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 Photo Photo By Elliott Burr/Town Crier Crusaders Lacrosse Club player Alex Motey, above, a seventh-grader at Blach Junior High School, winds up for a shot at practice last week. OK, so it’s pretty clear you’re not raising the next Tom Brady, Tim Lincecum or Brandi Chastain. But does that mean your children should abandon sports and take up the cello, audition for “Annie” or begin developing apps for the iPhone?
Not necessarily.
Star players aren’t the only ones who benefit from participating in youth sports. Several area residents involved in running local leagues say sports offer something for every caliber of athlete.
“Sports provide lifelong lessons, such as working together toward a common goal, supporting and encouraging team members, exercise and skills development,” said Scott Clarke, vice president of finance for Los Altos-Mountain View PONY Baseball. “And it’s a great way to have fun – and get snacks at the end of the game.”
Joe McCarthy, board member of the Los Altos-based Crusaders Lacrosse Club, said he’s never heard a parent question the value of youth sports. And if he did?
“I would say that, in my experience, personal achievement and the overall enjoyment of life have so much to do with the discipline of practice, the value of hard work and learning to cooperate with others,” he said. “I know of no greater venue to learn those traits than through youth sports.”
A study in the journal of “Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise” is one of many to indicate that children taking part in youth sports are more likely to be physically active as adults. That can’t be overlooked as the country’s obesity rates rise faster than a cheese soufflé. This is, after all, the age of the Xbox, Playstation and Wii, when many children prefer virtual sports from the couch to playing actual ones.
“With childhood obesity at near-crisis proportions, youth sports provide a structured, active environment to instill a love for physical activity in youth,” said LeeAnn Wilson, secretary of the Mountain View-Los Altos Girls Softball League.
Ken Law, president of LA-MV PONY Baseball, added,“Outdoor physical exercise is simply a better use of free time than unsupervised playtime. Any parent familiar with the evils of gangs, drugs and/or isolation from one’s peers can see the value in organized youth sports. When you add the element of increased self-esteem generated by competitive sports, you have a truly winning formula.”
PONY isn’t named after a small horse; it stands for “Protect Our Nation’s Youth.”
“The philosophy of our parent organization, which LA-MV puts into play on the baseball field, is a simple one: It is better for our children to be busy playing baseball than it is to have their attention turn to less desirable pursuits,” Law said.
Among area youth, lacrosse has emerged as one of the most desirable pursuits.
“Lacrosse is booming at the youth level,” McCarthy said. “We have grown from about 20 kids in the program when we started in 2004, to 160 today. Registrations are up 35 percent from last year, and we are sold out with waitlists at all age groups except on our youngest boys team.”
McCarthy attributes much of the boom to the fact that local high schools have recently added lacrosse to their lineup of spring sports. Mountain View High School started a team last year; Los Altos and St. Francis high schools launched their programs this season.
“Lacrosse is now a viable alternative for kids to play all the way through high school and beyond,” McCarthy said.
And it’s not just for boys anymore. The Crusaders this year launched a girls program, starting with those 9 and under, and it’s at capacity. They are playing a noncontact version of the sport with a different set of rules, according to McCarthy, “but the physical fitness benefits, skill development and teamwork aspects are all the same.”
Girls softball isn’t new to the area, but it’s growing as well.
“We are continuing to see a rise in registration,” Wilson said of MV-LA Girls Softball. “Over the past few years, we’ve been seeing roughly a 6 percent average annual growth rate of girls coming to our league.”
Last year, the league boasted 482 girls playing on 43 teams. This spring, Wilson expects more than 510 participants, dispersed among approximately 50 teams.
On the baseball side, Clarke described registration for LA-MV PONY as “flat” this year, while Los Altos & Los Altos Hills Little League has seen “about a 10 percent increase over the eight or nine years that I have been involved,” according to Juniors division commissioner Jerry Sorensen.
Sorensen is also one of the founders of After School Athletics, which runs a flag football league for students in the Los Altos School District. He said participation in the football league has nearly doubled since its inception in 2005.
But Sorensen added that the upturn in sign-ups for flag football and Little League baseball – which he attributes more to the increase in the population of the participating ages than anything else – is starting to slow.
“In both leagues, I would say I have not seen much of an increase the past two years, and I understand that school enrollment at the younger ages is starting to drop,” he said.
Sorensen is right. Los Altos School District officials reported a dip in kindergarten enrollment this school year. In a presentation to the LASD Board of Trustees Jan. 25, a representative from Lapkoff & Gobalet Demographic Research forecasted little change in elementary enrollment the next three school years, then a decline in the number of students beginning in 2013-2014.
But for now, thousands of local youngsters are playing something – and most are doing so willingly.
“At the younger ages, it’s likely that the parents are making the decision to play,” Clarke said. “By age 9 and up, it’s usually the player who is making the decision.”
As for lacrosse, McCarthy said it’s almost always the child’s choice.
“We’re in a unique position in that the vast majority of our parents have zero experience with lacrosse,” he said of a sport popularized on the East Coast. “All of the kids in our program either had a friend who played previously or they saw it being played somewhere and thought it looked cool. They dragged their parents into it. Isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be?”
Sorensen agreed that a child’s friends often influence which sport he or she participates in, especially at the younger ages, when “there is a bit of a pack mentality.” Wilson sees the same thing among softball players 6 and under.
“What the girls at this age most care about is playing with their friends and classmates, not necessarily about playing softball,” she said. “As the girls get older, they start to have more definite feelings about wanting to play the sport.”
While there is no shortage of players, all of the youth leagues could use more parent volunteers. After all, players don’t coach themselves – or even remember to bring their own juice boxes.
“Parent involvement is critical to the success of our program,” McCarthy said. “We simply couldn’t do it without the involvement of dedicated parents.”
There are plenty of duties to go around. Fields need to be lined, registration forms must be collected and leagues can’t run without directors.
“Parent involvement is critical to all youth sports organizations – either in terms of coaching or administering the league or helping out their individual teams,” Sorensen said.
Law described LA-MV PONY as “a total volunteer organization. Thus, without parents willing to volunteer their time to become coaches, administrators and field maintainers, we would not be able to operate.” Clarke estimated that approximately 25 percent of PONY parents volunteer to make it happen.
Wilson said her league believes “that parent involvement in a child’s sports experience is essential to their enjoyment of the sport.” It’s also vital in keeping fees down. Imagine the cost of hiring people to run a league and coach the teams.
“To pay for the amount of volunteer hours would cause our registration fees to be unaffordable,” said Wilson, whose organization charges players $75-$140 to participate this season.
Little League registration is $125 this season, PONY runs from $135-$340 and Crusaders Lacrosse $150-$410. The softball, baseball and lacrosse leagues have started practice for the spring season; After School Athletics’ flag football season kicks off in the fall and the cost has yet to be determined.
Representatives from all the leagues say their sports are worth the price – and then some. Even if their children don’t go pro, earn a college scholarship or even start on their team, parents will see it as money well spent.
Little Leaguers “learn to deal with success and failure with virtually every pitch in a game,” Sorensen said, while his football players “develop team-building skills.” Clark believes PONY players will “have fun, learn teamwork and sportsmanship.” Lacrosse “is a great lesson in the value of hard work,” according to McCarthy. And Wilson said MV-LA Girls Softball teaches players “to be resilient when things don’t go their way and to develop confidence and self-esteem through the process.”
More information about the youth sports organizations mentioned above can be found online: LA-MV PONY Baseball at www.lamvpb.org; Los Altos & Los Altos Hills Little League at www.eteamz.com/losaltoslittleleague; Mountain View-Los Altos Girls Softball at www.mvlags.org; Crusaders Lacrosse Club at www.crusaderslax.com; and After School Athletics at www.afterschoolathletics.com.
Contact Pete Borello at
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