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 World Cup Aftermath: Limited Opportunites Hurt Our Youth
By Leland Stein, III - August 23, 2006
Detroit, MI - Okay, we all love football, basketball, hockey and baseball here in the good ol' USA; however, the sports planet in which we all are members have a different viewpoint on what sport galvanizes it populace into a zealous frenzy.
Soccer, although scorned and ignored at the professional level in the United States is the top dawg as a sport in the entire world - basketball is a close second.
Soccer's version of the Super Bowl and Olympics recently concluded with France succumbing to Italy in an overtime game that was decided by penalty kicks.
The magnificent and compelling game netted ABC a 7.0 national rating. The high number was an amazing 180 percent increase from the 2002 Japan Cup.
The numbers denote that Americans are indeed paying attention to the great international game of soccer.
Through the years, Americans have interjected soccer in the basic fabric of youth sports. Kids between 7 and 14 are playing soccer at a rate that is unparallel in America.
The problem is that good athletes turn their attention to basketball, football and baseball around the time they get to high school and college. They leave their young soccer roots and head to more so-called glamorous sports.
I remember talking to future Hall of Famer, Hakeem Olajuwan, when he was playing for the Houston Rockets, when I was covering the Los Angeles Lakers and he told me soccer was the sport he loves and gave him his hunger for sports competition. He also noted that he left his beloved sports after he grew to 7-foot, but more importantly he knew that the American basketball machine was a money and media opportunity he could not pass up.
It seems that many echo Olajuwan sentiments and chose the American high visibility sports over the soccer game if they have the ability to make a choice.
To me that's the sad part of it all. Throughout Urban America our young athletes are locked into a box that limits their exposure to the myriad of opportunities available.
I love the nations' public school league sports and the opportunities afforded to the young men and women that put the effort and discipline into their chosen endeavors. For many of our youth, sports are the vehicle that motivates them to achieve in school and keeps them on a positive track.
However, for some reason wrestling, soccer, golf, baseball and tennis are sports that have lost their way in the majority of cities in America's public school systems.
Lack of coaching, facilities and funding are reasons why too many of our youth do not have the chance to explore all of their gifts.
I've learned that we all have gifts and we only need opportunity and exposure to bring them to the forefront.
Placing our kids in the proverbial box of only basketball and football, and sometime track and field, is so limiting.
We all know that the numbers say only a small few ascend to the professional level in football and basketball.
What if Michael Jordan played goalie in soccer, wouldn't his 6-foot-6 frame and super athletic ability bode well for the position? What about Isaiah Thomas or Barry Sanders or Marshall Faulk traversing the soccer field with speed and agility?
Soccer is the world's game and the opportunities for college scholarships and potential to play overseas in the multitude of professional soccer leagues is one vehicle that is eluding our youth.
America's media machine is one of the main culprits in all this. They focus their sports pages only on the "Big Four" sports and basically ignore the others. Since it appears that the media drives perceptions, ideas, perceived wants and concerns, then it indeed has a profound affect on what career paths or sports our youth deem important.
America should be ashamed of itself, as it stands on its isolated island and the entire world embraces the wonderful sport of soccer. Our arrogance about our sports being the only one's that matter is folly.
Someway or somehow we need to provide more opportunities for our urban youth to expand their athletic gifts to soccer, wrestling, baseball, tennis or golf.
Tiger Woods, Venus and Serena Williams and the France's predominantly Black soccer team proves my contention concerning exposure.
About The Author - Leland Stein, III All Articles By This Author
©Copyright 2006 - Leland Stein is a nationally syndicated columnist and can be heard on 107.5 every Sunday from 11 p.m. to Midnight in Detroit. He can be reached at lelstein3@aol.com
Articles may not be reproduced, rewritten, or retransmitted without the express written consent of Leland Stein, III.
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