Headlines From The Nation's Press

Each week we open the show with some of the most glaring and reoccurring stories chronicling the ugliness surrounding youth sports organized by adults; issues pertaining to our children's health and education. These headlines clap like thunder across the country signaling a warning to parents, coaches, administrators, lawmakers, and community stakeholders that widespread change is imperative.

My good friend, and frequent guest on the show, Professor Doug Abrams of the College of Law at the University of Missouri, will add you to his daily mailing list of these stories. Simply email Doug and ask him to add your name to the list.

The Main(e) Event

One year ago, WJAB General Manager Jon Van Hoogenstyn took a chance and offered me the Saturday morning 8 - 9 am timeslot on the Big Jab. Dr. Doug Brown, one of the founders of Orthopaedic Associates of Portland, and a Pee Wee Hockey teammate from Waterville, along with partner Dr. Bill Heinz, arranged for OAP to sponsor the show. Both have appeared as guests on several occasions throughout the year.

Long-time radio professional and co-host of the WLOB/FOX Morning Show, Ted Talbot, has been at my side since the beginning. Ted runs the production board, but his lighthearted humor, keen interest in people, and professionalism have helped make the Kids FIRST Radio Show entertaining and thoughtful. After six months, the show expanded to two hours. We still don't have enough time to cover everything we'd like. Perhaps we'll get an extra hour this year so we can do a weekly High School Sports Review that will focus on the students who participate in interscholastic and intramural athletics.

With only word-of-mouth advertising, our audience has grown considerably during the first year. At first, our listeners reflected the profile of a sports talk radio station: males ages 21-55. But with guests such as Mary Jo O'Connor, Superintendent of Portland Public Schools, principals from Cape Elizabeth, South Portland High, Casco Bay High School, athletic directors from most of the area high schools, and the "Professors" Mark Kostin and David Ruff from USM/Great Maine Schools Project, our audience has become much more diverse.

Several shows have focused on female athletes and coaches, including some who continue to play competitively into their 60s. Numerous shows were dedicated to health and nutrition issues with Dr. Lisa Letourneau, Portland High athletic trainer Audrey McKenzie, and Director Penny Plourde of the Maine Department of Rehabilitation Services.

My guests have included national experts, authors and researchers such as Bob Bigelow, John Gerdy, Dr. David Walsh, Charles Euchner, Professor Doug Abrams, and Brian Lampman. But the most enlightening guests have been the many kids who got up early to share their insights, wisdom, stress, and concerns about sports, health, and education. When the "kids talked, people listened."

We've covered topics such as childhood obesity, steroids and kids, parental involvement, the changing role of coaches, sports officials, education reform, school finances, women and sports, the teenage brain, cheerleading, recruiting, and kids with special needs.

Thanks to Portland Sea Dogs' President and GM, Charles Eshbach; Director of Media and Community Relations, Chris Cameron; and infielder Keoni DeRenne for a fascinating look behind the scenes of one of Portland's finest venues for safe, clean, affordable family entertainment.

Brian Williams, President and COO of The Portland Pirates Hockey Team shared their involvement and support of a special mentoring project with the Portland Expeditionary Learning High School (Casco Bay High School).

Our mission is to educate and inform parents, teachers, administrators, coaches, interested community stakeholders, and children about the effects of sports, play, and exercise on our children and our families. In this, the beginning of our second year, we will continue to produce more in-depth, timely, and quality programming as we strive to expand the show throughout the state and region.

Feedback from our listeners is important to us. You can chime in and get involved by calling in or by emailing me at regis@thecenterforkidsfirst.org Ted and I look forward to hearing from you.

The Coaches Corner

Here's the most significant question facing every coach and would-be coach at the amateur levels: How do you define your role? Are you a teacher of children and young adults, or are you a manager enlisted to win games. Is there more to your job than teaching the basics of your sport?

Regis' Rant

Experts, commentators, journalists, and parents across the country are arguing about the merits and detractions of the Little League World Series. Is it great entertainment? Obviously! ESPN is televising 45 games in prime time. Millions of people around the world are watching. Is it a "dream come true" for a few dozen kids? Sure must be. But.....

World and National Championships are not about the kids! They are about a multi-billion dollar youth sports industry that includes corporate sponsorships and advertising worth tens of millions of dollars...just for the Little League World Series! Someone is making a lot of money, and it isn't the kids. Can you see the day when these "mini professionals" will have a union and labor contract? They are already carrying on, trash-talking, strutting, and acting like their professional idols. And those who make it to "the show" receive free bats, gloves, helmets, shoes, jackets, bags, meals and a whole lot more. Makes you wonder.

Parent managers have changed a game for kids into a chess game for adults with an insatiable appetite to win at all costs. People like Dante Bichette and Mike Stanley (former big league stars) figured they knew what it would take to win so they created the team from Florida that disgraced itself against the Vista California team in last year's U.S. Championship game. Bichette not only intimidated the players from Vista, but argued and baited the umpires. This former big league star smiled during the traditional post-game handshake, but muttered profanities and insults to the Vista managers and coaches. The Florida team was still complaining months later.

There are men like Layton Aliviado, the master-mind of the West Oahu Little League All Stars, who demanded total commitment to himself and his regimen that would lead to last year's L.L. World Championship. Their journey began when those kids were 7 years old.

Frank Curiel, the founder of the Pabou Little League on the tiny island of Curacao, created a perfect system complete with a farm system, and a coaching director who ensured that every coach was certified and trained to coach in the same way throughout the system with the sole purpose of winning the Little League World Series. Both Layton Aliviado and Frank Curiel succeeded in winning the L.L. World Series. They also set the standard for what it would take dad's from your town to make a run at it.

To read more about what it takes to make the run up to the L.L. World Series, read Little League, Big Dreams by Charles Euchner. (Featured guest on the August 12, 2006 show)

And for anyone who doesn't think the stakes have been raised, there's Texas billionaire parent, Kenny Troutt who created two elite travel basketball teams for his 5th grade and 3rd grade sons and flies them around the country to participate in elite level tournaments. Troutt also employs two full-time coaches, two skills instructors, a general manager, a traveling secretary, and a trainer-nutritionist whose sole responsibility is to manage the physical, mental, and spiritual development of 16 kids. Oh, by the way, Troutt foots the bill for his private plane and luxury hotels for the parents and siblings also!

Still have any doubt this isn't about wholesome, healthy fun for kids? How about the pressure to take steroids in junior high to put on the muscle and gain an edge? Or how about the increasing number of overuse injuries to pitchers' arms in Little League because their parents and coaches push 12 year old kids beyond their limits.

Argue all you want. The basic facts, supported by research for the past twenty years, are telling us that 75% of all the kids who start out playing youth sports, organized by adults either quit or are cut before the age of 13. They quit because they say it stopped being fun. They quit because of the pressure adults put on them to perform like professionals.

Competition is an important part of childhood and growing up. Kids don't need to be told the objective of marbles, hopscotch, kickball, or any game, is to win. But for kids, the competition is about having fun with their friends and not at all about performance that is pleasing to adults. It's about winning, but not about seeing who's the best in the world. It is about growing up healthy, exploring, and learning; not about being stage-managed for prime time television and becoming celebrities.

That's my rant. What's your take?

The Parent Trap

Question for Parents: "Is your involvement in youth sports really about your kids?" I hear parents say they do it because the kids love it. But research, experts, and the nation's headlines paint a different picture. Is it necessary to "manage" every aspect of our children's games? Or would it really be better to "just let the kids play?" Have we come to believe that kids can't learn on their own while having fun with their friends. Which lessons last a lifetime? One aspect of the "Parent Trap" is believing that we have to do everything for our kids. Nowhere but in sports is this more apparent.

We invite our listeners to call in and share their views.

Listeners can take part in the show by calling:

207-775-2217 or 1-866-811-9505.

or email me during the show at:

Regis@thecenterforkidsfirst.org