Anyone who has seen sports on TV or watched sports movies has heard the comment “Act like you’ve been there before!”  Of course, it refers to professional athletes over-celebrating and acting stupid after doing something expected of them in a game.  They’re professionals, so act like a professional………

When it comes to high school sports, remember, these are KIDS!  At this level, they’re supposed to act like they’ve NEVER been there before!  Encourage the fun aspects of playing sports!  Now, I’m not saying that they should celebrate and “act the fool” every time they make a tackle, score a point or swim a lap.  As a matter of fact, you see way too much of that behavior at the professional and collegiate levels!  Talking about acting like you’ve been there before!

Basically, high school sports have become corrupted by their professional counterparts.  Now, instead of just recruiting for colleges, scouts are out on the playground recruiting for high schools.  Of course, they don’t call themselves recruiters, as that would violate the rules of high school athletics.  Instead, they are just folks “persuading” 13 year olds of the future they could have playing “big time” high school sports.  “Come here and you can be a star!”

It’s understood that sports at the college level creates quite a bit of revenue for that particular college and of course, sports at the professional level is pure money for entertainment.  To put the same emphasis on high school sports is horrible.  High school sports should be fun, competitive and a platform for young student-athletes to develop, not just physically, but also mental toughness, team work, decision making, committment, comradarie, etc.

Don’t confuse the “fun” attitude with a non-committed or immature attitude towards sports by the student-athlete.  They obviously should take things serious, as far as focus and dedication goes.  Also, there is a certain amount of maturity needed, as it is part of the process of being recruited by colleges for a scholarship.  For many, sports may be the ONLY way to get into college.  The key is that you CAN be a serious high school athlete AND have fun and a love of your sport at the same time.  After all, that is how all athletes started out, as a young kid just “playing” sports for fun!

For example, you have a 13 year old volleyball player.  She’s already 5′ 11″, can sky and spike like a pro, quick on the court, great setting skills and aggressive.  It’s obvious she has it all.  But as she works to get better with her game, her future is already being planned “off” the court.  She already stars for her club team and no doubt will soon be the star on her high school team.  True, volleyball may be her path into college, but hopefully she will not forget, in the midst of all the hoopla, the reason she first started to play at the Y every weekend was because she simply loved the game…….