Will sports parents heed call, limit sports drinks?

If your child's pediatrician diagnosed a contagious bug and prescribed medication, what would you do? Same as most parents, no doubt. Get the medicine. Give it to your kid. When a child's health is at stake, we tend to follow doctor's orders.

Last month, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a widely publicized clinical report regarding kids and sports drinks. The AAP recommended cutting back on such drinks for kid athletes. In so many words, the kids' doctors group found them to be unnecessary at best, and at times even harmful.

Dr. Holly Benjamin of the AAP Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness noted: “For most children engaging in routine physical activity, plain water is best, Sports drinks contain extra calories that children don’t need, and could contribute to obesity and tooth decay."

It's been three weeks since the AAP issued that statement. How many of us have heeded this simple advice? Anyone?

The sport-drink industry isn't exactly urging us to shut the spigot. Gatorade, for one, spends tens of millions each year in sports marketing. According to the Sports Business Journal, the four major sports leagues have deals with Gatorade as do a majority of teams in those leagues. Dozens of star players are paid to pitch the sports drink including Peyton and Eli Manning, Dwayne Wade, Kevin Garnett and Landon Donovan. Seventy-four college programs count Gatorade as a sponsor as do 13 college conferences and 11 bowl games.

Oh, and Gatorade is a highly visible sponsor of high school sports. Next spring, check out the ESPN Rise National High School Invitational Presented by Gatorade. I did last March. In a gym in suburban D.C., it was me, about 700 fans and about 700 Gatorade logos.

Maybe I'm off base and water is about to make a comeback as the kids' thirst quencher of choice. That would please your kid's doctor. It might not make the Manning brothers happy.

The high school stadium with the corporate name

Interesting read in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette about banks and other financial institutions spending big bucks to slap their corporate logos on high school sports venues. The article cites a local deal in which Commerce Bank & Trust bid $1 million for naming rights at Foley Stadium high school field, now "Commerce Bank Field at Foley Stadium."

It's easy to decry this as a distressing escalation in the commercialization and professionalization of sports for kids, which it clearly is. But at least the local bank is writing a big check to the school system.

Compare that to the fee schedule over at ESPN. The sports net has been telecasting high school football games going back 20 years. In 2002 ESPN carried possibly the most-watched high school basketball game of all time: the national TV debut of LeBron James while he was still a high school junior. More recently ESPN has made a major push into prep coverage. In 2007, ESPN2 and ESPNU aired 19 high school football games from 15 different states.

For an article in the Sports Business Journal, I interviewed administrators at two Maryland schools - Good Counsel and DeMatha - that had recently played a football game on ESPN. I asked about the payday. Each school received $1,000.

ESPN makes its move into high school sports

If you're sick over missing your teenager's game at the high school gym last week, here's a thought. Watch the rerun on ESPN.

Not an option for most of us, of course. But the iconic sports media conglomerate has moved into high school sports coverage in a big and - for those of us concerned about the commercialization of kids sports - slightly unnerving way.

Last month, ESPN announced it's staging what sounds a lot like a national "Final Four" for high school boys and girls basketball. The tournament will be televised on ESPN2 and ESPNU and the title game on ESPN on April 5.

That move follows a two-year stretch in which ESPN has been gobbling up smaller (by definition, compared to ESPN) competitors such HoopGurlz.com, StudentSports.com, RiseMag.com, DyeStat.com (a boys and girls cross-country and track Web site) and the entity now known as ESPN Scouts Inc. All that was prelude to ESPN's big move last August - the launch of a high school sports Web site ESPNRise.com.

For me, the most startling thing about coverage of prep sports is to turn on the TV and see a game being telecast live around the globe, with six cameras, replays, analysis, all the trappings of a pro game on TV, knowing some of these kids are 14 years old. At that age, I would have been mortally embarrassed to drop a pop up in front of six fans. Imagine fouling up in front of a worldwide TV audience. I'm trying, but I can't.

Last year, ESPN networks - ESPN2 and ESPNU - aired 19 high school football games from 15 different states, ending with an Arizona prep game Nov. 7.

For a piece in this week's Sports Business Journal, I spoke with a principal at a high school that played in one of the games. John Graham, principal of Our Lady of Good Counsel High School in Olney, Maryland told me that he had concerns about how a football game beamed all over the country can shape perceptions. “We want to make it clear, our kids are here to get an education, not play football,” he said “We don’t want football to be more important than it really is. Yet any time you’re showcasing high school athletes on TV, there’s a danger of that.”

On the other hand, Graham said that he was pleased with ESPN's telecast of Good Counsel's game against DeMatha Catholic High School on Oct. 2 (including the final score, a 42-21 victory for Good Counsel).

“The telecast showed the school in a very favorable light,” the principal said.

One of the more surprising things I learned doing this story is what the schools appearing on ESPN are paid for inviting the TV cameras to their football games. Each school receives a rights fee of....$1,000.

MLB's good deed: The Breakthrough Series

A thumbs up to Major League Baseball for a smart youth sports event it's hosting this week.

The event is the Breakthrough Series, a three-day audition for high school juniors and seniors hoping to play baseball in college. The wrinkle is that that kids participating, for the most part, are from inner cities and disadvantaged backgrounds. They don't have the finances to pay their way to for-profit showcase tournaments.

The Breakthrough Series is being held at MLB's Urban Youth Academy in Compton, Calif. It's a fabulous complex, with diamonds, batting cages and, as impressive, study areas and a wonderful library filled with baseball books. I had the pleasure of visiting in 2006 and meeting the director, former big leaguer, Darrell Miller. I've been critical of MLB for so many blunders over the years. MLB deserves considerable praise for the Urban Youth Academy. It's a gem.

Anyway, the kids participating in the series are coming from all parts of the country. They'll be observed by dozens of college coaches. And their teachers for the week include Rod Carew and Frank Robinson. As one player told me when I shared that news: "Awesome."

I've written about the Breakthrough Series in next week's Sports Business Journal.