SCORE: A Guide to Supporting and Instilling Exceptional Sportsmanship

Things have changed in youth sports, and kids are trying to tell us they don’t like being treated like a commodity anymore. Putting a first grader on a traveling team so they can begin preparing for their varsity season twelve years down the road is absurd. Does everything have to be organized? Does everything have to be tournament-related? What happened to the driveway time? What happened to good old-fashioned 1-on-1 or 2-on-2 games on the playground? Where have all the pick-up baseball games gone that used to be played in the back field or schoolyard with no adults present? (New Paragraph) We must stop putting unrealistic expectations on our kids and let them enjoy the journey. We have to end the anointing of our children as being the next 5-star prospect or prodigy. Our children want stability, consistency and loyalty – exactly what a dog provides. They want coaches who care enough to catch them smoking on a bridge and help them get involved in something productive. They want parents, not just their pets, who will love them unconditionally. They want a stress-free environment they can trust, like youth sports used to be until parents and adults, in general, goofed it up. The best part is we can fix it too, and we won’t have to pretend to wag our tail like a dog. The SCORE book series can help us regain what we’ve lost…

About The Author

TeamScore Inc is a non-profit organization on a mission to promote good sportsmanship in youth athletics. President and Co-Founder Bill Gosse brings a unique perspective to the subject of sportsmanship: Currently the Executive Director at St. Vincent de Paul Green Bay; NCAA D1 walk-on in basketball; father of five grown boys; coach for several youth teams; WIAA official, and Weekly sportsmanship columnist. He has seen all sides of sports, and still appreciates the great things it offers. He is passionate about improving the fan—and participant—environment in sports today.