I once questioned the point of the Upward Basketball Program in which teams played against each other yet no scores were kept. However, after watching enough high school basketball teams compete over the last 4 to 5 years, I have begun to reassess my judgment about the Upward Basketball Program. The reasons are numerous, and could certainly be addressed by a strong and intelligent unfettered by local politics and racial biases–a concept captured brilliantly in a short quote by Jackie Chan.
Sadly, while Mr. Chan is obviously correct, I’m not sure that most high school athletic directors or administrators, likely infected by the same political parasitic/symbiotic virus as high school coaches, care enough to “rock the boat” out of I tsnocfear of upsetting the delicate balance of the local political climate.
My personal experience has been that parents with the most offensive player/offspring did not themselves excel at sports (as I personally did) and are creating selfish offspring who care more about racking up stats, making All-Tournament Teams and being named Player of the Game, than they care about winning and will simply stop passing to more talented players with a “hot hand” to the point of losing a game so that another talented player will not score more points at the risk, “God forbid!”of being named Player of the Game or knocking them from an All-Tournament team, and, hence, disapppointed unathletic daddy–who is living vicariously through his offspring to the point of raising, not a well-balanced, compassionate daughter, but instead a selfish, semi-sociopathic daughter, determined to bring Daddy home yet another trophy he didn’t earn (unless cashing in political favors constitutes “earnings” in the wacky world of high school sports).
Apparently, I am far from the only one observing (and reporting on) America’s epidemic of parents, in a very unhealthy way for both parent and child), as one can read in the links below.
https://gamedayeveryday.wordpress.com/2014/05/29/how-parents-are-ruining-high-school-sports/ How Parents are Ruining High School Sports”
http://www.everydayhealth.com/depression/some-parents-live-out-dreams-through-their-children-8685.aspx “Some Parents Live Out Dreams Through Children Study Confirms”
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-power-prime/201112/sportsparenting-red-flags-over-invested-sports-parents “Sports/Parenting: Red Flags for Over-Invested Sports Parents”
Are you over invested in your children’s sports participation?”
If you spot one of these “overinvested parents” at the next high school sporting event you attend, and you are fully armored, why don’t you try to suggest they follow the light back to their own reality and let their children enjoy the moment, while learning valuable lessons about teamwork and compassion that might just allow them a fighting chance as an adult.
Addendum: My daughter is a senior captain on the team l described above and has received scholarship offers in basketball (many dozens), tennis and even in rowing (a sport in which she has neither participated nor seen), ranging from schools in the Big 10 to the PAC 12, and I am not writing out of sour grapes. My daughter has selected the sport she will play at at the next level and the top tier academic school at which she will play.
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