A Dad Recovering From Modern Day Sports
1) The Culture Is Different
The American culture in youth sports has changed drastically over the last 10 years. The average parent has totally lost the concept of “teaching life through sports.” Even a decade ago, there was still moral influence involved in athletics. Now, things have taken a turn for the worse. As a matter of fact, Christianity is no longer tolerated as a generally moral religion. Instead, any mention of Christ is viewed as a threat on a child’s well-being. The OKC Ambassadors have been dismissed from multiple tournaments and baseball complexes for sharing our faith.
2) Parents Have Been Lied To
Parents, you have been lied to. For approximately 15 years there has been a growing “truth” that the more games and tournaments your child plays, the better. Instead, the opportunity cost of playing so many games and traveling so many weekends has caused increased burnout for young athletes. In addition, it has seemingly decreased the value of family. The lie that parents have believed has created a competitive environment in sports. But not the healthy competition of athletics. Instead, it is parent against parent.
3) Peer-Pressure Affects Adults
Parents are falling into peer-pressure. The narrative states that “the only way to be a good parent is to provide your child every opportunity to play sports.” The consequence to this insecurity in parenting has resulted in the local church being the victim. When parents do decide to take a weekend off, they constantly second-guess their decision to go to church when they are scrolling through social media and seeing other families hold up trophies from tournaments they chose to play.
4) Daddy-Ball Is Not The Issue
Daddy-ball is NOT the issue; it is an excuse. Children would LOVE for their fathers to be involved in youth sports again. Instead, there has been an excuse of allowing the “professional” to coach their kid, because this will give their child the best opportunity to play in college or professionally (and yes, we are talking about 6-year-olds).
5) Trust Your Coaches
Whoever does choose to coach your child needs to be supported by you. The greatest opponent to a little league team is the behind the scenes gossip that happens in the car after a game. Instead of teaching their child to respect, obey and submit to the coach, parents undermine the authority of their child’s coaching staff, which is directly causing their child to sin (Romans 13). Sports are supposed to teach children how to take instruction; but when parents undermine the coaches, the children are trained to not trust those who are in a position of authority. This has had a catastrophic impact on the upcoming generation.
6) Close The Yearbook
Parents, it is time to close the yearbook. Your playing days are over. It is your child’s turn to have fun! Instead, we have fathers who are living through their kids on the playing surface. This is exhibited through parents yelling at their kids during games, creating unnecessary pressure (sports has enough pressure as it is), and overstepping the responsibility of the coach. Whether your child plays college athletics (or not) is irrelevant in comparison to the finite amount of years that you have to create a strong, Biblical relationship with them.
THE SOLUTION
The OKC Ambassadors have realized these problems and are directly going head-to-head against them. Our desire is to re-establish the purpose and intent behind youth sports. Athletics are nothing but an excuse for children to be trained through discipline (oh yeah… while having fun!). Parents must take back control of their child’s spiritual well-being and refuse to make the exchange of a child’s athletic future for what will last for all of eternity.
~ an anonymous dad who found the Ambassadors
