SPORTS IN SOCIETY

Check this out . . .
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/magazine/22basketball-t.html

This young man is clearly a gifted and hard-working athlete. I think that is wonderful and I applaud he and his mother for their effort in sport. I wonder, though, about the role of commercialism in the athletic lives of our youth athletes. Is this what "grass-roots" now means? "Grass roots" involves a business adventure and reaching into people's bank accounts through their children's athletic programs? Are these the values that we want to promote in youth sports? (I know I'm idealistic . . . I'm a swim coach . . . it's part of our jobs . . .dreaming about the Olympic ideal and all!)

I wonder if THIS is what happens to our young people who grow up privileged through sport?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102303350

Do we raise our athletes to think that they are more important than their peers because they are great athletes? What can we do, as coaches, to ensure that our athletes do not develop the selfishness, narcissism and arrogance that becomes a "cancer" on any team?