Let The Games Begin

The little dribblers team Shane is on starts their playoff run tonight.  They have been practicing for about six weeks to get ready for this, so we are all glad it’s finally time to play.  They should be a decent team with some chance to advance.

Scott is sure doing a good job coaching them.  I’m jealous of his ability to teach what he knows (which is a lot) and communicate with these kids.  Shane is already a lot better basketball player after just this six weeks with Scott.  Shane just loves playing for him and Scott seems to have an ability to connect with Shane and teach him that I have seen in few if any other coaches Shane has had.  I sure don’t have that same ability.  Don’t get me wrong, Shane has a long way to go and can improve lots over where he is now, but within this time frame I do think Scott is getting just about everything out of Shane that he has to give and making him stretch to improve his skills, knowledge and court awareness.

Now if he could just get Shane to dribble left handed….. 

Public School Athletic Programs

What is the purpose of a public school’s athletic program?

What is the purpose of a school district boundary?

How does the first relate to the second?

How does it all relate to the community?  What is the definition of “community”?

Honestly, chime in.  Inquiring minds want to know.

Bless You Archie Manning

“I never thought about them even playing college ball, much less pro football, much less winning Super Bowls or MVPs,” Archie Manning said. “It wasn’t in the plan. We tried to raise kids. We raised kids just like other parents raised their kids.”

Quoted after his youngest son Eli led the Giants to a Super Bowl victory over the Patriots one year after brother Peyton led the Colts to a Super Bowl victory over the Bears, this one comment speaks volumes about what terrific parents Archie and his wife are.  From what I can tell of this family, the Mannings have done a masterful job of raising three young boys into fine young men.  Two of them get an amazing amount of attention as NFL quarterbacks, but don’t you think for a moment that older brother Cooper is anything but a fantastically adjusted, well grounded man.

It couldn’t be any other way with Archie and Olivia Manning as parents.

Read that quote carefully and I think you’ll see buried in it a pride of these young men regardless of whether any of them had ever stepped foot on an NFL field.  In an era when high profile athletes are constantly in the media headlines for all the wrong reasons, here is an entire family about which I have not heard anything but positives.  It is completely refreshing.  In it is a lesson for what each of us as parents ought to be striving for, especially if we have kids in youth sports.

I have had the youth sport conversation multiple times with parents who had enormous dreams for their kids - all focused on their performance on the athletic field and their future on a larger stage in their chosen sport.  A youth focused more on becoming the star athlete than becoming the outstanding person.  A parent constantly pressuring the kid, the coach and anyone nearby who would listen about how wonderful their star athlete was and how important it was for all those listeners to understand exactly why their little Johnny was so much better than all those around them, and how inevitable their greatness was.  A parent whose every move from morning to night seems to be centered on the future stardom of their wonder athlete, and on convincing those around them to make special amends for this stardom even if at the cost of all the “lessor” kids on the team of the moment.

Those (one or two) of you out there that might stumble onto this who see a little of yourself in that last paragraph please take a little time to try to understand how Archie and Olivia have approached raising their kids in an athletic home.  Every moment spent trying to understand the basis of their success could cure you of just a little of the mania you have for your budding phenom.

Please, for all of us, raise a child not an athlete.  If that well adjusted child becomes a premier athlete, you can feel a measure of the pride the Mannings have for all the children they have raised - the two that are premier athletes and the one that cannot be.