Youth ball cranks up around area

Over the past couple of weeks all the baseball and softball fields in Warren County have been full of activity, which can only mean one thing.

It?s time for the youth leagues to kick off their seasons.

The only downfall to leagues getting started so early is your sports department has a hard time getting in early coverage of the games. When youth ball starts, there are still high school and middle school contests yet to be played and since there are only two of us, sometimes local coverage of the youth programs take a back seat until school ball is over.

Most of you understand and realize as soon as the school programs are finished, we concentrate on youth ball all through the summer or at least halfway through the summer.

For the most part the youth programs finish early, usually at the end of June, which gives us little time to get as many deserving youngsters in the paper that we can.

There?s not one young man or young lady who doesn?t deserve to find he name or picture in the paper, but it?s an impossible task.

So with that said, you can be sure we do our best. But unfortunately not everyone will be satisfied and for that we apologize.

As long as I?m talking about youth baseball there are several words of wisdom I would like to pass along to coaches and parents.

I coached youth football and baseball for years back in the ?80s, and now I see some of the kids I coached doing the same thing. These folks are trying to not only teach these kids how to play ball, but they?re trying to teach the true meaning of playing a sport.

It?s not all about having the best team and winning every game. It?s not about treating kids different because some are better ball players than others.

It?s about teaching a kid how to handle the real world when they become grown-ups. Life is filled with ups and downs. There?s times when things are going your way and your rewarded for your efforts and then there are those times when you hit rock bottom as life is also filled with disappointments.

For the most part our coaches do a great job of making sure these kids understand the true meaning of the old saying ?It doesn?t matter if you win or lose, but how you play the game.?

But over the years I have noticed some are more caught up in winning than teaching these kids a valuable lesson in life.

Learning that one valuable lesson will take a kid further in life than winning one little league championship.

We have to build our kids confidence and encourage them to give it everything they have weather its playing a sport or studying for a test.

There?s a fine line when coaching as I?m sorry to say some just don?t get it.

Parents and coaches sometimes forget what their out there for and winning becomes more important than molding a kid for his or her future. It?s supposed to be fun for all, but when parents and coaches are out there just to win then I?m afraid we?re loosing a good chance to install some valuable lessons these kids will need as adults. After all their going to be our leaders and coaches of tomorrow.

Teach them to be winners on and off the field, but more importantly teach them it?s OK to lose every now and then, and be humble in victory.