A youth sports thread.

Loss of life, loss of livelihood, global economic meltdown, family health and safety, governmental greed and incompetence. All these things hurt my heart and I have to proactively fight being depressed and overwhelmed about them minute to minute. 1/11

Despite all that, most irrationally, it’s the loss of youth sports that’s the biggest threat to my own mental health. Youth sports is not for every kid (and with pay to play on the rise, it increasingly isn’t), but the impact of youth sports on young lives is immeasurable. 2/11

For me it started by watching the impact youth sports has had my own kids lives: the friendships, the life lessons, the self confidence and self worth, the personal growth. 3/11

Getting deeper into coaching, its became an addiction to observe the impact youth sports can have on the lives of all kids, and especially to be able to play a part in facilitating that impact. 4/11

It must be a small window into how educators feel watching the growth of their students and knowing they helped set the stage for the personal development and life paths altered. 5/11

I love the sports I coach, baseball, soccer and basketball, but for me, youth sports isn’t about skills and drills, athletic development, the rush of competition or the scoreboard. 6/11

For me those things are a necessary and valuable vehicle for teaching and learning life skills like teamwork, resilience, accountability, self discipline and how to work hard to accomplish goals, both individually and in a group. 7/11

For teenagers, it’s also about making connections with peers and adults outside of their normal circles, and a lifeline for the overwhelming social and academic stress they face in an increasingly challenging to navigate world. 8/11

Right now, the window of opportunity for the impact of youth sports in today’s teen’s lives shrinks day by day, and it’s painful to think about. 9/11

So instead I’ll focus on how lucky those of us with our health are, for our healthcare heroes and our everyday heroes performing essential services, for our friends and family and our communities (virtual or socially distant as they may be right now). 10/11

But despite what my head tells me I should be worried about, my heart keeps coming back to the loss of youth sports. 11/11