A trophy and a free tee shirt.

I was talking to a good friend of mine who is a high school golf coach and he reminded me of just how different high school sports are these days. He told me about the season and how they managed to win a second consective state title. He was smiling and quite happy about the teams accomplishments. I ask him if the second title was any more difficult than the first one and he said no but that every season has its set of challenges. He said that all his varsity golfers were consistant club players and that he was really fortunate to have an extremely committed group of players. He also told me about some of the parents he has had to deal with in his tenure as coach for almost a decade. Alot of parents believe that their precious child is the second coming of Tiger Woods. They send their children off to expensive sports camps and expect their investment to pay off.  Children no longer play sports in season to stay in shape and learn the value of competition they now start playing organized sports around 7 years of age and hope someday to earn a college schlorship. If your parents cannot afford the football camp that almost all the 8th grade football team will attend over the summer your child will spend his freshman year of high school on the bench. The coaches that brave the new world of competitive sports had better be ready for obnoxious unrealistic parents and family members who believe that every coach is an idiot if their child is not the star of the team. Every child at the expensive football camp hosted by superstar X will get a trophy and a free tee shirt. That in most parents minds tyranslates into varsity letters and future college schlorships. No measly high school coach is going to tell the parent expert with a certificate of authenticity that his kid is not good enough to play varsity baseball because he was a star at baseball camp last year. The expectations and priorities set down for athletics are so out of wack these days that anybody thinking of coaching should have his or her head examined.