By Jason Pike
ST. JOHN’S, NL – As a province with only 500,000 people, the number of Youth athletes that compete for positions on teams to represent Newfoundland at the national level is an even smaller pool. As a parent of an athlete and a former athlete, I myself and other people in the same position with youth playing sports, know that when it comes to competing against out of Province teams, we are often the low man on the totem pole. And furthermore 90% of the time our star athletes in one sport, tend to likely be a high-ranking or important member of another sports team as well.
Watching the girls National Basketball Championships being played at the Memorial University Fieldhouse this past summer was truly an eye-opening experience as to how far behind the rest of the country we really are. And the afterthought I’ve had since then is when will we stop becoming Our Own Worst Enemy? I guess first I should have a little more context as to what I mean in this situation. We need to stop giving Youth Sports ultimatums. Stop making them choose at such a young age.
As the parent of an athlete I understand that you can’t play everything all the time, but how often have I seen athletes that have the option to play NCAA basketball or football because they were allowed the opportunity to grow in the sports where they excel without being forced to choose one over the other. The unfortunate truth is that it’s become less about our youth athletes and more about the adults involved who are running things. It’s often become more about money than competition. But in the most recent incident I watched a very competitive Newfoundland team at Nationals play without 3 of the better female basketball players in that age bracket in this province and why is this you ask?
I think that question needs to be forward to the Newfoundland Soccer Association. The Newfoundland Soccer Association has forced a mandatory contract on its young players leading up to the 2025 Canada games which are being held here in St John’s Newfoundland. The Canada games committee no longer enforces a policy in regards to multi sport athletes, if you’re good at more than one sport and you are able to make those teams you are permitted to play on those teams, but the Newfoundland Soccer Association has said no and not only do they prevent them from playing with another team that’s competing in the Canada games they don’t want them competing in any sport, and they will make you sign a contract to that fact. I wanted to confirm whether this was true and was done so by Canada Games administrator from the Canada Games committee, Kali McAdam.
So, why exactly is the Newfoundland Soccer Association so adamant to sabotage other sports? In summer of 2025 we will hold the Canada games here in Newfoundland and we will not be permitted to have our athletes compete in the sports that they are best at and give us the best opportunity at success. Does that sound wrong to anybody else? I’ve seen firsthand the work and time and effort that our young athletes put in because we, the parents, are there next to them most of the time. We’re the ones that get them there, we’re the ones who pay for it, we’re the ones that deal with the joys and the sorrows of winning and losing and the big issue that I take with it is that we only have these kids at this age for a very short period of time and looking back myself, I know the things that I missed out on and I would never wish that on my child and I don’t want them to ever have to feel like they missed out on something, but I know that being forced to choose between representing our province for either a soccer team or a basketball team will in the long-term cause them regret the missed opportunities because they are being punished for being the best at more than one sport. So the wins and the losses with their friends and their teammates who they’ve come up with will not be allowed to come to fruition.
While I do understand there is a certain amount of risk that involves playing at a high level in multiple Sports, there is the risk of injury but there’s equally the opportunity for success for the individual athlete and for the team. I just don’t understand whether it’s greed or a superiority complex or what other asinine reason that may be given, but making a 15-year-old choose between which teammates he or she are permitted to chase Victory with is wrong. We need to stop standing in the way of our children’s opportunities and let them still be kids and have every opportunity that is available to them.
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