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Student Submission

"The Truth About Club Sports" -an opinion piece by Reese Reule


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This assignment originated with the summer reading textbook Student Voice, a collection of short student-written editorials, published by the New York Times. The students were assigned to read one from each category and annotate, about 12-13 essays. After we discussed several of the essays in the book, each student chose their own topic, wrote a first draft on paper, completed research, participated in peer review and feedback, and then submitted a final, polished third draft. There was a 500 word limit and they had to use two outside sources. Ms. Lowe picked the three strongest essays from each section for a total of 12 finalists. Those finalists were invited to FLEX to revise their essays once again. The revisions were passed along to a panel of judges, Mrs. Kanipe, Madame Tedder, and Ms. Lord, who narrowed down the winners.


At the most competitive soccer game I’ve ever been to, I wasn't watching a professional team. I wasn’t even at a college or high school game. I was watching my little brother’s rec league team play on a Sunday afternoon. Dads were screaming at the refs, yelling at their kid to play better, and caring way too much about the outcome of an eight year old’s soccer game. This type of parent’s pressure on their children has created an extremely competitive and unhealthy environment that has become the new precedent for sports. Because of the overwhelming intensity of children’s sports, an exorbitant amount of pressure is put on kids, causing stress, burn out, and lasting damage to how kids view themselves.


My cousins are one of these families who play competitive soccer. They have practice and games all day every day, basing their lives off of their sport.


Soccer comes first.


That’s the mantra they live by. That’s what so many people in our country live by. Sports first. But what if putting sports first means putting mental health, family, and community in the background?


Sports were intended to be a way to get exercise and relieve stress. So why have they become a source of anxiety instead? Parents yell at their kids during games and then criticize them afterwards. If kids only hear that their parents are proud of them when they play well in sports games, it causes them to associate love and self worth with their performance on the field. And because kids will never play a perfect game, they will never be able to have full confidence in who they are if they derive their identity from the mistakes they make while playing. This mindset causes a decreased view of self worth for the rest of a person’s life, yet the solution could be as simple as telling your child you love them even if they have a bad game.


Because of all this pressure, competitive sports also lead to burnout, causing kids to crumble under the expectations put on them by their parents. When kids are overworked and over criticized it can cause an aversion to sports and exercise, oftentimes leading to a shift in their focus to non active pastimes like video games. And although the excessive playing of a sport partnered with unrealistic standards is definitely not beneficial, exercise is key to living a healthy and more enjoyable life. People who regularly exercise can reduce mortality rates from 21-31%, and exercising also releases positive endorphins, giving those who do exercise a better quality of life (“Exercising more than…”). Becoming burned out can take this away from a child, and instead of encouraging them to exercise, it teaches them that sports only lead to pain and anxiety.


But what’s the point of all of this pressure?


Only 0.00075% of people become professional athletes per year, so all the stress and burnout will lead to nothing except for anxiety and traumatic memories that kids will have to deal with for the rest of their life (“Estimated probability…). Childhood is supposed to be fun and nurturing, not a place where winning a soccer game is the only way to earn love. Parents need to stop trying to live out their glory days through their kids’ sports achievements for the sake of the mental and physical health of the next generation.


Works Cited

“Estimated probability of competing in professional athletics.” NCAA.org, 6 March 2015, https://www.ncaa.org/sports/2015/3/6/estimated-probability-of-competing-in-professional-athletics.aspx. Accessed 16 October 2023.

“Exercising more than recommended could lengthen life, study suggests.” Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 29 July 2022, https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/exercising-more-than-recommended-could-lengthen-life-study-suggests/. Accessed 16 October 2023.

Flanagan, Linda. “Hyper-Competitive Youth Soccer Is Tough on Kids.” The Atlantic, 13 July 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/07/the-downsides-of-americas-hyper-competitive-youth-soccer-industry/565109/. Accessed 15 November 2023.



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