The lessons of backyard football.

I can remember gathering all the neighborhood kids together and going over to someones house to play baseball in the summer, football in the fall and basketball pretty much whenever we could.  One of the lasting lessons from those experiences came from a game of tackle football.

There were maybe 8-10 of us playing that day. We were all between 10-12 years old. We picked teams and set about playing just as we always did.  And then a group of high school aged guys showed up.  One of the older boys had a younger sibling playing backyard football that day. They were football players on the local high school team and ostensibly there to "coach us up" a bit. 

I captained one team and the younger sibling of the high school football player the other. As the team I captained that day began to pull away the older boys became more actively involved in their coaching. They helped us "call plays" and set our defenses.  It became obvious the older boys were attempting to help our opponents get the better of it, but were not being very successful. 

Things came to a head when one high school kid huddled my team and called for a hand off "up the middle".  I  wasn't paying much attention because I was listening to the other high school players telling the opponents that my team was going to hand off for a run up the middle?!  Well, I took the snap, faked the hand off and ran the ball wide.  Touchdown!  

The high school kids scolded me for not "running the play."  I had had enough of their meddling. I called out "audible!", took my football and laughed all the way home.

Adults meddling in youth sports ... I sometimes honestly think youth sports, even high school sports, might be better off sans all adults. No coaches. No referees. No spectators.  Just allow the kids to get together and play.  Adults are all too often unnecessary complications and needless drama producers in the world of "youth" sports.