Champion Athleticwear recently conducted a survey in partnership with the National Alliance for Youth Sports. The results were disturbing. Perhaps the most disturbing to me was the fact that 45% of the players responding had considered quitting sports because of their coach’s behavior and 41% said their coach is concerned more about winning than sportsmanship.
Somewhere between 70% and 80% of players quit organized sports by the time they start their freshman year of high school. Coaches should not be contributing to kids dropping out of sports. If 45% of the players answering the poll considered quitting because of a coach, how many kids quit and therefore never took the survey?
Some of the other results:
- 81% agree that athletes today would rather win the game than play completely fairly
- 73% indicate their athletic peers believe it’s cheating only if they’re caught
- 86% of young athletes say they’ve seen trash-talk during games increase as they’ve gotten older – and not just to their teammates; an astounding 81% agree athletes today seem to have less respect for officials.
In response to this, Champion, the National Alliance for Youth Sports and other groups have launched a new Athletes Creed program. It’s a start. But parents, coaches, and everyone else that loves youth sports and believes in all the positives it can provide our kids need to get involved as well.