Why is winning in sports so important?  Why must we put that pressure on our kids for us vicariously?  Is it fair?  Where is the fun?

I don’t think so.

I didn’t witness it this while playing football in the Police Athletic League (PAL) in the Bay Area in California, but I’ve heard stories that coaches pressure the ‘best’ players to ‘carry’ the team because those around Little Johnny is the best player on the team.

For those who make it to high school without being burnt out, faced even more stress of coaches demanding athletes to lift 350 pounds on the bench or squatting 400 pounds.

Why is this?

The community, journalist and college coaches demand the high school coaches to do this.

Either through winning a lot of games and providing the best product to make them, the coaches are fearful that if they don’t do this, they’ll be losing their jobs to coach and will be replaced by someone who can win a championship.

Journalist and College Coaches add this pressure because if the team loses, Little Johnny throws an interception or Little Adam misses the game-winning lay-up, the journalist ask what happen and pressure the kids to not to make mistakes and pressure the coaches to wonder.

The College Coaches would take this and quite possibly pull the kids scholarship, putting even more pressure on the high school coaches and players.

The question I started with is why are we increasing the pressure of athletics?  Isn’t the game already a pressure cooker of it already?