I have noticed that more and more student athletes are playing fewer sports.
This is in large part due to their being forced to choose between sports by parents, coaches, teams or whomever.
Whatever the reason may be, it should stop.
While specialization in sports does intensify the competition and streamline the talent, the reason kids play sports is for fun, or at least it should be.
When kids have to pick a certain sport to focus their entire adolescence (sometimes younger) on, they are losing the chance to meet new people, learn values and play another game that they love.
Most of the time parents are the aggressors in this decision because they want their kids to be the best and get scholarships. But by forcing their kids to specialize in a sport, parents are choosing their children’s paths for them.
High school is a time when you shape the person that you will become, and when you are forced into a single scenario for those four years, that choice becomes meaningless.
Sure, people want to excel at everything they try; that’s human nature. But each and every person should also be able to try, and fail, before he or she commits totally to something.
