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The New York Times


March 28, 2010 Sunday
Late Edition - Final


SECTION: Section SP; Column 0; Sports Desk; BOX SEATS; Pg. 11

HEADLINE: On Sandlot Day, Children Call Their Own Shots

BYLINE: By MARK HYMAN.

Mark Hyman is the author of ''Until It Hurts: America's Obsession With Youth Sports and How It Harms Our Kids.''



Every year, it seems, youth sports become more organized. Uniforms fit better. Seasons stretch another week or two. Even the quality of the snacks has improved at many recreation fields.

None of that would happen without the coaches, umpires, scorekeepers and concession-stand cooks who keep youth leagues running. But have adults reached a point where they are too involved?

If so, Tim Donovan may have an answer. As the director of the Youth Sports Institute, a think tank based at the State University of New York at Cortland, he travels around the state to lead training sessions for volunteer coaches. Lately, he has also been promoting Sandlot Day 2010, a concept the sports institute developed.

The idea is that adults should cede control of games to the players for one day this season. Parents are welcome to show up. But on this day, the children make the rules and run the show.

They decide what to wear (full uniform, or T-shirt and shorts). They choose sides and set the lineups. Their authority extends even to the game they decide to play (baseball or a backyard derivative like whiffle ball).

In January, the sports institute sent a three-page memo to hundreds of New York youth leagues describing Sandlot Day. Guidelines for the program give the players choices like ''coach the bases or not, umpire among themselves and make any rearrangements necessary to play.''

They are only suggestions.

''We're not the sports sheriff,'' Donovan said. ''We think organized baseball is great. But we think it's also good for kids to play home run derby, to have passion and a sense of ownership about their sports.''

A few generations ago, all youth baseball was more or less the sandlot variety. Manicured fields were few and far between. Parents were not around to hit fungoes or draw up lineups. Children were on their own to become proficient at sports and to love them.

Gradually, parents were drawn in as chief organizers in ways that have not been friendly to sandlot play. The sport sociologist Jay Coakley said he has offered groups of students $100 for a photograph of eight or more adolescent girls playing sports unsupervised by adults. In 15 years, Coakley said, ''I've never received such a photo.''

The benefits of sandlot games are many, sports researchers say. They give youngsters a chance to flex their creative muscles as they invent new rules. When they form teams and make other big decisions, they are also learning to face problems with their friends and, if they play long enough, to solve them.

''The lessons learned from choosing up sides -- negotiation, conflict resolution -- they're the building blocks of civilization,'' Donovan said.

A few communities have revived sandlot ball. Methuen, Mass., started a weekly program last summer. The town's recreation department recruited players with the catchphrase ''No parents, no coaches, no registration, no cost.''

Bayonne, N.J., runs a summer camp with a sandlot theme. The first part of each camp day features instruction from local coaches. Then the 6- to 14-year-olds take over, playing ball on their own.

''There's no pressure,'' said Pete Amadeo, Bayonne's recreation supervisor. ''It's pretty much all fun.''

He says the camp draws almost 100 players most days.

Some organizations are looking to sandlot games to renew interest in baseball. From 2000 to 2008, participation in the sport dipped 5 percent, according to the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association. Batters Up USA, a nonprofit organization supported in part by sporting goods companies, gives free bats and balls to towns interested in hosting sandlot baseball and softball games.

''We're trying to take the sport to kids who don't have much opportunity to play,'' said Jess Heald, Batters Up's executive director and a retired bat company executive.

Initially, Sandlot Day's unorthodox concept confused some youth league officials. Donovan said that a few asked how much they should charge and how to organize the event.

''The answer was, we're not going to organize it; we're going to permit it,'' Donovan said. The questions were understandable, he said, because Sandlot Day is ''outside the model of Little League.''

This year, the institute aims to have as many as 25 leagues incorporate Sandlot Day into their seasons. It is too early to predict whether it will reach the goal. But at least one seems ready to take the leap. The Pittsford (N.Y.) Little League near Rochester likes the idea.

''Everything I'm reading says that baseball's popularity is diminishing,'' said David Hester, the league's president. ''If this has a chance of making the sport more exciting to some kids, that's cool.''

Hester said he was working through logistical issues like picking a date, probably in June. Although adults will be taking a back seat that day, he still plans to put out a call for some mothers and fathers.

''The Erie Canal runs by the outfield at two of our fields,'' he said. ''I'd like a few adults around so the kids don't jump in.''

As you know, I am a proponent of kids learning and participating in as many sports as possible until they are at least sophmores in high school. The folks at Athletic Management wrote up a nice article on how to create the incentives for kids to do so and to involve parents and coaches.

When next season means another sport, and not the start of club, the multi-sport message is getting through. But how do you do it? The keys are offering incentives to athletes and convincing arguments to parents. Find more of this articles at
Athletic Management Magazine.

I often say that kids vote with their feet. If a sport offers them the opportunity to learn and grow within a sport, they stay and attract others. If they have a negative experience, then they stay away, and spread the word to avoid a sport and coach.

This coaching staff has to be doing something right to attract and retain such a huge turn-out. I tip my hat to them!!!


School's cross country 'army' has more than 200 runners

By Jim Halley, USA TODAY

October 14, 2008


Green Hope (Cary, N.C.) cross country coach Michael Miragliuolo doesn't always cheer for each of his runners in a meet.

"The hardest thing is when 10 of my kids run by in a meet — I know the names but by the time I can think to shout them out, they're by me," Miragliuolo said. "I try to learn my whole team, but I don't really get to know them as well as I'd like."

While many schools struggle to field a full cross country team, Miragliulolo has 205 boys and girls runners. The team's unofficial slogan is "An Army of One," team members train in camouflage tops and are broken down into companies, each led by one of 20 team captains.

The girls team is ranked No. 2 in North Carolina and the boys are ranked No. 3. The school is only 10 years old, and the boys have won seven consecutive district titles while the girls have won five of the past six.

Despite the military overtones, the reason for the team's success may be more social than strategy. At Green Hope, being a cross country member has become the thing to do, with more than 10% of the school competing in the sport. It's as if a party was thrown and a cross country team broke out.

"One of my friends that I played soccer with, her sister ran on the team," said senior Carly Roos, 17. "She said to just try it out and I ended up liking it. As a freshman, it definitely was an easy way to meet people. As I got more into it, I became more competitive. I think we get a lot of runners who come to meet people and also to get in shape and they end up being very competitive."

Though only five or seven runners count toward scoring (depending on the meet), every runner will get to run in at least one meet a week during the season. The night before meets, team parents host pasta parties that typically draw 160 runners. At some meets, the team takes two buses for all the runners. Miragliuolo said he is hoping that with parents and family, the team will have 1,000 fans at his conference meet Oct. 15.

"We position our fans all over the course," he said. "It's also for the other teams. When other people get to run with that many people watching, it's more exciting for them."

Miragliuolo is also Green Hope's baseball coach. When he first began coaching cross country eight years ago, he didn't want to have to make cuts, as he did in baseball.

"It would be easier if I cut the bottom half of the team, but that's a sacrifice I'll never get myself to make," Miragliuolo said. "I always wonder if our top runners would be better off with more attention if the team was smaller, but we've been really lucky that our kids have bought in with the coaching philosophy. I think there is peer pressure to finish the right way. We've had great seniors who have showed the other ones how to do things."

His first year, the squad had 25 runners. As more runners joined the team, they invited their friends and the effect has been exponential.

"The whole atmosphere is really accepting," said senior Scott Hefner, 17. "We look for all types of people — acquaintances, anybody who would enjoy being part of the team. Somtimes, it's about getting into shape. Probably the biggest thing is the way the team has bonded over my four years. I've been running with the same guys and we've really become competitive and we're growing relationships."

Two years ago, Will Craigle, battling a brain tumor, got permission from his doctors to keep running for Green Hope. He'd fly to Boston for chemotherapy but return in time for meets. His teammates, impressed by his drive, wore T-shirts to meets that said, "You may have the talent, but we have the Will." Craigle is now a sophomore at N.C. State, but his younger brother Matt is a sophomore on the team. Another runner, Nathan Baker, is deaf and has cerebral palsy. Despite frequent falls while running, he's cut his time by eight minutes in a 5-kilometer race, recently running a personal best of 24:18.

Miragliuolo will choose three separate workouts, depending on ability and his captains carry out the plan. Many of the runners get together for weekend runs when they don't have a meet and the squad often does team-building exercises, including games of Ultimate Frisbee.

"I get a workout from coach Miragliuolo and I try to guide them," says Hefner, one of the captains. "It helps us with experience. I think it makes cross country what we want to make it. Instead of a function of a teacher or coach, we as runners are able to figure out what we want to do."

By having three different workout plans, fewer runners leave the team because they can't keep up.

"There's a lot of leeway we give them," Miragliuolo said. "We try to give them a lot of success. Our rule is we're not going to let you move down a group. I don't want anybody to lower their expectations."