Horny teens and the LSU gymnast

Travel baseball and softball, and other club sports, are a concept born in the last 30 years. Before that there wasn't much else but American Legion baseball for high schoolers and AAU for hoopsters in the hinterlands. Nowadays there's an outlet for just about every sport except for football, and college camps fill that void.

 

https://www.oregonlive.com/highscho...after-unsolicited-messages-to-teen-girls.html

 

I think if we disorganized sports early, we'd get more kids getting more exercise and having more fun.

The more rigidly we organize and regiment sports, the more exclusionary they become.

"That's why Americans are so fat."

 

A guy I work with is fairly frustrated because his 1st grade son wants to play basketball. There are two options in town: rec league where all the dad coaches think every game is the NBA finals or the YMCA where before each game you hold hands and discuss how nice it might feel to let the other team win today.
There is no in between where kids can learn to play and enjoy a sport.

 

Its first grade — holding hands is just fine. More so then playing every game to win. If he wants his kid to learn how to play, he should take him to the gym and they can work together for 30 minutes on dribbling, passing and the basics of footwork. Even better if he brings one of his friends along.

 

This is my second year coaching REC league basketball. My son is in third grade. I’ve never had any issues with any of my parents being lunatics.

Last year, we won the championship coming out of the loser’s bracket, meaning we had to beat the same team twice in two days to win it all. During the first game, the opposing coach got T’ed up, one of his dads got ejected, and one of his players got a flagrant foul. All I did was point out to my kids how relaxed they were compared to the other guys, and they rode that to the title.

The main (and maybe only) goals at that age are to foster love of the sports, learn to be part of a team, and have enough fun that they come back next year.

 

We ran into that with my daughter this year. She was a really good Y player but was bored because of the lack of competitiveness. The local travel team asked her to join the group that has been together for over a year. The Y coached the aggressiveness out of her so she's playing catchup with how blood and guts the new league is .

 

Have you seen photos that Olivia Dunn herself posts on her social media? She's wearing a lot less than a gymnastics uniform.

 

I’ve looked several places and I cannot find any indication of an unruly crowd or uncomfortable scene at last Friday’s meet in Lexington. Dare we contemplate that Livvy asking her fanbois to chill might have worked?

 

American Legion baseball is dying around here.

 

Someone was escorted out of the arena in Lexington, an older guy, I think. It was on at happy hour and we were trying to figure out what was happening.