Get every kid in the game
Does your 11-year old need Tommy John Surgery?
In my large family, and I'm talking about just the wife and kids here, we have Arsenal, Crystal Palace and West Ham fans among us, and my heart is with Napoli, the city of my father's forebears. Alas, Liverpool and their insufferable die-hards comprise the biggest supporters' section in the household.
Jurgen Klopp, then, is something akin to guest who lived with us for 10 years. That he gave a shoutout to #SaveTheCrew prior to a Liverpool-Manchester United friendly at Michigan Stadium in 2018 was not lost on Columbus Crew fans, whatever their EPL allegiances, and it hit in our household.
Jürgen Klopp holds a SaveTheCrew scarf
by u/fantasyMLShelper in TheMassive
Massive.
Is Klopp a genius? Maybe. He won just about every title a club can win at the league, regional and continental level during his decade in Liverpool. More impressive than his tactical acumen, though, is the humanity and humility with which he carried himself, and carries himself yet. He's a lot like Wilfried Nancy, or vice-versa.
Klopp said he needed a break and stepped down from coaching Liverpool in January of 2024. For the past 12 months he has served as Red Bull's Head of Global Football. Last week, he was in Harrison, N.J., to watch the NYRB lose to NYCFC, a loss which clinched a playoff spot for the Crew.
While he was in the States, Klopp did an interview with The Athletic and it had two takeaways – which were neatly laid out in author Adam Crafton's lede: "Jurgen Klopp insists the standard of MLS is 'constantly increasing,' but says he wants to work toward providing more free access to youth soccer across the United States."
Amen, brother.
According to the Aspen Institute's Project Play, an initiative which tracks youth sports trends and aims to make these sports safer, less exclusionary and less expensive: The average sports family in the U.S. spent $1,016 on their child's primary sport (more affluent families spend double that) in 2024, a 46% increase since 2019. As authors of the most recent study pointed out, that's twice the rate of inflation over the same period. On average, these same families spend another $475, per child, on secondary sports.
In 2010, investigative reporters at The Columbus Dispatch produced a five-part series, "Little Leagues, Big Costs," and they estimated that the unregulated youth-sports industry was a $60-million business in Ohio alone. One surmises, conservatively, that that price has at least doubled.
Where does the money go? If you're a parent, you know. It goes to team registrations, travel and lodging for tournaments, individual camps, private instruction, equipment and uniforms ... It's an arms race. If you're a parent and you don't want little Sammy or Siobhan falling behind, you pony up – because your kid is going to win the athletic-scholarship lottery. Yeah.
Here's the thing about the arms race: According to the Associated Press, "In 2023 there were 23 players elected in the first 10 rounds of the MLB amateur draft who already had the procedure (Tommy John surgery), one year after a record 31 players in 2022. To compare, just three players fit that description in the 2011 draft."
Just the other day, an ex-NHL player was shooting the breeze after a Blue Jackets practice and he described something he'd just read, somewhere, about parents taking their pre-pubescent pitchers in for PREEMPTIVE Tommy John surgery, and their pint-sized goaltenders in for preventative procedures on their hips. I spent a minute surfing around and failed to find corroboration but, in any case, it's easy to believe these modern horror stories. Because they fit.
In an age of specialization, we all know some kid with a blown-out knee or a torn labrum or a partially shredded rotator cuff. That's what happens when you're 13 years old, you're growth plates have yet to turn to bone and you're playing hundreds of (insert single sport here) games over a relatively compressed period of time.
Now, for the grumpy old man rant.
When I was a kid, my mother told us to go outside and don't come home until dark. That's what a "play date" was.
We played touch football in the street, Wiffle ball in the back yard, basketball down at the park and hockey on a frozen pond. We played whatever sport was in-season. We wore uniforms when we played Little League baseball, but we had to wait until we were 9 years old to get the flannels, and we were not allowed to throw curveballs because, we were told, our arms were not ready. In the summer, we walked to the municipal golf course, where we could play unlimited rounds for $10 a season – so long as we played in the heat of the day and didn't bother the early birds or the golf leagues. The same park had tennis courts and a program to teach the game, which was free. I came up in that tennis program and, later, became an instructor. I loved the '70s. I didn't know any kids who had knee surgery.
I loathe the general lack of freedom for today's kids. Helicopter parenting has dovetailed into to over-organized play. Meanwhile, what used to be organized – Middle School sports in public schools, for instance – has been cut back, privatized and industrialized. We used to pay collectively, through tax dollars and/or fundraising, to provide opportunities for all of our kids.
I've written much on this subject over the years (here, for instance). I don't pretend to know all the answers. But Klopp is right, which is why when I saw his recent interview I was compelled to return to the subject. Youth sports, soccer or otherwise, should not be pay-for-play. We should be making a collective investment in our kids' future. All of our kids.
The Aspen Institute defines the "power of sport" as the ability to "build healthy communities where young people from diverse backgrounds can play together, (which is) a foundation for building societal trust." In a word, you might call it "teamwork."
I would encourage anyone, especially parents, to visit the Project Play website (https//projectplay.org). You can read "A Playbook to Get Every Kid in the Game" and "A Playbook to Develop Every Student Through Sports" and "The Children's Bill of Rights in Sports" and much else. The data they generate in their studies are fascinating.
Thanks for reading. I'll be back tomorrow and/or Wednesday with some thoughts on the Crew's penultimate regular-season game and the Blue Jackets' lid-lifter. Click on the link below if you wish to leave a tip. Or, better yet, subscribe if you've yet to. It'll help sustain local, independent disrespect. Grazie.
Michael Arace
