**(and values) of Caitlyn Clark**
That’s nice. But our Sunday School lost a girl to Sunday basketball practice and league tournaments. Getting that college scholarship is more important donchaknow. Thousands of parents will spend a lot of time and money trying to raise the next Caitlin.
We ran our youngest son to a bunch of saturday practices and tournaments from his 10 to 15 years. He was a dribbling and passing machine. Not greedy, but could shoot too.
His older brother won a state football championship (IL 2A 1998), and suddenly basketball was not important anymore.
I’ve seen a lot of that. A kid burns out on a sport before he’s old enough to drive car.
My sons would marvel at my handling of livestock, my metalcrafting, my mechanic skills, and my driving and piloting ability. I would tell them, “you don’t learn that stuff spending your time playing ball somewhere.”
Caitlin is a natural athlete who clearly had her talents nurtured... She played all kinds of sports, and was successful in them too.. she played HS Soccer through her Sophomore year of HS as well as Basketball. I believe she averaged something like 3 goals per game in her sophomore year, or something ridiculous like that.
There is nothing wrong with sports, but most folks are not going to be able to go pro playing them, even if they are very very good at them.
I do think there is a lot of crazy focus on sports in some aspects, parents pushing their kids hard at young ages in sports, and most of its waste effort, if its a kids passion they will stick it out, if its not they will burn out.
My middle daughter plays HS sports, she enjoys them, but she’s not a natural athlete, in a bigger school she probably wouldn’t even make the team, but she enjoys it, and she works as hard, and in many cases harder that even the most talented players on her team. Me nor her mother have ever pushed her to play any of the sports she plays, but she enjoys them and we will support her. I have zero delusions about her being an athlete, or about her ever being recruited to play in college, but as long as she enjoys it and wants to do it, we’ll continue to support her.
I don’t know if kids BURN OUT on sports, or they realize they don’t have the skill and talent needed to play at the level the coaches expect of them... Or just find other interests. Nearly every organization that involves kids finds it hard to retain kids once they get into their teen years, as they find different interests and move on... Doesn’t matter if its sports, or scouting, or church groups, or whatever it is... once the kids get to a certain age they just develop other interests and leave past ones behind...