After Atalanta

I'm an overworked blogger (how that happened on my first official week of summer break is curious) so I am largely re-telling what the Women's Sports Foundation said to some if its constituents this morning: the Washington Post assumes too much. WaPo published a a feature on the status of youth soccer in the US and the debate over whether future national team and professional stars in the MLS should be playing high school soccer and be playing in academies. It's an interesting debate. In case you care, I am for high school sports. The whole full-time, one-sport training thing is a little much as evidenced by the plethora of disappointed former teen tennis players and their parents or even by the successful ones like Andre Agassi. But that's not the point. The point is that in an article about youth soccer, one would think we would read about all of youth soccer. But no. This is about boys' youth soccer--exclusively. And it does not acknowledge the huge youth soccer ...

I was part of an interesting dinner party conversation the other night about the responsibility of being a gym goer, a gym owner, or a gym employee. The talk was about one's responsibility when seeing someone who is doing something dangerous. Though we mentioned things like bad form and lifting too much weight or general overexertion, what the conversation really turned to was eating disorders. As a gym employee (kind of--I teach a couple of classes so I am more of a contracted employee) I was asked what our gym's (many of us go to the same establishment) policy was regarding confronting people with eating disorders. I doubt there is one. I know of other gyms that will discontinue a membership when they feel someone is engaging in disordered behavior. But that doesn't seem very productive either. Some other establishment will be eager to take that person's membership fees--probably my gym. We didn't come to any kind of conclusion. I spoke rather abstractly about try...

This past weekend the NYT published a very good article on the access urban girls have to sport. The Title IX Blog has given some more of the details of the article itself (and provides a link), but I want to, especially in light of Golf Channel commentator Rich Lerner's questions to Lorena Ochoa the other day, comment a little further. Because my worry is that while it is often the case that girls from Latino (and sometimes African-American as well) families bear much of the responsibility for childcare duties and other domestic chores that can impede their access to sports, these realities can engender some misconceptions, some judgment, and some passivity. What do I mean? Well I worry that whenever we talk about trying to involve more urban girls and girls of color in sports we are going to encounter a defeatist attitude. As in, "well, it's just their culture. There's nothing we can do." I have already seen, in discussions of Muslim women's access to sport...

New blog--ok just new to me--about soccer. Former coach Amanda Vandervort is the author of Soccer Science a blog that "look[s] at the soccer world from the personal perspective of Amanda Vandervort, a former college coach and fan of professional soccer, with an emphasis on the technologies that are revolutionizing the way we see the beautiful game." Vandervort has a Twitter account (is that what they are called?). This whole Twitter thing and the number of WPS players and sports bloggers who are Twittering makes me wonder if "ken" shouldn't be getting familiar with this. But I'm not sure I really need another distraction from my dissertation. [h/t to Sean from sportsBabel for sending me the link] Here's a local controversy--not local to me, but to someone. A youth soccer coach has resigned after sending an interesting email to the parents of 6- and 7-year old female soccer players in a club league in Massachusetts. There are a lot--a lot!--of comments o...

Greg Schultz has this column up at ESPN.com in anticipation of his interview with former b-baller, current University of Delaware volleyballer Elena Delle Donne. The interview airs tomorrow at 9am (EST) on ESPN. [Note to self: record that.] I find it so hard to believe that people find it so hard to believe that Delle Donne left a sport in which she was a superstar to play something else; that she doesn't miss basketball; that she likes volleyball; that she does not long for the spotlight and adoration playing b-ball would have brought her. And mostly I am talking to you, Geno Auriemma, who says: "I don't know how you can play that much basketball and be that good at it and say, 'I hate it since the time I was 13.' To me, those two things don't go together … that you would be that good at something and not enjoy any of it. It's hard for me to come to grips with. "I'm still not able to see how that makes any sense. I didn't understand it and hav...

I so enjoy sending a strongly worded note of concern over some egregious act perpetuated by some knowing persons. Letters to the editor, letters to journalists, letters to television execs, letters to administrators--things of that sort. Haven't done it in a while. Thankfully Pat Griffin over at the It Takes a Team blog has provided me and others like me a new opportunity. She had previously reported on the suspension of two volunteer coaches of youth baseball in Michigan City, IN after they not only condoned the use of anti-gay slurs against a 12-year old boy, but participated in the harassment and proceeded to defend their actions and those of the other harassers. They were suspended from coaching for one year. A slap on the wrist if ever there was one. Now, though, it's a slap in the face to the victim and his supporters: the recreation department has overturned the suspension of said coaches. Please read more of the story at It Takes a Team where there are also links to the...

Last week the Women's Sports Foundation released its study of the effects of sports and physical activity on children and families, including who is playing (i.e. who has access and "interest"). A downloadable version of the report can be found here --this link also includes a summary of the findings. There has been a relatively decent amount of media coverage of the report (see here , here , here and here ) but I have been somewhat reluctant to talk about it. It could be, perhaps, that I was part of this research in its infancy and so the findings that, for example, girls in urban locales have significantly less access to sports than their male peers and that this is also dependent on race and class, really are not that surprising to me. I also have some hesitations because I question not necessarily the goals of the research--to bring more opportunities to girls--but the reasons behind the goals. In other words, I think we should question a little more the idea that sp...

What's up with the west coast? Last month I wrote about a girl in British Columbia (ok the Canadian west coast in this one) who has been prevented from playing rugby with boys. Now in Beaverton, Oregon (suburb of Portland) a 12-year old girl who has been playing with the boys on teams at a private club, The Hoop, has been barred from doing so in the future. Six foot one inch Jaime Nared is just too good apparently and parents are pissed. Under the guise of "the rules," Nared will no longer be playing on boys' teams after parents complained about her presence. Some of the arguments went like this: the boys won't push her because they have been taught not to push girls.* In an age where in most mainstream sports winning is everything, the one thing that seems to trump even that is gender. What do I mean? Well Nared frequently scores nearly 30 points and outplays the boys. Thus she is an asset. Not that I believe her ability is the reason to let her to continue to pl...

With the defeat of the US National Team by the Brazilians people are wondering , is the rest of the world catching up? is US women's soccer slipping from its spot of dominance? Before I issue a solid "yes" on this, I have to say that although the US has always been a top or the top team, it is not as if they have won every World Cup or every Olympic gold. There is far more parity in international women's soccer than say in softball where the US has only recently been a little bit challenged by Japan. But anyway, Yes. A columnist at The Harvard Crimson blames it on the youth and collegiate systems which have a model of the ideal soccer player (strong and fast) that leaves out a lot of talented players. Good points, certainly. Because we have to wonder how it is that a team that comes together only for the big events so soundly dominated a team whose image is one of togetherness which includes extensive training before international tournaments. A team that gets excel...

So often I seem to be complaining about offensive and/or exploitative commercials. But tonight I saw a good one. During the finals of the men's Hockey East tournament, One Hockey ran the best ad for youth hockey. It starts in a classroom where a boy is methodically wetting a piece of paper, and slyly pulling a deconstructed pen out of his sleeve. He quickly turns and executes his spitball in the direction of a seemingly unsuspecting girl. But she is able to block his shot with her notebook which she whips up in front of her face at the last second much to the shooter's amazement. Why is the girl so quick? Because she's a hockey goalie, of course. And in the next scene we see her don her helmet and play with other kids (gender unknown). Made me smile which was a good thing given that my alma mater, UNH, lost the championship.

I really need to unsubscribe from Nike's email list. I got a notice today called "Nike Love" that invited me to watch three short films about love and sports--specifically youth sports. It seemed to be a "support youth sports programs" kind of message. The first was animated and featured a desolate boy of color (tattered clothes, unkempt hair)seemingly from some non-US place. He is kicking along a can in the street, very bored. He comes across a lantern which he rubs and of course pops up the genie offering three wishes which can include anything like a car or money. But the boy wishes for a basketball which the genie gives him. The boy runs off to play with his basketball forgoing his other two wishes much to the genie's puzzlement. The boy's race and apparent class status are unavoidable markers in this "film." It plays into the belief that the only way boys of color can get out of poverty is through sport and that it is a noble way--evidenc...

Listening to the radio in the morning can be a dangerous thing. Bad news and offensive commercials can easily put me in a foul mood. Not a good way to start the day. Usually I listen to NPR but my (somewhat) local affiliate is running a rather obnoxious fund drive so I had on my local alternative radio station which I find a good compromise between public radio and commercial radio. And the commercial I heard this warm almost made me tear up a little. It talks about a man who is a baseball fan and former player and general lover of the game and now his daughter is memorizing stats, and learning history. But she wants more. She wants to know the best stance for hitting it out of the park and other techniques. Well, the ad says--sign her up for the new local Cal Ripken League. The league is open to boys and girls ages 8-12. I know, of course, that they let girls play baseball and have since Little League got sued in the 1970s. But girls have always been the exception in youth baseball--e...