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This week marks the 1-year anniversary of the senseless beating death of youth ice hockey coach and father, Michael Costin. Thomas Junta allegedly beat Costin to death after a pickup hockey in front of Costin's three sons. The beating was so brutal that it has become a national symbol of youth sports parent rage.

It was July 5, 2000, in Reading, Massachusetts, a suburb north of Boston, which the unthinkable happened. It started with an argument over the apparently overly aggressive nature of body checking during the pickup game between the 10 to 12 year olds, but soon escalated into a fight. Junta is alleged to have repeatedly slammed Costin's head into the concrete floor until he lost consciousness. He died the next day at a nearby hospital.

Thomas Junta and his family, and Michael Costin and his four children, have drifted into my mind countless times over the past year. Now, with a year's perspective, I ask myself these two questions: Has Costin's death changed youth sports in any positive way; and, second, what can we as a society really do to put the words fun, game, play and kids back into youth sports? In other words, has Costin's death been a turning point, a watershed event, a call to arms, or is it just business as usual in the troubled world of youth sports?

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Has the Reading tragedy inspired parents to find ways to defuse violent emotions in the heat of a youth sports contest? Has the tragedy prompted parents to speak up about coaching inadequacies? Are communities insisting on mandatory coaching and parenting courses? Has it prompted a re-examination of the fundamentally flawed structure of youth sports today; one that, with the proliferation of "elite," "select," and "travel" teams, at ages as young as five or six, has created what some call a "caste system" that arbitrarily selects some kids – not necessarily the kids that will prove to have the most athletic talent at age sixteen or seventeen, but the ones who someone, often their own parents, thinks is the most "talented" - for advancement and consigns the rest to the sidelines?

Unfortunately, as much as it pains me to say it, I think the answers to these questions, by and large, is no, because we are looking for answers in the wrong places. I don't think the Reading tragedy has served as a turning point to stem the flood of youth sports violence. There continues to be an escalation in violence associated with youth sports events from Seattle, Washington to Atlanta, Georgia. Two years ago my research never lead me to articles about attacks on referees by coaches, parents or even young athletes themselves. Now my research confirms half a dozen events happening each month. Frankly, overbearing parents are hardly the most depressing part of the scene.

To be sure, there have been well-intentioned groups from all around the country that have formed during the past twelve months to draft comprehensive parent codes of conduct. Universities have launched non-profit sport parent education organizations all over the country. And character, leadership and sportsmanship conferences, workshops and seminars can be found convening all around America. We applaud their efforts and know that they do some good.

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Read more about this subject in Home Team Advantage: The Critical Role of Mothers in Youth Sports (Harper Collins) by Brooke de Lench. Brooke is also the founder and editor-in-chief of MomsTeam.com.

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Article Updated: August 25, 2007

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