Youth Sports in America: The Hunger Games

Make it possible for every American child to play sports

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During a semi-long drive at the end of the day, I reluctantly tuned into NPR and happened on an in-depth interview with a Gen Z ESPN journalist on NPR talking about Biden’s attempt to protect trans athletes and their participation in youth sports. She argued that it was important to understand the nuances of the issue, but that it was the right of every American child to play both team and individual sports.

96% of these young athletes do not go on to play in college, but they deserve to participate in an American activity that builds both friendship and character. The Lia Thomases of the world are very rare. The journalist goes on to argue that anti-trans lawmakers and spokespeople know that their bans on trans participation in youth sports affect very few people. She herself named only four trans athletes, one of whom just wanted to run cross country with their friends. They don’t win trophies. They just want to run. They should be allowed to play.

I totally 100% agree.

The problem is NPR spent 10 minutes on a topic that they admit affects very, very few families and very few people.

Despite the child tax credit and other Federal support for families with children, The Poverty Center at Columbia University reports that between December 2021 to January 2022, the child poverty rate in America increased from 12% to 17%. 12.5 million American children live below the poverty line. The increase in child poverty hit White and Latino children the hardest. Poor people generally don’t listen to NPR. But wealthy suburbanites do.

As far as state-sponsored media goes, NPR couldn’t be doing a better job in promoting the Democratic Party’s PMC oriented agenda, making it seem as if they and the President are spending lots of time and energy crafting nuanced executive orders to promote progress and tolerance in our country.

Stats I’ve read show that 20% of American children have known hunger in the past year. Let’s not use food insecurity as a fig leaf. Millions of children go to bed hungry every night.

You are not feeling playful or competitive if you’re hungry.

Participation in youth sports in the U.S. is indeed a right of all American children, but that right is meaningless if their families cannot afford to feed them properly.

In the less expensive team sports (that is those without a travel budget and thousands of dollars of signup costs) parents have to volunteer their time and labor if they want their kid to play on a team. Parents with white collar jobs with weekends off and dependable schedules step up to the plate.

Please let’s allow trans youth to play sports. If their parents are supporting them in their transitions and their youth athletics, they probably aren’t suffering from material deprivation and hunger.

NPR and Joe Biden, let’s spend as much time and energy looking at the class divide in American sports, and the fate of poor and working class American children whose parents may not be able to afford to pay the premiums for their participation in athletic activity.

Youth leagues and academies create incredible pressure for families where children show talent and this pressure increases on working class families whose sons and daughters are identified as athletically gifted. Predatory coaches and agents will start hovering around your child. The wealthy family can afford for their children to play sports for pure pleasure. Professional sports are the most spurious form of social mobility. Remember the documentary, Hoop Dreams ?

Neither of its Chicago born and bred protagonists make it as professional athletes: the pressure on these gifted young men almost break their bodies and their minds.