A good news blog

I have been stating in my last few blogs finding positive youth sports stories is not always easy as the negative stories always seem to outweigh the positive; however, last night while flipping channels to find something to watch (my favorites the FBI’s were not on) I came across one of my favorite movies, The Gridiron Gang staring The Rock (who plays Mr. Porter in the movie) and I have to admit that I’ve seen the movie many times before but last night I watched through a different lens due to my research and writing about youth sports.

            A quick synopsis to the movie, which for those who have not seen it is based on a true story, The Rock works in a California youth correctional facility and he starts to realize the way they are handling the youth in the facility is NOT working as 75% of the youth who are released just end up going back to their old neighborhood, join with their old gangs and either end up back in the facility or worse, dead.  He then concocts a plan whereby he will form a football team in the facility and teach the boys the skills that youth sports teach our children.  Of course, he has one MAJOR problem and that is getting other teams that will be willing to play his newly formed team as, they are in a correctional facility and most people are less than likely to be willing to have their children play against “criminals.” Well, in the end this ragtag team of gang members, who on the outside would kill each other as opposed to help each other, band together to form a team and get within one win of winning a championship.  Well, at the end of the movie they interview the actual youth who were portrayed in the movie and what struck me is that they all said just about the same thing….all they wanted was to be loved, cared for and not thought of as losers in life and they just needed a chance to succeed in life.  Now most these boys were born and raised in South Central Los Angles, not an area that is conducive to the success of our youth, but these young men had the same hope and dreams as the youngsters who live in Hollywood, Bel Air, and the rich suburbs of Los Angles.

            What struck me about this movie and its ending was the number of children who I coached throughout my career who might have been in the same boat as the boys in the movie.  Children who may not have had a male role model in their lives, or someone who could help them with not only their athletic, but social skills….the simple things such as saying “please” and “thank you,” not interrupting when someone is speaking, paying attention when someone is talking and most of all respecting themselves and others.  All simple, but important skills that are accepted in society and that everyone needs to know as a member of society.  Now you might be thinking “why aren’t these children being taught all this stuff by their parents.”  Well, in many cases these children do not have enough adult role models in their lives to teach them these simple social norms that everyone needs and in so many cases it is up to coaches, who become the necessary role models for these children.  

            When I was coaching we had a youngster who had no real male role models in is life.  His father was a no show, and he had no uncles around to help guide him and honestly, he was not that good a player (to be fair, he was also 7-years old and most 7-year old’s are not that good when they start playing).  Now this young man was a good kid who was nice, but a bit on the wild side as he was sort of a “momma’s” boy.  Well, his mother talked to us and explained what the issues were and asked that help give him some guidance as she did not want him ending up being labeled as a “problem” child.  Now, as I have stated in earlier blogs, youth sports coaches are just that, coaches…we are not phycologists, psychiatrists, or therapists, nor in many cases do we know how to deal with children with behavioral issues; generally, we want to coach our teams, have some fun, and move on.  So as coaches, we discussed what we were going to do to help this young man to ensure that we gave him the attention that he needed without making him stick out among his peers.  Well, without going into detail by the time this young man was a 9-year-old he was leader on the team and the younger children looked up to him and as he moved throughout the league and beyond his coaches would stop us on the street and tell us not only how good a ballplayer he was but what a fine young man he was.  Now, while I was happy to hear that he was a good ball player, I was ecstatic to hear that everyone thought of him as “fine young man” and while as coaches we could not take all the credit for that, as his mother was a fine woman, knowing that I had a hand in helping this young man along in life is one of my prouder moments.  And I am proud to say that this young man will be playing baseball in college and who knows, maybe one day he will give back to the community, coach a team and have a youngster just like him who he will help along in life.

            I have seen a meme on Facebook that states “Sometimes there is a kid who needs the program more than the program needs them.” and while watching The Gridiron Gang I thought about that meme…Mr. Porter, the man who formed the team, did not need the team at all and in fact, forming the team was probably a bigger headache for him than it was worth, but in the end those boys needed that team and what it stood for.  At the end, The Rock narrates what happened to the youth who were on the original team and in the end only 25% of the youth on the team ended up either back in a correctional facility or dead…a 50% drop from the original numbers.  Regardless of the issues with youth sports, I still feel they are useful for society and will fight to ensure that they continue to exist, but I would love to see them exist in a different form.