blog 6

Acceptance into college has become more and more competitive in recent years as the importance of attending college has increased. Athletes have for a long time running been important assets to universities. Recruiters from colleges can start selecting potential athletes in their sophomore year of high school however they can begin looking much sooner. Videos of children’s athletic performances are now being posted to the internet for anyone to see, and colleges are definitely looking. Some even go as far as to directly email a video to a coach.

The growing desire to be a college athlete is causing some kids to work exceptionally hard to get good videos. And those that do are certainly getting noticed. For example, Jashaun Agosto, who is only 11 years old, has several videos on YouTube and many have more than 15,000 views. UCLA has even been considering him. To me, it is crazy that parents are allowing their children to be this directed. It seems that driving your child to be good at sports simply so that he can get into college is not the way to do it. Sports can often go wrong and they’re only one broken limb away from losing their future. It’s great that these kids are having these opportunities but it gets to a certain point when they start to lose their childhood. Besides it is silly for college recruiters to be considering them when they have never seen them play in person and they do not know their academic situation, their ability to play with a team, or their personality. It is worrisome that stage parents maybe just become coach parents. Only a small portion of people really make it to the big time, and mean while I think we should be encouraging kids, not only to follow their dreams, but to be as well rounded as is possible.


Article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/sports/ncaabasketball/02youtube.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin
External sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_Athletic_Union
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Jashaun+Agosto&search_type=&aq=f