Youth sports have really turned into a shell of what it used to be. Sports are supposed to be fun for the kids, with competition, but not an overwhelming amount of it. The kids need the competition, for it was David A. Feigly, PhD, of the Youth Sports Research Council at Rutgers University, who said “True sportsmanship cannot exist unless there is an honest desire to win” (Robinson 19). Part of sportsmanship is putting in the honest desire to win, not just being a fair athlete. Being fair is important though, and that point in youth sports has seemingly been lost at certain times during the intense heat of games.

There are many examples of how people have gotten out of hand during youth sports games, more so parents than kids in most cases. In 2000, a Massachusetts hockey parent beat a coach overseeing a friendly scrimmage to death after the scrimmage apparently became “too rough for his son” (Robinson 95). In another case, officials were forced to disqualify a team from the Little League World Series after they had a pitcher 2 years too old. A final example was that a man in Palm Springs, California, knocked out an umpire over a disputed call. The game was for 9 and 10 year olds. (Robinson 60-61). All of these are examples of people taking youth sports and pushing the limits of the sports at the age too far.

Parents are seemingly the ones who are causing a lot of the problems when it comes to sportsmanship in youth sports in the present day and age. For many parents, the role is to be merely a fan. Some parents go too far with their child, but are too uneducated to supply them with the right information. Some parents are coaches, and that’s okay, as long as they are informed correctly on how to help the athletes they are coaching become not just better athletes, but also better people. If parents feel the desire to become more deeply involved with their children’s sports or just youth sports in general, then they should learn more about sport for youths so that they can enter the sport with the right information. USA Hockey and USA Football have great programs when it comes to coach certification to that makes sure coaches have a lot more information on how they should be coaching the children. They have to go through the certification process to become coach in USA Hockey and USA Football, so that gives children a better chance to be coached by a coach who knows what he/she should be doing for the age level of that sport.

The job of the officials is a very stressful one, and the fact that officials are people too seems to have been lost over time. As Bruce Brown, of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, said “Let the coaches coach, the officials officiate, and the players play” (Robinson 51). Parents get too involved in sports during the game sometimes, possibly leading to the cost of somebody else, or even the person themself. The job of the official is to keep the game fair and more importantly, safe for the children playing in the game. Many times, the reason parents may be angry with the official is that the safety of their child or another child is put in danger and not controlled enough by the official. Simply, the game is getting too rough and the official isn’t doing enough to control it, is the reason why parents get mad in many cases. Many other times though, parents seemingly are angry at the official for a blown call; part of the fairness part of the job as an official. That seems like a decent reason to get upset, but not as angry as parents get about it. Some parents get to the point where they are screaming “bloody murder” at the official. Parents, and for that fact, everybody who is involved with sports, should realize officials are humans too. Humans make mistakes, but people go crazy when officials make mistakes. If the official is blowing multiple calls, people then have a reason to get a little more upset about the ref, but not angry. Again, officials are humans too, so people should treat them like they are, because that is part of being a good sport as well.

The purpose of youth sports is to teach children life lessons that come with playing the sport (like commitment, effort, desire, teamwork, etc.). A way to get that is through competition. Kind of like what Feigly was meaning when he said “True Sportsmanship cannot exists unless there is an honest desire to win” was that part of sportsmanship was having competition and a want to win. The challenge between opponents, putting in all they have against each other, giving their best effort against each other all the time is a key part of sportsmanship. That is part of what makes sports fun, is the competition, and that is why competition feeds into sportsmanship. When the athletes take that desire too far, and start cheating, and start losing the character a good sport is supposed to have, that’s when the competition becomes too intense for youth sports. An intense desire to compete is a big part of the lesson children learn and something the children use as experiences to help them later in life. When children cross the line to where they are cheating though, that is not competing anymore, that’s cheating. The fine line between competing and cheating can’t be balanced, but instead must be leaned in favor of competing. The line between the two may be hard to see sometimes, but if children can remain good sports, the line should never get even close to being crossed.

Many people believe that sportsmanship is worse than it was in the last generation. By age 15, 70 percent of children of children quit youth sports due to lack of fun and overbearing parents (Coates). In a survey for the state of sportsmanship in youth sports ran by the Awards and Recognition Association, it was discovered:
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65 percent of people believe there is worse sportsmanship in this generation over the last (Stoga)
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85 percent of people believe youth athletes should be recognized for talent and sportsmanship
Also, many people believe that sportsmanship and sports participation gives the community a:
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Sense of pride (54 percent)
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Pulls community (67 percent)
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Has positive influence on children (75 percent)
All of the pressure and lack of sportsmanship in youth sports can be drawn back to one influential figure: parents. Parents take the sports part of youth sports too far. The parents take the feeling of needing their child to be successful too far sometimes. Parents who are educated well about the sport and focus on helping their child become better athletes, but also teach the child to be a better person at the same time, are doing the right thing for their child. Parents who get in fights, put too much pressure, or take the knowledge they think they know about sports to a too far extent, that can all lead to lack of sportsmanship in the child, even with the lack of sportsmanship already existent in the parents. Parents need to become more educated before becoming too involved with their children’s youth sports, otherwise they will be bringing more of a lack sportsmanship to their children’s youth sports than their already is. Parents and children need to realize that even though part of being a good sport is competing, the other part of it is being fair, and especially, having fun and enjoying the sport the children play in youth sports.