|
  |
|
|
Is Little League Dying?
By Walter David
Little League baseball, for reasons as sweeping as changes in American society, does not have the stronghold on youngsters it did a generation ago. Why are some leagues shrinking? And even where they're not, why do so many officials feel enthusiasm for the game have fallen? I have been involved in my home town’s little league program for the past 6 years. I also followed the program for the last 20 years. During that 20 year span, I saw our Little League drop from 4 teams - 52 kids to 2 teams – 20 kids. The drop in the number of kids has been astounding. We’ve tried everything we could to get parents attention. They simply don’t have the time to get their kids involved or they don’t really care. Is it because kids have too many other things going on to really want to be out on the ball field every day, like playing fast paced video games such as Wii or X box? Kids seem to be entranced when playing those games and they play them for hours at a time. So it would seem to reason that many youngsters want their sports at video-game speed, with nonstop action. Little League can be boring at times. Those video games might be fast paced but the kids sit on their butts all day to play them. Nothing can replace the value a kid gets by going outside for exercise, meeting new friends, learning a new sport and learning teamwork. And that is what little league provides. Is it because parental participation has declined? The increase in single-parent households makes attending games let alone volunteering to coach difficult. And even in two-parent families, in many instances both mother and father are working. As one coach said to me, Little League is a glorified baby-sitting service. Some parents drop kids off and pick them up three hours later. They don’t realize that little league needs parents to help run the league. Because you don't see the same level of commitment and involvement from parents as you might have 20 years ago, kids don't get that reinforcement they need. The first thing a kid does after getting a hit and reaching first base is look up in the stands for his parents. There is nothing more disheartening than to see the disappointment on the kid’s face when there is no parent there. Little league might not be dying but like an outfielder racing backward, it may be approaching a warning track. |
|
 |
|
PLEASE VISIT THE CONTRIBUTOR'S WEBSITE
No reactions yet.
Please login or sign up to rate this intel.
Please login or sign up to add a comment.
The copyright for this content entitled "Is Little League Dying?" has been specified by the contributor as:
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
Details 
This content may be copied, distributed, and modified, as long as a) the original author is acknowledged with a link back to the content page, and b) if the work is modified, the result is distributed with this same license.
If you use this content according to the license specified, you must link to the following URL:
http://buddy1227.qondio.com/
|
|
May, 2012
2008
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2009
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2010
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2011
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2012
January, February, March, April, May
|
|
Not a member yet?
Qondio is a powerful network for making it online. If you have a website to
promote, we can help.
Sign up and get in on the action.
|
|
Welcome to Qondio! Discover the awesome power this network can deliver by going to our About page. Or you could skip straight to the Sign Up form.
|
|
