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Between the glossy brochures and fancy websites, choosing a summer sports camp for your kid has never been more complicated.
Here are three tips to help parents find the best camp for the young athlete in their family.
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In his first year as *Kansas State University*???s basketball coach, Bob Huggins led his team to a 23-12 record and the school's best Big 12 record in 11 years. That will also prove to be his last year coaching at K-State. Huggins has chosen to turn his back on a school that, based on his track record, took a pretty big chance on him. Huggins even admitted that leaving wasn't the right thing to do.
I empathize with the incoming freshman class of athletes who will put their collegiate careers in the hands of a coach they've never met and an entirely different program than they signed up for in the first place. This happened to me the summer before my freshman year of college. I received a devastating phone call a few weeks before moving into college from the coach that recruited me to say she was taking a position elsewhere. She was the person I knew the best in the place that would be my home for four years and the leader of what would soon be my second family. Luckily, everything ended up working out.
There are athletes like Cobi Jones and Kevin Garnett, who have each stuck with their respective teams for 12 seasons, through trying times and probably bigger money offers from other organizations. Likewise, there are coaches in college sports who have stuck with the same school out of pride and the desire to build a tradition, to leave a legacy in a program that they built from the ground up.
Is it just me, or is this becoming increasingly hard to come by these days? I can't help but feel like coaches and players alike are making moves based on immediate and usually monetary gratification instead of doing the right thing. Since free agency began in the early 1970s, team compositions change quickly as players will move teams often, even to teams that have no viable chance at a successful season, if the money is right. Is this behavior, from players and coaches, in mainstream sports encouraging similar team-hopping in youth and college sports?
(Photo provided by Getty Images/Donald Miralle)
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I can't remember enjoying March Madness, and college hoops in general, as much as I've enjoyed it this year. For some reason, the games seem to be particularly good this year.
I lost a fair amount of interest in college hoops once high schoolers started jumping to the NBA. I???m going to go on a ???back in the day??? rant here and say that college teams used to stay together for three or four years in the past (like Georgetown and St. John's in the mid-'80s, or Duke and UNLV in the early '90s). Once that continuity was removed, the quality declined.
This year everything seems to be back to good. The quality of play has been remarkable, culminating in Sunday's Georgetown-UNC classic, an awesome game. If you love basketball, you were legitimately thrilled like me. Which raises the question ... what's happening here?
Everything started with the NBA's decision to ban high schoolers from its draft. If that didn't happen, Kevin Durant and Greg Oden would have skipped college and so many casual fans wouldn't have been sucked in. Oden's impact on the game this year is immeasurable -- from the block at the end of the Tennessee game to the excitement of his battle against Georgetown's Roy Hibbert this weekend.
Saturday's games (Florida-UCLA and OSU-Georgetown) are must-sees for anyone who enjoys the game of basketball. I can???t wait.
What do you think about the rule and March Madness this year?
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In his recent article in the Washington Post, John Feinstein suggests that officials should be made available for post-game interviews. His argument centers on the fact that officials don???t have to defend their bad calls and because they are paid professionals, they should have to walk up to microphone. Feinstein is making his point because the official in the Ohio State-Xavier game last week seemingly missed an obvious flagrant foul call on Greg Oden at the end of the game.
While I believe the call was missed too, what good would it do to have the officials talk after the game? If they admit a mistake, will the teams return from the locker rooms and pick up play from that point? I hated when umpires made bad calls during my career and I can???t tell you how many times my coaches told us to not leave a game close enough where a missed call by the umpire could determine the outcome of the game. However, mistakes by officials are part of the game and we just have to live with it.
Would you like to see officials speak to the media after games?
(Photo provided by Getty Images/Andy Lyons)
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Teenagers brawled in the stands at a high school basketball game at Madison Square Garden last night before police cracked down on the crowd, which spilled into the streets. Gunfire was heard as the crowd went from the arena to Times Square, police said. No injuries were reported. Twenty-one people, mostly teenagers, were arrested, police said.
From brawls on basketball courts to out of control parents at Little League games and wrestling matches, unsportsmanlike behavior can be a problem.
Now, some high school sporting officials in Washington state are considering tough new rules ??? including a ban on booing. Those who support the ban say that too often, spectators are cruel.
"It's the organized effort to try to intimidate or try to make fun of someone that becomes personal in nature that can escalate then into other concerns that we might have," said Mike Colbrese, executive director of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association.
Colbrese and his colleagues said they have trouble hiring coaches and referees because of the abuse they take. By banning booing from the stands, they believe they can create a more welcoming environment on the court and field. Experts agree that behavior at school sports events is not what it used to be. "Parents are more intense, family members are more intense, siblings are more intense," said Christine Brennan, a USA Today sports columnist. "Everything is ratcheted up."
The Interscholastic Association claims it just wants to reinforce good sportsmanship. However, some fans aren???t pleased that their right to boo might be taken away. For instance, one woman told ABC News, "The crowd should be able to say what they want to say. They pay their money. They should be able to boo if they want to.???
Do you think booing should be banned?
(Photo provided by Getty Images/taken by Nick Laham)
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