In Defense of Organized Sports

You don’t see these remarks very often.

I participated in Catholic Youth Organization, Little league, Pony & Colt baseball programs, and Pop Warner football. Our boys played AYSO soccer and Little League where I coached, managed and umpired.

See David Brooks New York Times July 31, 2005 column “Boys of Summer” at
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/31/opinion/31brooks.html?

I agree with David Brooks:
- “There isn't a [player] who hasn't experienced, along with many moments of glory, crushing moments of defeat”
- “has been one of the most fabulous experiences of our lives”
- “What the critics miss is … the rhythms of disciplined learning and exuberant play”
- “They have … coaches who talk more directly about character, self-sacrifice and discipline than other people in their lives or in their culture”
- “the players develop this emotional resilience, this fatalistic ability to accept the good and the bad, which will serve them well in life”
- “We have seen loutish coaches and parents who live through their kids' glory - the stuff of Little League cliché. But that is rare.”