- Oct 3, 2019
- 364
- 43
So, my granddaughter has been playing year round, except for the Covid year when her team only got together to practice, the Spring of 2020. This past year, she played last Spring, Summer and then Fall for a higher level travel team. After that season ended, she went straight into high school basketball which was so good for her, conditioning, confidence, all the good things. Basket ball led straight into Spring Softball where she played on the JV team and had a really good year. She got called up to Varsity at the end of the season for the league championships and now the state sectionals. She does not play other than pinch running now and then, goes to practices every day after school, and that's all fine. But she and the other freshman that got called up were told, the only way they would be assured to stay on Varsity next Spring is to play summer travel ball. My GD had already decided that she wanted to take summer off from travel ball, "maybe" play again in Fall. She has a big 3 week vacation planned out of the country this summer also and wanted to do some Summer work with the basketball team. My question is, how does putting these demands on kids, what they need to be doing in Summer in order to secure their spot for next year, before this season is even done with, help these kids decompress mentally? With all the "talk" about their mental health every time we read about some tragedy, we have this real hypocrisy, putting even more demands on these kids. My GD is like, "Oh well then, I guess I'll just have to play JV again". Glad she has her head screwed on about her own needs because clearly, no adult, coach or otherwise is seriously looking out for their needs or wants. I just don't want to see another post by any coach about kids; mental health when they aren't going to make any attempt to address it with their own teams.