I’ve often written here about the values that many of us—as parents, coaches, adults and life skills advisors, or just those who are simply in a position to positively influence young people—believe are important.
Old-time values still matter: respect for teammates and coaches, being a true team player. Attitude and hard work can overcome a lot, even sometimes not having the most “talent”.
It’s also a challenge for the supremely talented, those whose skills are so exceptional that they are, essentially, way ahead of everybody else on the natural ability curve.
Sometimes talent seems to override everything, and those around you make it easy to forget that real humility (not the false kind) is actually an important part of character development. Why? They keep telling the young athlete how good they are, and soon, in some cases, it’s hard not to see yourself as better than, as above everyone else.
I just noticed an interesting piece this week by a long-time major league baseball General Manager, Jim Bowden, now an analyst with ESPN. He writes on the ups and downs of last year’s first overall (2010) selection in the annual summertime baseball amateur draft, Bryce Harper.
The articles raises some important issues for a lot of us involved in youth sports. Here is the link: