Josh Allen's Advice to Youth Sports Parents

I recently came across an article entitled “Josh Allen Takeaways for Youth Sports Parents: From No College Offers to NFL MVP Candidate” on a site called I Love to Watch You Play.  For those of you not familiar with Josh Allen he’s currently one of the 2 or 3 players favored to win the NFL MVP this season.  Currently he has thrown for 3,395 yards with 25 touchdowns and rushed for 484 yards with 11 touchdowns, and all of this from a young man who had a total of ZERO Division I colleges interested in him coming out of high school.  His is a story of great resilience, hard work, and persistence to get where he is today.

            According to the article, after not receiving any Division I offers Allen went to Reedley College, a junior college in California and while there sent over 1,000 emails along with his highlight film to college coaches, and out of all that, he received only ONE offer from the University of Wyoming.  The article stated that “Allen’s journey is a powerful example of grit, the kind of determination that keeps you moving forward, even when the odds are stacked against you.”   Additionally, his success shows how important it is to allow young athletes to explore multiple sports. Instead of focusing on specializing early, give kids the chance to learn new skills and develop as competitors. Playing different sports doesn’t just build better athletes; it builds kids who love the game and have a deeper toolbox of skills to draw from when it matters most. And maybe most importantly, it helps them from burning out and developing overuse injuries.”  Now, I’ve been writing for a while now that young children should play multiple sports while young for the reasons that Allen states above. 

            The article further states that “while at Wyoming Allen had an injury to his collarbone that could have derailed his career but he refused to let it define him and when he had a chance to declare early for the NFL draft, he chose to stay another year to sharpen his skills, a decision that speaks to his maturity and his understanding of the importance of long-term growth.”  Allen goes on further to state “as parents, we can learn from this by helping our kids embrace setbacks as opportunities to grow, rather than moments to give up. And for young athletes, Allen’s story shows that sometimes the best choice isn’t the easiest one—it’s the one that helps you build character and prepare for what’s next.”  Finally, Allen states that he had great parental support and “his parents, Joel and LaVonne Allen, were steadfast supporters, attending his games and fostering an environment where he could pursue his passions without undue pressure.”

            Now I have been writing about what Allen is talking about for well over a year and I can imagine many people looking at what I am writing and saying to themselves “what does this guy know” or “he has no idea what he is talking about” and while I guess I can understand that argument as I never played college or pro ball and my official organized sports career ended with my last baseball game my senior year of high school. I have coached youth sports long enough to see that the changes that have taken place in youth sports with it going from recreation, based on kids playing different sports year-round to trave/select/elite teams fighting for kids to play for them year-round and focusing on one sport from early on.  Yet, here we have a professional athlete, one who did not have a silver spoon in his month, talking about how he was a “multisport athlete who used all the sports he played build his athleticism, improve his decision making under pressure and allowed him to enjoy competition without burning out” and how that helped him deal with adversity and issues as he went through high school, college and now in the pros.  I hope parents will take a deep breath, step back and see wisdom of what a professional athlete has to say about youth sports and how parents should manage their children’s sporting activities.