A short YouTube interview (Andy Neary interviewing his father, Hall of Fame coach Pat Neary) focusing on changes in youth sports over ~30 years. Major themes: rise of select/travel teams and specialization; negatives of early specialization (overuse injuries, lost multi-sport development); parents' unrealistic expectations about Division I scholarships and high costs of travel teams; the primacy of academics for college opportunities; and advice to parents to reduce pressure, allow kids to fail and develop, and prioritize playing time and education.
Questions this video answers
1984–2010
Chapters
Hey there. I'm excited because it's not often that I get an interview somebody as close to me as this man right here. He's not only a Hall of fame high school baseball coach, he's my dad, Pat Neary. So, dad, I want to ask you a couple questions about kids in sports today. My audience is probably the parents raising these kids today, but you were the head coach in our Hometown, Oconomowoc from 1984-2, 2010. What would you say, you know, if you think about the kids, the parents of the kids you coached in 1984 versus the parents you teach today because you still coach your grandson, my nephew. What would you say is a big change you're seeing today that you didn't see maybe 30 years ago?
Well, Andy, I would say the biggest change that I've seen, and I'm talking baseball now as an example.
I my last year of high school coaching was 2010. And I would say at that point in time.
There still hadn't been the big emphasis in many sports on making a select team, being on a travel team, playing club sports.
Like we have today. And it seems like one of the things that has happened is with that change to the emphasis on, you know, being a select player or a travel player going to exposure camps, whether it's volleyball, basketball, baseball, whatever the sport might be, it is that sometimes there's an expectation on the part of parents that just because their son or daughter is participating with a select team or a travel team, that automatically this is gonna point the road towards a scholarship, let's say a Division 1 scholarship. And as a result of that, parents spend a lot of money.
They spend a lot of time.
Watching their child pushing excessively.
And I'm not so sure that it's been the best thing. I think.
Let me ask a question on that because you bring up a really good point. Number of kids that are doing select teams today, travel teams. I remember growing up in high school, the kids you feared the most, the athletes you feared the most were the kids, the three sports stars, kid that played football, basketball, baseball, football, wrestling, baseball, whatever that was. You don't see that much anymore. What is your viewpoint on multi sport athletes versus now everybody is focused on one sport.
Well, that's another, to me, a negative that has come about for, from this movement towards select travel and so forth is the focus many times either on the part of parents or coaches of these different sports, club sports is to get the son or daughter to specialize. And everything that you read all, all the research that is out there will tell you that the most important thing to develop is a multi sport athlete, not somebody who is specializing in one sport. Because there are a number of negatives that can come from specialization. Just to think of a few, I'm thinking baseball again, is when you have an athlete who's specializing, you have overuse of certain muscles, certain body parts more prone to injury, as opposed to a son or daughter who is participating in multi sports where they're using different sets of muscles and don't. There isn't an overuse problem. I see it a lot in baseball. With kids who are specializing in baseball, you see an increase in shoulder injuries, arm injuries, elbow injuries and that sort of thing because of the overuse. And just as an example, I'm thinking back in Wisconsin, where I'm from, is that one of the sports that I've noticed where there really has been a lot of specialization for girls has been volleyball. Volleyball's been big. There was a time for a long time. Usually if a girl was a good volleyball player, she also played basketball. And what I see happening now is girls giving up basketball just to specialize in volleyball. And one of the things that I remember back when I was coaching high school is towards the end of my career, some of it had started already, is parents thinking that these Division 1 scholarships are all over the place and they're easy to get. And the reality is not true. Even a sport like baseball, Division one sport, at most colleges, universities, if they're division one, they're only allotted so many scholarships. So even, even if a player gets a Division 1 baseball scholarship, it's usually a fraction of a scholarship. It's not a full scholarship.
Well, and it's also to that point of.
The expectation, right. Like you said earlier, with parents who pay 3, 4, 5,000 dollars these days to get a kid on a travel team doesn't mean you're gonna get a Division 1 scholarship. In fact, I'm gonna go back to the famous quote, somebody we both know, my pitching coach from college, Todd Froharth, said when he was the head coach of a high school program for a short time, when a parent attacked him or came after him saying that he, the coach, was the reason their son wasn't getting the scholarship. Todd politely said, I don't play your kid because I don't like him, not because I don't like him, I don't play him because he sucks. And it's that expectation of just because you're paying for your kid to be on a travel team has no mean that they're gonna get a scholarship and go to a big Division 1 school. Last question then. So with that being said, there's a parent watching this right now who has a son, a daughter in sports today. As a parent, what is the best piece of advice you would give a parent when it comes to setting expectations for their kid?
I think the most important thing is, again, as I said, if your son or daughter is an athlete and they are multi sport athletes, do everything you can to keep multi sport. The other thing I would say too is I think as a parent.
Let your son or your daughter develop. Let them play the games, try to keep the situation as pressure free as you can. Just let them be kids, let them be teenagers and not always have the pressure of.
Just constantly being there and putting pressure on them that they have to go to this exposure camp and they got to do this and they got to do that. Let things work out. If your son or daughter is a good athlete, opportunities are going to be there. But I would also say that most importantly, the most important thing is if you have a son or daughter that you do believe has some potential high school athlete, let's say today they're thinking about going to college, maybe thinking about giving us getting a scholarship. I would say the most important thing is it's still about academics. And if there isn't a good academic background, there isn't going to be a scholarship in the first place. I can honestly say that in all the years that I was coaching high school and I had college coaches come and talk to me about a player who or.
A scout based on a major league scout come and talk to me. First thing they would ask about that player is what kind of student is he? College coaches are going to start with that. If they're not very good students, they aren't going to be getting a scholarship anyway. They're not even going to look, see. So the most important thing is still the academics are important. You've got to keep.
Getting your son and daughter to really understand that school is really important.
And I just had one other comment I wanted to make too. I remember.
When I was coaching towards the end of my career, I had a number of examples of players who thought and parents who thought their son was a Division 1 scholarship. And as a coach I could see that Division 1 scholarship wasn't going to happen. And to be honest with you, back at that time, there weren't a lot of high school players from Wisconsin getting scholarships to Division I schools as there are today. And.
These were players that certainly could have played at the Division 3 level in baseball in the state of Wisconsin. We had several teams that were very good at the Division 3 level, but they decided to go ahead and do the Division 1 and never played. So I think that you have to, you have to let your son or daughter.
Develop without the constant helicoptering. And I remember as a coach again, towards the end of my career when I saw some changes in parents too, is getting emails was one of the things, getting an email where a mother would tell you that the statistics keyboard players put the statistics out about it. They're not correct statistics.
Sending you an email questioning why you pinch hit for their son during a game. And towards the end of the career, I just basically told my parents, baseball parents right at the beginning of the season when I had the parent meeting, is that I didn't want any emails. If they had a need to talk to me, they certainly could make, call me and make a appointment to see me because I wanted to be able to talk to parents face to face. And I think what's happened today too with the electronics is that's changed a lot too. Coaches having to deal with this text messages and the email, the negative emails and that sort of thing. Didn't have to worry about that 30 years ago.
You heard it, guys. Hall of Fame coach right here. One of the winningest coaches in Wisconsin. Here's the deal, guys. Let your kids fail. 8th place trophies have no business in sports anymore. The kids have to learn how to fail. The kids have to learn how to learn from failure so they can grow, quit creating artificial environments for them. And at the end of the day, he's right. I played college baseball. GPA is a huge thing in sports. Every team in every sport in college has to maintain a certain GPA as a team. So when they're recruiting, especially baseball, which has historically been known having low GPAs, those teams try to recruit good athletes because at a minimum, they got to keep their team GPA up. So keep your kid in the classroom as much as you are keeping them on the field. And like he said, it's about game time. It's not about the glory. So if your kid has an opportunity to play at the Division 2, Division 3 level, where he or she might sit on the bench for four years at Division 1, it's not worth it. Let the kid play. Let them get the time that they can get on the field because that's what they're going to remember. So, dad, thanks. I appreciate it. That's it for now, guys. I wanted to make this video for you to interview, to show parents out there, especially my generation, who are parenting these kids right now. You gotta let these kids develop who they want to be. Quit trying to create environments for them that are artificial, where failure is not an option, because they will need this advice when they're going to hit the real world. That's it for now. Take care.
