Personal Foul: A Wrong Turn in Youth Sports

Each year 55 million boys and girls participate in youth sports programs on playing fields and inside gymnasiums across America. Roughly 100 million mothers and fathers also are involved as fans, coaches, officials, league organizers and team parents.

The youth sports experience offers a magnificent opportunity to teach life lessons, instill healthy values, and build stronger families and communities. Yet this opportunity is, to a great extent, being squandered.

Increasingly, the positive lessons traditionally associated with sports competition are being undermined by an obsession with winning and a steady diet of screaming coaches, unruly fans, and taunting athletes celebrated by professional leagues and the media.

The emphasis on being No. 1 and the fascination with "in-your-face" behavior is now reflected in our youth sports culture. Far too often, the spontaneous enjoyment and character-building benefits of youth sports are getting lost in a high-pressure, win-at-all-cost environment and increasing episodes of parental violence.

Clearly, we've dropped the ball in youth sports. But there is a way to address these problems. As a culture and as a society, we can minimize the negative influences and maximize the positive values and the educational potential of sports competition. To do this, we need the commitment, involvement and leadership of parents nationwide.

Parents for Good Sports is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to enriching the lives of young athletes and their families through parent-driven, community-based educational programs.