Fawcett takes issue with extreme sports parenting

Adding another name to the youthsportsparents honor roll. That is, a list that recognizes pro and Olympic athletes for speaking up about sports parenting taken to the extreme.

Joy Fawcett won two gold medals playing for the U.S. Olympic soccer team. Now she has three soccer-playing daughters, age 8, 12 and 15, who play competitively but mostly for fun.

In Saturday's San Jose Mercury News, Fawcett says she often (too often) sees many parents "stomping around on the sidelines." She told the paper, "Parents just go a bit crazy."

We know.

Fawcett was involved in starting a youth soccer club in Orange County, California. She's also an activist of sorts speaking about responsible sports parenting. On our list of outspoken athletes, she joins, among others, Dusty Baker, Wayne Gretzky, Joe Dumars and Mark Messier.

As concussions mount, a better hockey helmet

I'm linking to a short take in BusinessWeek (second item) on the new M11 hockey helmet. The story is that this helmet protects against head injuries far better than the helmets almost everybody is wearing, NHL to biddy leagues.

Head injuries in hockey are getting closer attention these days. As I write in the BW article, some studies indicate that 10 to 20 per cent of teen hockey players suffer a concussion each season. If that is so, many - most? - teen players are affected before they hang up their skates after high school. And that says nothing about other head blows, ones that, while serious, do not cause concussions. Chilling stuff.

Mark Messier, the NHL Hall of Famer, helped develop the new helmet with Cascade Sport. Messier is on the board of Cascade Sport. So there's no attempt here to paint this as purely a mission of mercy. Speaking with him about the so-called Messier Project, though, I was impressed that this is about more than making a buck. He hopes to get NHL players to wear the helmet - this year, eight are. And in time, to have millions of kids following the lead of their hockey heroes.

My first question for Messier, who played 25 seasons in the NHL, was: How many concussions did you have in your career? He said he couldn't remember, and we had a laugh - a nervous laugh - about that.

What pro athletes can teach us about youth sports

In the 1980s, I was a reporter for a newspaper in Baltimore assigned to cover the Baltimore Orioles. For eight months each year, I traveled with the team around the country, writing about what I witnessed at the ballpark and occasionally outside the ballpark. This is one of those outside-the-ballpark stories that has stuck with me.

Each season, the Orioles visited New York twice for series against the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. The players, manager, coaches - and us writers - stayed at the Grand Hyatt in Midtown. Some of the traveling party commuted to Yankee Stadium by chartered bus. Occasionally, I hopped on.

As we got close to Yankee Stadium, we got a view of a bunch of athletic fields. Always - in my memory, at least - they were crowded with kids, playing pick-up sports, running, jumping, batting, kicking. Mostly, having fun.

I remember something unexpected. As we approached the fields, heads turned. Conversations ended. Players suddenly (and shockingly, for me) were very interested spectators. I'm not sure what they were thinking. To me it felt like longing. Maybe even envy. (Ironic because the kids on those fields would have been feeling exactly the same things about the big-leaguers.)

What I took from this scene is pretty simple. Pro athletes, more than most of us, understand that sports can provide some of the most carefree moments in a child's life. They also understand that there's no rush about turning sports into a job. I haven't met too many professional athletes who thought travel teams for eight-year-olds was a brilliant idea.

For the past year, I've been keeping a tally of those who have been quoted about keeping sports fun for kids (and managing the ambitions of the coaches and parents). Here’s my list (including one mom): Billy Andrade and Brad Faxon (golf,), Mike Richter, Mark Messier and Wayne Gretzky (hockey), Joe Dumars and Phil Jackson (basketball), Debbie Phelps, mother of Michael (swimming), Tommy John and Jim Poole (baseball).

If you know of others, fill me in.

Reforming youth sports at a large round table

I'm back at my laptop after spending the weekend attending the Lake Placid Sport Forum, a first-time conference to consider the troubled state of youth sports.

About two dozens of us were invited - a college hockey coach, three former U.S. Olympians, two orthopedic surgeons, a physical therapist, a sport psychologist, a radio talk-show host, two former NHL players and last, and perhaps least, six journalists, among others. For a couple of days, we sat around a large round table listening to each other's ideas about where sports for kids went off the tracks and coming up with a plan to do something about it.

Whether we've set the stage for a serious, ongoing effort remains to be seen. I felt privileged to be included.

A word about the organizers. Mara Smith, Lake Placid resident, sports performance consultant, had the idea to bring together a group to talk about a rescue plan for kids and sports. Mike Richter, part-time Lake Placid resident, Yale grad, father of youth hockey players, former New York Rangers goalie, got behind the idea and helped make it happen. Mark Messier, Richter's former Rangers teammate, attended and, like Richter, spoke eloquently throughout the sessions. The Aspen Institute provided support and a terrific moderator in Charlie Firestone.

The issues - how do you persuade parents that travel teams at age 8 actually can prevent kids from reaching their potential as athletes? - are complicated, bordering on intractable. I'm encouraged that 25 people are concerned enough to have spent a weekend talking about it.