>>>>One odd thing I found was when the parents seemed to be more interested in their kids' sporting endeavors than the kids themselves ....... I thought a lot of families seemed to lose sight of that somewhere along the way.<<<<<<
Well said! My daughter has been playing HS volleyball for a few years (senior this year). It's really fun to watch them improve from year to year and all that, but some of these parents are so over the top it's tough to enjoy the games (screaming at the umpires or the other team, etc.
) HS sports today is over-organized and taken WAY TOO seriously. Practice and/or games 7 days a week - give me a friggin break. And it's not enough to just play in the regular school league. No. There's a travel 'Tournament' every weekend as well. The Tournaments generally start early in the morning and go until 6-7 at night!!!!!!!!
What I find hilarious is when I give some of the girls a ride home at the end of one of these tournaments and they have no idea what the score of their games were or where they even placed - and they've got a top team! These are just little kids out there having fun with their friends. Many parents mistake this for semi-professional sports.