Sussex County Sports Blog

By Dan Cleary

6/29/2008 - Are You Ready For The Summer?

Ah, summertime. After 10 months of school work and playing sports, now is the time for student-athletes to take a break, rest up and relax before summer camps open in late August.

Not.

Okay, sorry for the dated “Not” reference, but it seems to me the last time kids had a chance to take a break from working on their game during the summer months was probably when the first “Wayne’s World” skit hit the airwaves in the early 1990s on “Saturday Night Live.”

Over the course of the last 15 years or so, the two-months-plus hiatus from school has proven to be no respite at all for student-athletes, even students as young as the fifth-grade. Now more than ever, kids are attending camps, clinics and playing in summer leagues in various sports in the supposed “offseason” in order to get ready for the next school year.

Now, I’m all for athletes striving to be their best and improving their game. But where is the limit? And is all this practicing a good or bad thing? Have we become so competitive that we will push our kids to the brink to get that extra edge?

Back in November (11/7/07: Single-Sport Athlete Dilemma) I wrote about how kids are specializing these days and only playing one sport. During my research I found that just 6 percent of the 7.3 million student-athletes who play high school sports go on to play in college.

I noted several reasons why kids were specializing (college cost being the No. 1 reason) and I also stated that kids should play AAU or club ball in the offseason to stay sharp. But, in my opinion, there has to be a limit to how many teams and leagues kids should play in. It just seems to me that kids aren’t getting the opportunity to be kids anymore, especially during the summer.

Listen, I was fortunate to grow up in Highland Lakes in Vernon Township, which was a great place for kids in the summer with countless activities. When I was a kid, there was Little League in the late spring, early summer and that was it. For the older kids, there was Babe Ruth and American Legion in the summer.

And if you wanted to get a good run in basketball, the courts in Highland Lakes were the place to be as I’m sure it was the same at Ungerman Park in Sparta and Memory Park in Newton.

When did the summer become an extension of the high school season? When I played football, there were offseason workouts and then “Captain’s Practice” in which the coaches could not attend. There was no official gathering until the first day of practice which was usually August 25.

Boy, has that changed. Football, like a lot of sports these days, is year round. From team camps to 7-on-7 tournaments, it seems like the final gun on the season never ends. It used to be that high school coaches could not interact with their team in the offseason except for preseason meetings.

But as usual, there were always coaches who liked to “bend” the rules and it became almost impossible to enforce the rule. The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association lifted the ban and since that time, the summertime just means that practices are earlier and there isn’t an activities bus to get you home.

Talk to any coach and they will tell you they have a summer camp and most of these camps are open to elementary school kids so coaches can get a head start on evaluating talent that won’t walk into the locker room until five years from now.

Larry Bird famously once said that basketball players are made from March to October, not during the regular season, and there is plenty of truth to that. But I’m pretty sure Larry Legend wasn’t traveling all over Indiana to play in tournaments when he was a kid. Bird did a lot of his work solo, just him and the basket.

In a perfect world, I wish we could back to the days of pickup games and “Captain Practices” as the summertime workouts. But it will never be. And as the years go on, it is not just high school athletes who are spending their summers working out like they are getting ready for the Olympics.

I know of some fifth-and sixth-grade parents who have enrolled their children in speed training classes in order to get ready for the Super Pee-Wee football season. Yup. You read it right. A bunch of 11-and-12-year-olds working muscles that aren’t fully developed yet. Amazing.

Like I said, I’m all for improving your game, but at what cost. I know of parents who plan their whole summer around their children’s athletic events. Is that wrong? Maybe I’m out of touch, but I think I’m right on this one. I’ve seen too many kids get burned out because there was no balance in their lives. Sometimes, you have to let kids be kids and enjoy the summer months.

There is enough pressure on the youth in our society today. We don’t need to add to it.

NEW LOOK: The NJSIAA released its general group and section classifications for the next school year with two Sussex County Interscholastic League schools making a move.

Like it has the past several years, Lenape Valley has switched sections again, going back to North 1, Group 2. The Pats were in North 2, Group 2 for most sports last year (football, field hockey and wrestling have their own special section and group classifications) and are one of the border schools that see their section change quite often.

The NJSIAA evaluates all the schools in the state and places them in sections and groups based on geography and size for state playoff competition. If one school gets larger or smaller, the makeup of the section will change. The dividing line between North 1 and North 2 seems to run through Stanhope where Lenape Valley is located.

Jefferson dropped down a group and will be back in North 1, Group 2 after dabbling in Group 3 last year. The Falcons also bounce between groups and Jefferson will be the largest school in North 1, Group 2 this school year.

GOOD GET: Sussex Tech Athletic Director Debbie Schlesinger continued her quest to upgrade the Mustangs athletic programs this past week when the school hired George Davenport to take over the boys basketball program.

Davenport was an assistant coach to Jim Tobin at Hopatcong the last few years and Davenport will be a great addition to the staff at Tech. I’ve known Davenport for a long time going back to his days as the baseball coach at Sparta. He has won everywhere he has coached, including a very successful stint as the softball coach at Kittatinny in the mid 1990s.

Davenport also coached the boys hoops team at Kittatinny and had his fair share of success at a school not known for its hoops. He was also a valuable assistant on Jim Green’s football staff for years

The Mustangs return four of their starters from a young squad that was very competitive and has a great upside. Davenport could be just the man to bring the Mustangs back to respectability in hoops.

That’s it for now, see you on the sidelines.

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Sussex County Sports Blog

By Dan Cleary

6/29/2008 - Are You Ready For The Summer?