Editorials

Concussion continue to be in the news.  Which is a good thing, because the media coverage provide teachable moments.  But what lessons should parents of youth and high school athletes take away from concussions suffered by comic Conan O'Brien, Florida quarterback Tim Tebow, and the NFL's reaction to its own study showing an alarmingly high incidence of early dementia in former players?  The answers may surprise you.

Women need to push for leadership roles in youth sports both as coaches and administrators to protect their children from needless injury playing sports and help break down the gender stereotyping and sexist attitudes that permeate today's youth sports culture more than 25 years after the passage of Title IX.

MomsTeam.com founder and editor-in-chief, Brooke de Lench, talks about how MomsTeam got started and its plans for the future.

What serves mothers so well as sports parents is their natural protectiveness, nurturing instinct, emotional openness, and their belief in the importance of fair play, cooperation, connectedness, inclusiveness and the value of doing one's best over winning and competition.  All of these traits give moms the potential to change the highly competitive culture of youth sports today in a profound way. Here's how using your special gifts as a mother can help your child - and all children - have the best possible sports experience.

Stories of embezzlement of funds from youth sports organizations appear in the media on a regular basis. but the latest story really takes the cake. 

The first right of parents under the Parent's Concussion Bill of Rights is to the right to expect that their child's athletic program will hold a concussion education and safety meeting for parents and athletes before every season. This is because the best way to ensure that athletes who suffer concussions playing sports have the best possible outcome in both the short and long term is to educate them and their parents about the importance of self-reporting and the parent's role in the critical return to play decision.

The stresses of sports competition can overwhelm the coping skills of parents increasingly led by our winner-take-all society to believe that a child who fails at sports will fail as an adult. Given an environment in which survival virtually requires parents to become overly focused on and invested in their children's success in sports it is no wonder so many act out in inappropriate ways.