put down your racket and walk off this court, right now. Wouldn't that feel like heaven, Andre? To just quit? To never play tennis again?

"But I can't. Not only would my father, Mike, chase me around the house with my racket, but something in my gut, some deep unseen muscle, won't let me. I hate tennis, hate it with all my heart, and still I keep playing, keep hitting all morning, and all afternoon, because I have no choice. No matter how much I want to stop, I don't. I keep begging myself to stop, and still I keep playing, and this gap, this contradiction between what I want to do and what I actually do, feels like the core of my life."

Other than shame, what does a parent feel reading that?

From the business of youth sports department

News flash (from the Baltimore Business Journal):

"Under Armour Inc. is going into business with a global sports marketing agency to create a standardized scoring system for youth athletic performance.

"The Baltimore sportswear company and IMG are planning more than 100 global one- to three-day combines for high school athletes next year at which participants will be scored on a range of metrics, including physical attributes, mental stamina and sport-specific skills."