By Jack Perconte
McClatchy-Tribune
I received a call one day from my son’s basketball coach, “Mr. Perconte, your son walked in to tryouts today and asked me to cut him from the team,” he said. “He doesn’t want to hurt your feelings but he doesn’t want to play anymore,” he proceeded to say. “I will talk to him, but if he truly does not want to play, then he is done,” I responded.
I always knew that basketball was not his favorite sport but I didn’t expect him to take this tactic. It definitely drove home the point about how much kids want to please their parents and what measures they might take to avoid hurting their parents’ feelings. After talking to my son, he just wanted to concentrate on playing another sport.
Specialization is when an athlete drops other sports to concentrate on just one. This has become a much greater issue in youth sports over the last twenty years or so. It was not uncommon years ago for athletes to play two and three sports all through high school. With the emphasis on travel sports and college scholarships, the decision to specialize at younger ages is common. The reasons players or people around them want to specialize vary. The most common reasons revolve around liking one sport the most, having great success in one sport or having the most potential in a particular sport. Of course, all of these are legitimate reasons for wanting to specialize.