Youth Sports: Fascination or Fetish?

by Tyduffy

The Little League World Series has gained a stunning amount of popularity in recent years, much more so than its college counterpart.  The small team from (fill in small town here) taking on the best teams from all over the world provides an instant narrative for local and national columnists.  ESPN now televises it nationally, shows highlights on Sportscenter, and has the scores running in the ticker.  The fact that one of the Japanese kids contracted the measles was even a front page story on ESPN.com!  It is undoubtedly an appealing event, and one that generates a lot of money, but is this really good for the kids involved?

Fascination with youth sports on a national scale originally began with women's sports, such as figure-skating and gymnastics, where girls not even old enough to be in high school are somehow deemed "women" and allowed to compete in senior international competitions.  This is particularly true for gymnastics where the onset of puberty is actually delayed as girls are trained/starved (no they are not all naturally 4 1/2 feet tall little freaks of nature).  Just the training leaves a horrific physical and psychological legacy, let alone the intense pressure of competing on an international stage.

In recent years, a similar phenomenon has spread to others sports.  Basketball websites scout kids who aren't even in high school yet.  USC basketball coach Tim Floyd recently offered a scholarship to an 8th grader.  ESPN has their top 150 prospects for football, where kids become stars and have press conferences before they even step foot in a college classroom.   Large brands like Nike have become an increasing presence on high school campuses, contracting for teams' uniforms.

One has to ask what kind of affect this type of pressure has on the children.  Is it right for a 12 or 13 year old to have the entire world watching him on national television when he strikes out with the bases loaded to lose the game?  Or is it right for a promising young talent like Michelle Wie to have been thrust in front of the men when she was 14, and declared a bust by age 17?  Such intense pressure can foil even the toughest of fully grown adults, so why is it placed upon kids who haven't even gone through puberty yet?

Another disturbing trend is the professionalization of these youngsters.  As a high-school senior O.J. Mayo makes the unilateral decision to endow USC's basketball program with his presence.  Because, he likes Tim Floyd or USC's program and tradition?  No, because he wanted to be the star of a program in a major media market to improve his marketing value.  Why is an 18 year old worried about his potential to sell himself as a corporate product?

Is this trend toward youth affecting our sports as we know it as well?  Could the NBA's decline in fundamentals be due to immensely talented kids being coddled and set loose by overindulgent coaches who concern themselves only with winning, rather than the kid himself multitude of incidents of immaturity that occur across college football and the NFL?

Our athletes, through better workout regimens the brilliance of modern science, have gotten stronger and faster, but they are now also getting younger.  The rampant corporatism that has stained our professional and college sports is now spreading like an enraged amoeba through high-school and even lower.  Where does the madness end?  When we are scouting kids with genetic testing out of the womb?  Here are ESPN top 150 prospects for 2025.  Here is Chad Ford with the two year old's potty-train-ability ratings.

Kids should be allowed to grow up without the microscope and pressure of the national media.  It should be a time for a young adolescent to discover awkwardness, body hair, and the opposite sex.  None of this should involve performing for scouts, checking your rating on websites, and enhancing your marketability for endorsement deals.  The increasing obsession with younger and younger athletes has evolved from unhealthy fascination to a sick fetish.

Scouting an 11-12 year old for athletic talent is one slight step above being the creepy guy wearing a trench coat entranced by the 6th grade boys basketball game, despite the fact that he has no relationship to any of the kids playing.  The obsession with youth, is sick and wrong, and the national media should show a bit more class and not simply jump on an easy narrative for a quick column.

Originally published here.