Risks in an early return?
AUSTIN, Texas — In places like Texas and Florida, where the “Friday Night Lights” culture of high school football runs deep, strength and conditioning sessions are bringing thousands of athletes to school for workouts, even while those states are seeing record numbers of new cases and hospitalizations since Memorial Day.
Some schools have already been sent scrambling when a player tests positive.
High schools should consider not playing at all, said Kenneth Shropshire, professor and chief executive of the Global Sport Institute at Arizona State.
Shutdown could be perfect time to make positive, much-needed changes in youth sports
“I’m hearing people talk that this is an opportunity for a reset,” Eric Legg of Arizona State University’s School of Community Resources & Development said during a webinar earlier this month. “This is a chance for us to go back to localized, community-based sports. To get back to sport and primary purpose of sport being youth development and life development.”
In response to an international survey by ASU’s Global Sport Institute that revealed that 62% of parents wouldn’t be putting their kids back into organized sports over coronavirus concerns, the group assembled a panel of experts earlier this month to discuss COVID-19’s affect on the return of youth sports.
The Widening Accessibility Gap In Youth Sports
Dr. Scott Brooks, of the Global Sport Institute at Arizona State University, says when young athletes make sports their main priority, that can have a much longer-term consequence.
"They’ve put everything else to the side," he says. "They’re not as focused on school — or school, only as it pertains to keeping them eligible. They’re not pursuing creative things like art, music ... so much. This is everything, and when that ends — and often not of your own volition — all of these things that are senses of your purpose, that goes away."