What Did We Do Before Play Dates?

At this week’s meeting of the local EM pub’s “Caustic Caucus,”  I brought up the fact that interacting in youth sports are super  important to the development of the youth of East Meadow.

I am a volunteer youth PAL Lacrosse coach for 5th and 6th graders  and I often get involved in practice. I am kind of unique I hear, as none of the kids I coach is related to me. My son is currently a junior at Adelphi University, played lacrosse there and at EMHS and is going for a degree in teaching Physical Education  and Health Education.

So I am passing on all the knowledge that rubbed off on me over all these years of standing outside in the freezing rain and searing heat and watching him get beat like a piñata.

Now when my son was younger, my wife took him to organized  sports and youth groups and play dates regularly (which are organized gatherings of friends  in some child’s house, where the parent’s drop them off and pick them up).

In my youth in Brooklyn, we did not have such things. We would leave our house without any cell phone contact, for the day and hang out in the middle of the street or  at the schoolyard or park for hours, calling each other by nicknames, coming home only for meals or to gather different sporting equipment and loading them on our banana seat Schwinn’s with Topp's baseball cards close pinned in our spokes(If I only had that Mantle card NOW!) 

Our “Call of Duty” were games where you chose captains, they picked guys for teams, if they were unfair or lopsided you stopped and you traded members and called “do overs” if outside forces accidentally got involved. This was ALL done without any adult supervision, organization or involvement whatsoever.

This was an important element in our social and athletic development. These are games  with names like “Stoopball, Stickball, Punchball, Chinese Handball, Spud, Johnny on the Pony, Ring-o-leaveo, etc.“  that have little meaning now except in the “Museum of Natural History.”

But being involved in youth sports, even organized, micro-managed ones, is important to their development into productive members of Nassau County and hopefully  will deter them from turning into Southampton plastic bag convicts.

It is our opinions that kids watch too much TV. What do kids actually learn from watching Donald Trump play “Presidential Apprentice?"  What is gained from seeing the irony that “The Donald” couldn’t fire “Meat Loaf” from the “Steakhouse Challenge” and sent Gary ‘Human Speedbump’ Busey packing?   

We then noted that even Governmental leaders  like Ed “ Captain Tax Revolt “ Mangano (who with his political co-horts emails me more, than offers for Canadian Viagra) seems to think organized sports are important too.

One guy on the stool next to mine  replied, "He helped kick off a couple of weekend’s ago,  the "LI Fun Runs” and Mini Marathons  at Mitchel Field, before  he got back to wielding Thor’s  Hammer in County Tax Collection and trying to acru back taxes from local towns for having public colleges within their borders. It is called Nassau Community College, not Uniondale Community College for a reason.

PLAY NICE, Dude! Don't take your ball and go home! That settles nothing. So if your child needs some athletic activity, try taking them to the park occasionally. See if they (maybe even you included) can  become part of a game of  "pick-up softball, basketball or volleyball game," interacting with them directly and you will see what a great bond that forms. And leave the dating of players to the ladies in college.