ESPN reported that the famed soccer club, Real Madrid, signed a 7-year old soccer prodigy to a contract. Seven. Years. Old!!!!? How does one identify a soccer prodigy at that age? Something about that is deeply unsettling to me. Maybe it’s the stealing of a child’s youth to simply enjoy the game. Maybe it’s the way in which a simple game is a money-making machine. In our fast-paced culture, it seems that even children need to grow up faster. I can only imagine the kind of pressure this puts on young athletes as well as their parents. How does a parent make the call on sports for kids? When do you push your kid to make the jump from rec teams to travel teams? A principal from a local high school remarked to me that college teams rarely look at high school teams anymore. The recruiting grounds are the paid travel/club teams. Go to a local park on a Saturday morning and you’ll see the sports factories that require young children as raw materials. This story just reminds me once again of what the world is coming to.
Rev. Lee, Perhaps we should be asking – Has sports become our new religion. Many Sundays I pass the soccer fields in my community & see so many little ones there with their families. I have asked myself – when do they have time to go to church and God?
I believe it was David Goetz who wrote in his book, Death By Suburbia – “Take a look at a sports field on a Saturday morning and you’ll find that the most competitive sport in America is still parenting.”
Lindasue, well said. How sad that sports no longer builds character, but idols!