Great article by Pat Disabato

[mullin17]

I haven't visited the daily southtown outside of reading this article.
One visit is better than no visits for the DS who generate $ through ads and viewership.

Why would a journalist want a discussion about the decisions families are making for their benefit?
Because most sports journalists have an ego, and this fuels it.

I hear so much about sports being extracurricular activity that in not guaranteed for a student but yet we get articles like this. Is sports larger than life or not. A kid transfer during the middle of the season, so what.
You see stories all the time about commitment, this is an example of the contrary. The same story was told about the IMG transfer. How the kid transferred is an issue as well. The kid transferred to FLA school, I don't think those plans happened overnight. To play Tuesday and take time away from another teammate, to transfer Wednesday is selfish in my opinion.

There are kids that quit or get cut in the middle of the season for behavior reason however that is okay because it fit the agenda.
Good point. But this is a transfer based solely on athletics. Your "sports are an extra-curricular" is not a reason for a kid to transfer to a Basketball school.

There is a strong sense of ownership when I read this article where it should be the other way around. Families pay taxes so schools can exist. Its their choice on what they want to do.
Agreed, they have a choice. When the choice is made is a factor and newsworthy.....

 

[LHSTigers94]

I haven't visited the daily southtown outside of reading this article.
One visit is better than no visits for the DS who generate $ through ads and viewership.

Why would a journalist want a discussion about the decisions families are making for their benefit?
Because most sports journalists have an ego, and this fuels it.

I hear so much about sports being extracurricular activity that in not guaranteed for a student but yet we get articles like this. Is sports larger than life or not. A kid transfer during the middle of the season, so what.
You see stories all the time about commitment, this is an example of the contrary. The same story was told about the IMG transfer. How the kid transferred is an issue as well. The kid transferred to FLA school, I don't think those plans happened overnight. To play Tuesday and take time away from another teammate, to transfer Wednesday is selfish in my opinion.

There are kids that quit or get cut in the middle of the season for behavior reason however that is okay because it fit the agenda.
Good point. But this is a transfer based solely on athletics. Your "sports are an extra-curricular" is not a reason for a kid to transfer to a Basketball school.

There is a strong sense of ownership when I read this article where it should be the other way around. Families pay taxes so schools can exist. Its their choice on what they want to do.
Agreed, they have a choice. When the choice is made is a factor and newsworthy.....

Why when the choice made is news worthy?

 

[Corey90]

Why when the choice made is news worthy?

Because it gives the reporter a story and the coach a voice to cry about how his player left him. Maybe the coach should ask himself why they are leaving. To many kids leaving the past few years. Kids/parents don't just leave and move on. This took time and I am sure a lot of thought. Culturally something seems off there.

 

[mc140]

Kids/parents don't just leave and move on. This took time and I am sure a lot of thought.

People pull kids out at the first sign of adversity all the time. In the past few years we have kids transfer for the following reasons:

-Not enough playing time in a summer league tournament. Kid rode the bench at a neighboring school the following year.

-Not enough playing time in first game of the season. This kid would have played, but up and left after a game.

-My favorite is the mom who pulled her kid out because he had to take the bus home after games. I'm guessing his new school also had the requirement because he was no longer on a roster a year later.

-We also received a baseball player from A LW who transferred in literally the day after he was cut over there. He still had to sit out the year.

-Had a player who thought his path to D1 was at qb. He was a bad QB. Transferred to another school to play qb and was promptly moved to where we had him. He now plays low level D3 football but not at QB.

 

[USD24]

Agree with MC140 on this. Kids leave and move on all the time for the smallest of reasons. In the past few years, I can name a handful of kids who have transferred for various reasons ranging from playing time to coaching philosophy. I guess the difference is that the coach doesn't take the story to the media.

 

[GMAN81]

Warning...long post.

I have said the coach shouldn't be naming names in this and the article shouldn't have been written like it was. But with that said, some parents are totally out of control. What I have found, in general is, the worst parents are the ones who never played much of the game their kids are playing...boys or girls. So, they can't relate from a player or coaching perspective.

When my older son was 7 years old I was coaching him in a youth baseball league. Before I picked the team, my son told me if I could pick a friend of his in his class I should get him. He said that kid was good. So, I took the kid in the third round. Turned out, the kid was very good but wasn't at the tryout which was why I waited.

Then I met the kid's dad. We became pretty good friends for about 10-15 years. I did keep him at arm's length. This guy was a great guy until it came to his kid in sports. Then he became someone who was more out of control than any other parent I even knew or came in contact with or ever saw for that matter. In his youth, the dad had some run-ins with the law and honestly he had a hair trigger and was a crazy guy. On a side note, he never played much baseball at all. He kid was a good little baseball player and dad was convinced he was going to the big leagues. His dad had no idea what competition that kid was going to face...if he was lucky enough to get that far.

So, his dad got the kid into anything and everything he thought, or was told, could help his kid on that quest. The kid took hitting lessons, pretty much all year. He signed the kid up for agility classes. He built a big garage and put batting cages in it with pitching machines, etc. He had instructors come to his garage to give lessons in winter to his son and anyone else interested. He bought a radar gun. All told, the dad spent thousands and thousands of dollars "grooming" his son to fulfill the dad's dream. BUT, the kid wanted to play.

The kid started to lift weights at a young age. The dad had lifted weights at a young age and told me he used to take PED injections. SO, the dad began giving the son "supplements" like Hot Stuff when the kid was 10. There were a few times that the kid had to go to the ER with stomach pains. That dad was totally out of control with all of that stuff. I went to his house with a friend of mine who had a lot of experience in weight lifting, supplements and the effects it can have on the body. He told the dad to knock that off...but the dad didn't listen.

It got to the point that you couldn't have a conversation with the dad because all he wanted to talk about was his kid and how good he was. I started to see less and less of the dad, but stayed in contact.

Time went on and his kid and mine went to different high schools. My son wasn't a great athlete but he did play two sports and he was on the field and didn't sit. His son stuck to baseball and was on the varsity team as a freshman. As high school went on my son improved and his son got to a certain point and started to level off. The kid was practically living on Creatine, etc.

The kid went to a four year college. By then more PEDs were added to his diet. So much so, he had to be rushed to the hospital because he was having trouble with his heart rate during a work out. He spent a couple of days in the hospital. The kid didn't get much playing time as a freshman. So, dad took him out of that school and enrolled him in a JUCO in hopes of a DI scholarship. The PEDs continued. By now, the kid was pretty big.

The kid had a very good sophomore year at the JUCO and had a few offers. The coach at WIU saw him play and went down to talk to him. One of the first questions the WIU coach asked was whether the kid was taking something or not. The kid denied it. He went for a visit but turned them down. He had another offer south of Illinois at a DI school and chose that school.

He had a good junior year but people there suspected him of PED use. The football coach was one of them. During the fall of the kid's senior year he was lifting weights with the football team. He was out lifting most of them. The football coach suggested he be tested for PED and guess what? The kid tested positive for several and was ruled ineligible for his senior season and baseball was over...for good. The old man lost his mind after the appeal the son made was denied.

From that point on, I almost never saw the dad. The kid ended up having a run in with the law and was arrested down there and has a felony conviction on his record. I heard the dad had been abusing the mother for years. The kid did get himself straightened out and is doing pretty well now. I haven't spoken to the dad since 2010 but from what I understand he and the mom are still married.

I know this is a terrible story but I am betting it isn't the only one out there and that is scary. By the way, my son still gets along with the kid although the kid doesn't live in Illinois.

 

[Jiggs]

His dad had no idea what competition that kid was going to face...if he was lucky enough to get that far.

Dr. Thank you for the story. I think the above quote distills much of the unrealistic expectations some have re the landscape for recruiting. College recruiting today is on a scale not imagined even ten years ago.

Exhibit 1 is Coach Harbaugh;
"- It's Week 2 of Jim Harbaugh's barnstorming tour of the United States world with 39 satellite camps in 22 states, American Samoa and Australia."
http://www.cbssports.com/college-fo...coach-jim-harbaughs-infamous-satellite-camps/

A kid can be the best football player on his team or even his conference. That kid probably was the best kid on the field since he was 6 years old. It would not be unusual for that child's parents to think their child is on there way to a big time college scholarship. In fact it would be unusual if they did not feel this way.

Here is the rub. In today's world that kid is not only competing for one of 25 scholarships that a FBS team can offer with the kids in his geographic area, he is competing with these kids on a national and/or international basis.

 

[Corey90]

Warning...long post.

I have said the coach shouldn't be naming names in this and the article shouldn't have been written like it was. But with that said, some parents are totally out of control. What I have found, in general is, the worst parents are the ones who never played much of the game their kids are playing...boys or girls. So, they can't relate from a player or coaching perspective.

When my older son was 7 years old I was coaching him in a youth baseball league. Before I picked the team, my son told me if I could pick a friend of his in his class I should get him. He said that kid was good. So, I took the kid in the third round. Turned out, the kid was very good but wasn't at the tryout which was why I waited.

Then I met the kid's dad. We became pretty good friends for about 10-15 years. I did keep him at arm's length. This guy was a great guy until it came to his kid in sports. Then he became someone who was more out of control than any other parent I even knew or came in contact with or ever saw for that matter. In his youth, the dad had some run-ins with the law and honestly he had a hair trigger and was a crazy guy. On a side note, he never played much baseball at all. He kid was a good little baseball player and dad was convinced he was going to the big leagues. His dad had no idea what competition that kid was going to face...if he was lucky enough to get that far.

So, his dad got the kid into anything and everything he thought, or was told, could help his kid on that quest. The kid took hitting lessons, pretty much all year. He signed the kid up for agility classes. He built a big garage and put batting cages in it with pitching machines, etc. He had instructors come to his garage to give lessons in winter to his son and anyone else interested. He bought a radar gun. All told, the dad spent thousands and thousands of dollars "grooming" his son to fulfill the dad's dream. BUT, the kid wanted to play.

The kid started to lift weights at a young age. The dad had lifted weights at a young age and told me he used to take PED injections. SO, the dad began giving the son "supplements" like Hot Stuff when the kid was 10. There were a few times that the kid had to go to the ER with stomach pains. That dad was totally out of control with all of that stuff. I went to his house with a friend of mine who had a lot of experience in weight lifting, supplements and the effects it can have on the body. He told the dad to knock that off...but the dad didn't listen.

It got to the point that you couldn't have a conversation with the dad because all he wanted to talk about was his kid and how good he was. I started to see less and less of the dad, but stayed in contact.

Time went on and his kid and mine went to different high schools. My son wasn't a great athlete but he did play two sports and he was on the field and didn't sit. His son stuck to baseball and was on the varsity team as a freshman. As high school went on my son improved and his son got to a certain point and started to level off. The kid was practically living on Creatine, etc.

The kid went to a four year college. By then more PEDs were added to his diet. So much so, he had to be rushed to the hospital because he was having trouble with his heart rate during a work out. He spent a couple of days in the hospital. The kid didn't get much playing time as a freshman. So, dad took him out of that school and enrolled him in a JUCO in hopes of a DI scholarship. The PEDs continued. By now, the kid was pretty big.

The kid had a very good sophomore year at the JUCO and had a few offers. The coach at WIU saw him play and went down to talk to him. One of the first questions the WIU coach asked was whether the kid was taking something or not. The kid denied it. He went for a visit but turned them down. He had another offer south of Illinois at a DI school and chose that school.

He had a good junior year but people there suspected him of PED use. The football coach was one of them. During the fall of the kid's senior year he was lifting weights with the football team. He was out lifting most of them. The football coach suggested he be tested for PED and guess what? The kid tested positive for several and was ruled ineligible for his senior season and baseball was over...for good. The old man lost his mind after the appeal the son made was denied.

From that point on, I almost never saw the dad. The kid ended up having a run in with the law and was arrested down there and has a felony conviction on his record. I heard the dad had been abusing the mother for years. The kid did get himself straightened out and is doing pretty well now. I haven't spoken to the dad since 2010 but from what I understand he and the mom are still married.

I know this is a terrible story but I am betting it isn't the only one out there and that is scary. By the way, my son still gets along with the kid although the kid doesn't live in Illinois.

Dr
That is a terrible story but I am sure your right and many parents do take it to the extreme. I guess the
problem I have is the coach and reporter calling the kids name out. I still think something is wrong with the team culture if they are losing as many kids as pointed out in an earlier post. I can't think of one kid quitting or moving on to another school during my 2 sons high school days. Certainly no one that was a starter or receiving playing time.

 

[Cross Bones]

Yup I dont think anyone here is defending overzealous parents, rather attacking the fact that the writer went negative on a specific HS kid and parents AND wrote a one sided article.