Youth sports theme centers on fun> Conference deals with issue of competition for children

AUGUSTA – Former NBA player and first-round draft pick Bob Bigelow’s interest in the problems with youth sports started after a botched lesson in the pick-and-roll.

Eight years ago, Bigelow was giving a clinic on the offensive technique when he realized that his audience, a group of third- and fourth-graders, wasn’t paying attention. When he ended the session early, the kids ran to a rack of balls and spent the rest of the time shooting hoops.

What he learned from the experience, Bigelow said, was that kids at that age aren’t interested in basketball lessons.

“I was trying to teach them calculus. And do you know what? Kids that age don’t like calculus.” Bigelow said.

Bigelow addressed 250 Maine coaches and administrators at a conference called Competition and the Child: Challenges Confronting Youth Sports, held at the Augusta Civic Center on Friday.

Grade school-age children would rather have fun than win, Bigelow said. Bringing that idea back to youth sports was among the themes of the conference.

Bigelow, a former Boston Celtic, gave the conference’s opening address, after which followed a group of workshops and information sessions with topics such as middle school sports programs, volunteer coaches, select teams, and the relationship between school sports and recreational programs.

ESPN announcer and former Old Town resident Gary Thorne gave the keynote address.

The Maine Center for Coaching Education of the University of Maine, the Maine Recreation and Park Association, the Maine Principals’ Assocation and the Maine Association for Middle Level Education were the sponsors of the conference.

UMaine men’s basketball coach John Giannini led a discussion on coach-parent relations. He told a group of 35 that the best way to eliminate arguments about issues such as playing time is through communication.

“Parents have to understand what you are doing, that the No. 1 thing we are trying to do is teach the kids and make them all better,” Giannini said. “When you expect [the relationship] to be a certain way and it’s not, the relationship breaks down.”

Thorne, a former assistant district attorney, told the audience that too often coaches bend to the will of parents and advised coaches and administrators not to back down when their actions are questioned.

“As an attorney, please don’t make decisions based on whether you are going to get sued or not,” Thorne said. “Don’t let that be the overriding force in the decision process of what you are going to do with your program.”

Bigelow also talked about the early age at which children are encouraged to play on so-called select teams that tend to play long schedules, travel to tournaments and cut athletes from the teams.

He said adults place undue pressure on children who are “star” athletes before they hit puberty, when other children can catch up and surpass a child who is used to getting all the attention.

A 5-foot-11 Michael Jordan, for example, was cut from his junior varsity basketball team at 15 but as a taller high school senior, he got a scholarship to North Carolina.

“We are assessing a child’s current relative ability. But his or her current relative ability could change in five months or five years,” Bigelow said.

The last such conference in Maine was held 20 years ago and had the same title and themes.

Former Waterville school superintendent Skip Hanson, who was named the Robert J. Lahey Sports Medicine Award winner, attended the 1977 conference. He said many of the issues were the same 20 years ago, but the main difference was the inclusion of the state recreation department.

“Now, the recreation department is linked to youth sports,” he said. “Both elements are now working towards a common goal.”

Parents, coaches and administrators must also work to the common goal of making sports fun again, Thorne said.

“The joy of participation – if you can render that to those that play under you, you did it,” he said.