As we all head into the summer months, here is some food for thought regarding what is best for developing athletes as they make their way through middle school and high school sports. This is an article from the June 29th/11 edition of the Charleston Gazette in West Virginia which outlines the dilemma that not only developing athletes face, but also parents who are often involved in the decision making to determine what direction their child should take when it comes to playing multi - sports verses specializing.

New research has actually shown that specializing in one sport can be detrimental to an athlete's development. This article speaks predominately about young boys choosing between football and basketball, but this situation also is also prevalent on the girls side when so many club basketball or soccer teams demand year round commitment.

Charleston, West Virginia may be a long way from Eugene, Oregon, but throughout the nation, our youth are being exposed to pressures of performance rather than playing for process and global athletic development that may, in the long run, increase the athlete's capability and success in the sport that they choose to pursue full time.

This August we will have an opportunity to hear Chip Kelly speak to our football coaches about how he believes that developing athletes who play multiple sports are in the long run, the football student athletes he seeks to recruit for his football program here at the University of Oregon.

So whether you are near or far, or whether you agree or not, this kind of information is always good for student athletes, parents, and youth coaches to take into consideration as we all seek to make more informed decisions with regards to the best path to take towards athletic excellence.

Enjoy!


HEADLINE: Coaches: Let 'em play two (or more)

BYLINE: Rick Ryan, Assistant sports editor

College football coaches around the state agree. Limiting players to one sport is one bad idea.

The trend over the last generation of high school athletics is to hone a player's skills in a single sport over the entire year instead of allowing him or her to dabble in several sports.

Thus, the boom of travel teams in AAU basketball and youth soccer and the proliferation of summer football camps. One-sport specialists, after all, need to stay sharp year-round.

"At a lot of bigger [high] schools, what we're finding is that the student-athletes are not allowed to play three sports,'' said Pat Kirkland, the University of Charleston's football coach. "They'll say, 'Well, he hasn't spent the summer and winter and spring in the weight room, and he needs to be. Maybe he doesn't need to run track or play basketball.'

"At small schools, they might be able to play basketball or baseball and run track, and don't need to get into the weight room. But coaches at bigger schools have more of a pool [of athletes] to select from, and obviously football is the No. 1 sport for a lot of kids. I've recruited the state for the last 11 years - six at Glenville State and five at West Virginia - and I've definitely been starting to see it more and more. You don't know if it's coming from coaches or family members or the individual students. Someone saying you need to pick a sport and focus on that.''

However, that doesn't mean everybody's in favor of the trend. A panel of state college coaches, past and present, contacted by the Gazette doesn't like it one bit.

"I'm old school, over 50,'' said West Virginia State coach Earl Monroe. "Naturally, as kids, we just played every sport when the season came. But everybody now's trying to create a Michael Jordan, a LeBron James or whoever - a superstar. There's AAU and some people love it. I'm not a great fan of it, simply because if it's basketball, then all that kid plays is basketball.

"As kids, we'd go out all day and sometimes we might play basketball, football and even baseball on a given Saturday, and we were pretty good athletes. Now they're cooped up playing video games half the day and working on their basketball game the rest of the day.''

Don Nehlen, the former WVU coach, got his start in coaching at two high schools in Canton, Ohio - McKinley and South. He said he never asked his players - even with the Mountaineers - to concentrate on football and skip other sports.

"I was never for that,'' Nehlen said. "I always felt that if I had a good football player who was good enough to play basketball, it was fine with me. The guys who didn't play basketball would be doing mat drills or lifting weights to get stronger and quicker, and build a bond amongst themselves.

"I never wanted to talk a kid out of playing another sport. You're competing, and that's the name of the game - to beat the other guy.''

Lots of coaches say you can't get enough competition, no matter what sport.

"I've got a strong opinion on that,'' said WVU Tech coach Scott Tinsley. "I think high school kids should play every sport, and nobody can change my mind. There's nothing like competition to make you better.''

Tinsley, who coached football for 13 seasons at Nitro, pointed to the case of Brett McClanahan, a basketball star for the Wildcats who went out for football for the first time as a senior.

"The year he came out and played football made him such a better competitor on the basketball court,'' Tinsley said, "just to go out on Friday nights and compete against another opponent. You handle completely different situations.

"You can go in a gym and shoot all you want and concentrate on your sport, but there's nothing like game time. It doesn't have to be the sport you're trying to excel in. That year gave him a lot more confidence to get in there and bang around [in basketball]. It brought it out of him. I don't think it makes you tougher, but it brings that quality out in you. It lets you know it's OK to get banged around, and he had success with it.''

McClanahan is set to enter his senior season at Division I Akron as the squad's No. 2 returning basketball scorer at 10 points per game.

Bob Pruett, who coached football at Marshall from 1996-2004, thinks that by playing more sports, budding athletes become more versatile.

"I played three sports at Marshall,'' Pruett said. "I've always encouraged players we signed to play in all-star games. I think the more you play, the better well rounded you are. If Randy Moss [the DuPont star who played for Pruett at MU] had only played basketball in high school - and he was Mr. Basketball in the state - he wouldn't be in the NFL.

"I know it's a debate, but I think you can play more than one sport and still excel, be it football, baseball, basketball or track. One thing in coaching now is that you have to sell your sport. But when selling your sport, you don't have to berate another sport. If they're an athlete, I think they're capable of doing more than one thing.''

Monroe feels like coaches and parents could be penalizing their son's or daughter's potential by limiting them to one sport if they have a knack for several.

"You never know which sport could end up being your sport,'' Monroe said. "You could be an up-and-coming baseball player and your skill level in basketball in the fifth grade is not as high as baseball. But if you quit playing the other sport, you don't know which one you'd actually develop further in. Something can happen; you can get growth spurts. You don't realize the other sport is also going to help you develop your hand-eye coordination a little different. It's different muscle development. Fast-twitch, slow-twitch, [more sports] develop all different skill sets.

"I don't have a degree in anatomy or physiology, but I know baseball helped me with skills that just playing football wouldn't have developed. Basketball helped me develop some things coordination-wise and athletics-wise that wouldn't have happened just concentrating on football all the time. You have to train a [complete] athlete because all sports take a whole lot of hand-eye coordination and agility and footwork. Each specific sport has their own area that they develop, and you need to be exposed to all of it.''

Monroe sees the differences that specializing in a single sport causes by looking at his own football players.

"We've got linemen who can't catch,'' he said. "When I grew up, everybody threw and caught the football, because that's what we did every day. We played whatever sport we could pick up. I'm a 54-year-old guy, and I can throw and catch better than them because we did everything.''

Monroe said some parents want their children to "star'' in one sport rather than be competent in several.

"I think that's doing kids an injustice,'' he said. "They're not given a chance to develop all their skills, and diversify. I think we've got it all wrong.''

Monroe even let Kevin O'Brien, his program's all-time leading passer, dabble in baseball during O'Brien's freshman season at State.

"It doesn't bother me,'' Monroe said. "We tell our kids, 'If you can help [coach] Bryan Poore and the basketball team and contribute, then go play basketball and we'll catch up to you in football when you can.''

Tinsley mentioned other intangible benefits an athlete accrues from branching out to other sports.

"There are things you can't simulate in practice,'' Tinsley said, "and that's the feeling you get with the game on the line.

"Even if you're not an All-American baseball player, you come up with two out in the bottom of the seventh down one with runners at first and second. It's get a hit or go home. That teaches you how to handle the situation that you can't get in the gym. The more situations they're in against outside competition teaches them a lot of lessons. Not only things that carry over in sports, but also when you get out in real life and learn how to be successful. Competition is a great thing. The more you can do, the better you are.''

West Virginia State football coach Earl Monroe is adamant that young athletes should be encouraged to play multiple sports.

Reach Rick Ryan at 304-348-5175 or rickryan@wvgazette.com