Where are the athletes?

In a recent conversation, the topic of participation in high school sports came up. Granted, the population of Newcastle High School has dropped in the last decade, however, it seems that fewer high school students are sticking with sports after middle school.

This is not just a Newcastle thing, it’s happening nationally.

So why is participation diminishing? Is it because sports are no longer a single season situation? It used to be that you could be a good athlete and part of a successful team while only focusing on that sport when it was in season.

That is no longer the case. In order to see success in any given sport now demands both in-season and off-season training and dedication.

Not only that, but parents have to start their kids early if they are going to have the requisite skills to play sports, even at the middle school level. As such, that is going to put economic and time pressures on parents and families. The costs associated with club/starter sports programs can get pretty hefty between fees, paying for uniforms/equipment, the expenses of travel and so on.

Not only does all of this impact the bank account, it can also demand a lot of time from families. Weekends spent on the road to tournaments are weekends that cannot be spent doing something else.

Another problem that can emerge from starting kids in sports early is the potential for that kid to experience burnout from that sport. People can just get tired of the demands that sports exact.

Multi-sport athletes take on an even heavier load because it’s not just one sport they need to focus on year-round, but several. While that may ease the potential of burnout from one sport, these kids are just busy! Usually, they are also involved in other activities, they take challenging courses, and they often have jobs.

It makes me tired just thinking about trying to keep up with all of that.

But, what about the kids who are not involved in many activities? Has technological advancement actually impacted the number of kids participating in sports?

I remember life before cell phones and video games and even cable TV! We had four channels available to watch and only one TV in the house. “Screen time” wasn’t an issue.

We were forced to go outside to play — whether that was for our own good or to give our parents a break from us for a while, I don’t know — but going outside to play meant we were getting physical activity. Participating in sports was a form of entertainment, if nothing else, and practicing skills required for our preferred sports was something to do outside.

Today, the tech options for kids are endless. They can play video games, dive down the rabbit hole of TikTok, find endless hours of entertainment on YouTube, and all of these things (and much more) result in kids sitting and staring at a screen. Their attention is not on becoming a skilled basketball player.

The world we live in is ever-changing, and whether we like it or not, we have to evolve with it. What does that mean for the future of sports? Check out Karpe Dogie next week for the continuation of this subject.