Do kids play certain sports because we cover them more?

I'm sure the kids don't give a flying fuck what we do or what we think. We're outside their sphere of influence.

"Whatcha got ain't nothin new. This country's hard on people, you can't stop what's coming, it ain't all waiting on you. That's vanity."

 

If kids are influenced by the media, it's only indirectly. How many high school or middle school kids even read the paper? (For that matter, how many kids read, period?)

Kids pick sports largely because of social reasons... wanting to hang out with their friends. I just did a story on one school's co-ed ice hockey team and that's what all the girls told me. (None are very accomplished.)

Now, the fact that some team sports are in the limelight more than individual sports may be an influence. Go to school on Friday and everyone in the hall is talking about that night's football game. No one seems to mention the state cross country meet, much less lift a finger to attend. So football becomes the "cool" thing to play.

 

if kids play certain sports because of the media, then we've got more power than I thought. at least i am speaking as a print guy. nine out of 10 young athletes i interview these days don't even read the newspaper. maybe they check out YouTube for what they've done, but us print dudes? Nah. it's almost like they think we might still use the rotary phone.

 

THE rotary phone? There's only one left in the whole world?

 

yea, and our paper has it.

 

Kids evolve towards sports they consider fun, which doesn't happen without exposure to those sports. Television and parents influence those decisions most, I'd guess. Newspapers? Not so much, if at all.

 

I don't know how other kids pick their sports, but I know how mine did -- a combination of trial and error, passion that seemed apparent since toddlerhood, and a sprinkling of sibling and parental influence.

 

I think a big reason soccer is so popular is a combination of roster size and safety. Football is the only other sport that so many kids can play, but many parents are afraid to have their little ones getting their blocks knocked off.

Soccer allows a lot of kids to play and doesn't pose nearly the injury risk that football does.

 

Soccer is popular at young ages because it's an easy sport for little kids to figure out. I know there are subtle niceties that come up as the comp gets better, but for a five-year-old, the concept of kick the ball toward that net (and don't use your hands) is easy to get across. By comparison, coaching baseball at that age is like introducing kids to quantum mechanics.

 

That is a quality joke. Well done.

 

Also, soccer, like basketball, has a minimal equipment cost, particularly when compared with baseball and football.

 

Kids do play sports because of their popularity. I recall covering a young man who in high school was a decent basketball player. At the district track championships, the coach called him from the stands and the kid cleared 6-11 jumping in sneakers. Two weeks later, with a pair of track cleats, he won the state meet with a jump of 7-0.
I vividly recall asking him which sport he liked better, he said basketball because people come out to watch it. I told him that you're a good basketball player but there is potential to be an outstanding track star.
He got a D-1 scholarship and did both but I often wondered how much better he would've been had he concentrated solely on track.