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Sports Opinion

Random Musings
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There are serious injuries that keep cropping up at very early ages. Arms and knees in particular. Today, it is not uncommon that baseball players have to have the Tommy John surgery very early in their careers. Knees have sidelined many a player and cost them much playing time and careers.

Despite the advice of many who study these things, others that have been there, done that and people who are the recipients of the multiple sport athletes, the trend is still to put all the eggs in one basket at a very early age and hope for the best?? at the cost of millions. History is on the side of multiple, but as occurs in so many decisions, people do not listen to history. They know best. The sage advice is when one is young (4-14) one should follow the sport seasons and not stop on just one. Several reasons pop up. Having all eggs in one basket can lead to the humpty-dumpty problem and no place to turn. There is always the problem of burnout and dropout. Playing different sports keeps one fresh in the sport and eager to learn. Kids by nature are curious and like to try new things. Devoting all their time to one thing makes them miss so many things of possible enjoyment, especially their childhood.

Some of the detriments to year round sports is the ever present injury. Like any machine with moving parts, continued use of a part will eventually wear it out. So it is with the human body. There needs to be a time of rest and repair. There are serious injuries that keep cropping up at very early ages. Arms and knees in particular. Today, it is not uncommon that baseball players have to have the Tommy John surgery very early in their careers. Knees have sidelined many a player and cost them much playing time and careers.

There is the possibility that even though one likes a sport they will not be good enough to advance through the phases of their goal. There will come a time when the talent chute starts narrowing and only lets a few through. For schools, this occurs at the middle school level. Even so, the schools really need to have an alternate program for those who do not make it. There comes a time, regardless of talent, the reality is this. Only eleven will start in football and soccer, five in basketball and golf, six in tennis and volleyball, nine in baseball and softball, seven in cross country, three in each event in swimming and track. The rest will be considered reserves but putting in the same amount of practice, time and work.

The more fortunate athletes are those that attend the smaller school systems. They have the opportunity to participate in as many sports as they desire without pressure to specialize. In fact, they are usually encouraged to do so. One knows that a person with talent is usually a good athlete in multiple sports and can contribute to the success of all. Dripping Springs has long been a school that has encouraged students to participate in multiple sports by making concessions when seasons overlap. It is understood that few will continue beyond high school and they should enjoy the high school experience as much as possible, which also carries into a lifetime experience.

No doubt I am considered “Old School” and that in my eyes is not always a bad thing. There are so many things we practiced in athletics back in the day that are still enduring and others that went obsolete but have been found worthy of bringing back. So it points out that we were actually doing some things right and that makes one feel good to know.

One of the areas that disappoints is how schools now treat their school name and colors. There was always a pride in those things during my days. When ordering uniforms we only got to order the basics and for sure one only considered the school colors when ordering game uniforms. Today, the trend, no doubt to the glee and urging of the sports apparel industry, is to have a different uniform for every occasion and maybe it will include school colors. For some reason gaudy seems to be in. Hard to take pride in school colors when you cannot discern what they are by looking at uniforms.

We are in an age where people do not have the skill of spelling, writing complete words or sentences. If their devices cannot do it for them, it does not get done. I have a problem with people that shorten Dripping Springs to Drip. My vocabulary may not be that large but nowhere in it is being called “A Drip” complimentary. This goes all the way back to my early days of coaching in the 60's. We were a small school playing all the other small schools in the area, like Liberty Hill, Leander, Bertram, Blanco, Johnson City and others. When we would go to their places to play they would have a little ditty that the student body would love to chant. I was talking with one of my players from the time about this and it had made a good enough impression on him that he could recite the entire ditty. It finished up with the phrase “I would rather be a ???, than a Drip from Dripping Springs.

 

Dripping Springs Century-News

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Dripping Springs, Texas 78620

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