The Evolution of High School Sports

When you think about how sports has evolved on a professional level, it's hard not to find a trickle down effect to today's younger audience. The modern athlete for instance, is generally viewed as a hot dog for self promotion. One can still separate the images of a humble Barry Sanders handing the football over to an official after a game breaking touchdown, against Chad Ochocinco's "dancing with the stars" rendition of attention grabbing after his trip to the end zone. To say that there is a difference in the generational gap of sports fans and athletes alike is quite simply an understatement. Even more understated could be the cause and effect of how college or even high school athletes are influenced to emulate today's stars.

Let us begin with what the root causes for today's athletes are as opposed to the heroes of yesteryear. Society as a whole was much more conservative twenty plus years ago. My father cheered for the humble, hard working and blue color athletes such as Joe DiMaggio and Roberto Clemente. My old man represented to me what the sports genre was attracted to, by whom the transcended stars were. Today the most popular star athletes are entertainers perhaps more so then they are winners. Great athletes of the 1920's through the 1980's were for all intent and purposes champions. Defined by how they performed in the most crucial and intense moments. That is not to say that all of today's athletes are not driven to be great, it's just that the overall picture is magnified as such. For instance take Tom Brady of the New England Patriots and Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees. Both multiple championship athletes who do nothing to draw attention to themselves, save for win.

When attending a local high school sporting event it is easy to see the effect or "me first" mentality at play. From watching a young senior baseball player stand and pose after a home run swing, Alla Barry Bonds, to watching a junior running back break a long run for a touchdown and celebrate by posing for imaginary pictures as did Lebron James when he was a Cleveland Cavaliers player (now with the Miami Heat). High school sports in general has the dubious advantage of better equipment, training methods and advancement of health education. Today's high school athlete is bigger and faster, and with that maybe more confident. The tricky aspect of it all is the fine line between confidence and cockiness.

In retrospect, today's professional athletes were at one time high school players of multiple sports. Their influences were the classical athletes of past times, legends of the game that they chose to veer away from in respect for the game. Today coaches have the opportunity to teach and influence high school athletes in the manner of respect for the games they play and the players that they compete against. And again, while not all of today's athletes are show boats or "me first" players, there are far to many that need back on that right path. That path which we as adults refer to as respectable, can only be earned through knowledge of how the athletes of yesteryear carried themselves. How they influenced our dads and moms and how they influenced our generation, and more importantly how these young men can and will influence those that come after them.