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The ADVANCE, January 3,2024/Page 3B
Georgia Southern Hosting
Baseball Camp At TCHS
Courtesy of GSU
The Georgia South
ern University Eagles
baseball team will be
hosting a youth camp at
Toombs County High
School on January 6,
from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00
p.m. The camp is open
for ages 6-12. The cost of
the camp is $75 per par
ticipant.
The registration pro
cess will all take place
through the link eagle-
baseballcamps.com, and
registration will close on
January 5, at 5:00 p.m.
Fifty kids will be the
limit due to the coach/
kid ratio.
Children will check
in the day of the camp at
8:30 a.m. and then get
started at 9:00 a.m. They
will be put into groups
depending on their ages
and then go through sta
tions of fielding, hitting,
base running, and other
related activities.
At the end, they will
play baseball games
among their peers based
on age group. All camp
information can be
found at eaglebaseball-
camps.com.
Lunch, snacks, or
drinks are not provided.
How To Increase Youth
Sports Participation
Participating in youth
sports is a great way to
keep children healthy and
socially engaged. Sports
are one way to help kids be
physically active most days
of the week. And if the
fields filled with players
across neighborhoods are
any indication, many chil
dren still respond to the
call of various youth
leagues and teams. Still,
overall participation in
youth sports is down from
where it was a decade ago.
The Aspen Institute,
through its Project Play
initiative, reviewed re
search from the Sports &
Fitness Industry Associa
tion and found that, in
2018, the most recent year
for data, only 38 percent of
kids between the ages of
six and 12 played sports
that year, which was down
from 45 percent in 2008.
There are some eye-open
ing reasons behind why
some children may be less
inclined to join in, and
those reasons also offer in
sight into how this issue
can be overcome.
• Cost: The Aspen In
stitute found the average
cost per year for sports
participation per child and
per sport was around $695.
Ice hockey and field
hockey were two of the
most costly sports to play.
ESPN reports that low-in-
come families are half as
likely to play sports as chil
dren from homes with
higher incomes, simply be
cause of cost. Children
who want to participate
can look for recreational
leagues or school-subsi
dized programs that may
require little to no cost for
participation. Equipment
donation and swaps are
some additional ways that
participants can keep their
spending down.
• Fun factor: Certain
kids are opting out of
sports not because of bad
behavior by the players,
but by the poor behavior
of parents on the sidelines.
Heckling, putting undue
pressure on children and
getting into arguments
with coaches and officials
has unfortunately become
a new norm at youth sport
ing events. The young
players are the ones losing
out when they feel anxious
about playing. Rather, be
ing a good sport parent is
warn
VidaliA
FEDERAL SAVINGS BANK
Notice
Notice is hereby given of the Annual
Meeting of the Members of Vidalia Federal
Savings Bank. Said meeting to be held in the
Conference Room of the Bank, 300 Jackson
Street, Vidalia, Georgia, on Thursday, January
18, 2024, at 2:00 RM. Eastern Standard Time.
Dated this 15th day of December, 2023
Member
Elaine Dixon, Secretary
FDIC
Vidalia Federal Savings Bank
EQUAL HOUSING
LENDER
What To Do When
Parents Are Poor Sports?
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very easy. Only saying pos
itive things on the sidelines
or remaining silent is key.
Parents should resist the
urge to coach (unless they
are the coaches), and let
those in charge do their
jobs. Parents can stop cri
tiquing their children’s play
and avoid pointing out
who on the team did better
or worse.
• Distractions: Before
the advent of the internet
and social media, sports
teams were the single best
way to come together with
friends to hang out and
have a good time. Now
kids don’t even have to
leave their homes to en
gage with others. The CO-
VID-19 pandemic com
pounded issues of children
being relegated to home
rather than socializing and
getting exercise. Parents
can turn the tides by being
more stringent as they gov
ern device usage and
strictly monitor and re
duce screen time. This may
help children be more in
clined to once again join
sports teams or other clubs
and activities.
• Safety: No player
wants to get sidelined by
an injury that requires
them to sit out a game or
the entire season. Making
safety a priority in youth
sports can guard against
unnecessary injuries. Johns
Hopkins Medicine says
about 30 million children
and teens participate in
youth sports in the United
States, and around 3.5 mil
lion injuries occur annu
ally. Contact sports and
those that involve hitting
or throwing balls typically
have higher injury rates.
Wearing the correct gear,
taking breaks in hot
weather, adhering to age
limits and the rules of the
game, and other safety
steps can help cut down on
youth sports injuries.
Heated debates with
referees and trash-talk
ing players is something
one may expect when
watching professional
sports. But such behav
ior is not expected of
parents on the sidelines
of youth sporting events.
However, unruly parents
are on display with in
creasing frequency at
various youth sporting
events.
According to a 2017
survey by the National
Association of Sports
Officials, adult behavior
is the reason more than
75 percent of all high
school referees quit.
About 80 percent of new
officials stop after two
years on the job. This has
led to a shortage of offi
cials across the youth
sports landscape.
Richard Weissbourd,
a psychologist and senior
lecturer at the Harvard
Graduate School of Edu
cation, says there maybe
several reasons behind
the uptick in poor paren
tal behavior at sporting
events. The media and
social media platforms
have normalized de
meaning and degrading
people with whom one
disagrees without fear of
recourse, Weissbourd
says. Also, the behavior
could stem from parents
wanting to compensate
for shortcomings in their
own youth sports histo
ries. Others may be mo
tivated by notions that
winning is all that mat
ters.
Children are the big
gest losers when parents
misbehave at youth
sporting events. Rather
than having fun in sports
with teammates, youth
experience unnecessary
stress and anxiety about
the game. Some are too
anxious to compete in
events for fear of losing.
Others are being affected
by pressure-induced
statements thrown in,
such as, “I know you are
going to win today.”
Some kids are embar
rassed by their own
mothers and fathers yell
ing at them to do better,
or demeaning other play
ers and coaches.
Youth sports leagues
are starting to take in
ventory of unsavory pa
rental behavior at kids’
sports events. While it’s
one thing for parents to
be invested in their chil
dren’s success, it’s an
other to allow it to lead
tone things down. This
could be an embarrass
ing wake-up call.
• Rally for changed
policies. Youth sports
leagues and schools can
be petitioned to imple
ment stricter policies for
dealing with parents who
are out of control at
sporting events. Restric
tion from attending
games could be one ave
nue, particularly for re
peat offenders.
• Model good behav
ior. Coaches and officials
can remain calm and col
lected even in the face of
aggression directed their
way to illustrate to play
ers how to behave. Fur
thermore, actions like
congratulating the win
ning team and not sup
porting cheating or mak
ing illegal maneuvers
during play should be
reinforced.
• Lend an ear. Some-
to inappropriate or in
tense behavior that is far
from sportsmanlike.
Here’s how it may be
possible to change pat
terns.
• Share a new per
spective. Oftentimes
sports events, particu
larly at the high school
level, are recorded and/
or streamed for viewing
later on. Problematic
parents can be called in
to view recaps of their
behavior which may be
caught on video to see
that they may need to
times parents act out at
games not because of the
game itself, but some
other stressor that they
may have going on in
their lives. Mitigating the
situation may come
down to listening to a
problem and providing a
healthy outlet for that
frustration.
Reducing incidents
involving out-of-control
parents at sporting
events is becoming a
larger priority as issues
continue and fewer
coaches and officials are
inclined to volunteer
heir time.
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