Times have changed in some ways since I’ve played Youth Sports and some things have stayed the same.

Parents still think their child is the best player ever and think they should be the team superstar. The coaches kid gets tons of playing time whether it is deserving or not.

A disturbing trend I’ve noticed recently is the lack of interest from the kids playing. Apathetic.

Void of feeling; not susceptible of deep emotion; passionless; indifferent.

Some just don’t seem to want to even be there. Better yet, they say they hate the sport they are playing. They don’t want to even try. Yeah, I remember practices being boring when I was growing up too but aren’t the games at least suppose to be fun?

So what is their motivation for playing? Are they doing it just to have an activity, peer pressure, parental pressure, or some unknown force? Maybe they just haven’t found their thing yet or are afraid to admit what activity they really want to do.

If they are playing because their parents are forcing them to, I wish the parents would consider the teammates and coaches when they do this. Teammates get frustrated with an apathetic attitude and coaches don’t know how to handle kids who don’t care.

Then you have the segment of coaches that want to win at any cost. Isn’t the goal at a young age to develop your players and teach fundamental skills so they can succeed later. Right now they are young but eventually they will be in middle school and high school together playing on the same team, fighting for the same cause.

It seems the kids are beating down the kids on opposing teams. Trashing talking them because of being on opposite teams. When in reality, they are going to be teammates with each other in just a short few years.

From my years growing up, the common denominator with successful teams is a TEAM attitude. No, you don’t have to like everyone on your team but you need to respect your teammates and get along for the common good.

The win at any cost attitude really irks me. Of course, I want to win. Do I want to win at the expense of the children on the other team who are part of my community? I want to win because we are that good and the opposition is that good. I don’t want to win because of the mistakes another team makes.

I want to win playing our best, playing the best.