Stop the Cheating in Youth Sports!
Parents, coaches and high-profile athletes are blurring the lines between gamesmanship and outright cheating. It’s time to stop that trend.
When Major League Baseball found the Houston Astros guilty of using modern technology and banging trash cans to steal signs during the 2017 season, it created a firestorm throughout all of sports. One school of thought claimed the team was just taking advantage of resources available to get an edge. Many others believed the scandal was a black eye on the game, and the team should have its World Series championship stripped from them.
The urge to win is like a powerful drug; once you get a taste of it, you can’t get enough. Unfortunately, youth sports is not immune to this way of thinking. The expectations placed on kids from T-ball to the high school level can be overwhelming.
The tragedy is when those high expectations lead many players to sacrifice sportsmanship and ethics to satisfy the desires of someone else.
As John O’Sullivan, head of the nonprofit group Changing the Game Project pointed out in a 2014 blog post, there are clear definitions of stepping over the line. Performance-enhancing drugs, knowingly using illegal players, and deliberately attempting to injure…
