The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

My last two columns certainly g e n e r ­ated some feedback. I was hop­ing to hear more from students during a substitute teaching assign­ment I had scheduled in Dayton last Thursday. Alas, I was unable to go, because I got a full-time teaching job! In the Tri-Cities! As you may have guessed, that's going to put a damper on my ability to cover sports for the Times. In all likelihood my coverage of the Dayton at WP game from last Friday will be my last for a while.

Well, enough about me. You want solutions! (Oh that I had some foolproof ones).

Certainly youth sports programs in football or bas­ketball would help, as a reader last week pointed out. That reader suggested AAU teams. Some AAU teams ex­isted in the valley during my days of playing basketball. I never participated on one, and those I knew of were far different than those that operate year-round today. AAU teams in my youth were limited to a few sum­mer practices before heading off to an AAU tournament in Yakima; just a short summer jaunt onto the hardwoods. Year-round participation will likely produce a better player, but it is a turn-off for many kids and I think rightly so. Besides, this article is about boosting numbers, not dunkability.

One youth program that already exists in Dayton is "Building A Dog" (B.A.D.) The after-school program teaches elementary kids basic basketball skills, espe­cially dribbling. The partici­pants showcase those skills during halftimes of high school basketball games. I asked Dayton coach Roy Ramirez about B.A.D. for my original story, but ac­cording to Ramirez, though it's been around for about six years, it has had little impact.

My opinion, take-it-or- leave-it, is based on personal experience. Growing up, there was a thriving youth basketball program on Sat­urday mornings that the high school basketball team spon­sored. We learned basketball skills like the B.A.D. kids, but we did more than just learn skills. We learned tech­niques like pick-and-rolling, passing, and defending. The leaders of the program would divide us into teams, and sev­eral of the high school bas­ketball players who helped out, acted as our coaches. Part of each Saturday was spent playing competitive games against the other teams. At halftimes of high school games, we kids would take the court and play more competitive games against each other. That is why I think B.A.D. hasn't (at least so far) produced a greater turnout. Boys, especially, need to win something. Drib­bling in circles doesn't cut it for them. Boys need to be able to say "I'm better than you" or at least prove it to you without words.

Dayton Superintendent Doug Johnson posited a wistful idea of a solution dur­ing our interview. "At times I feel like we should just make them turn out. If you look at interscholastic sports in general, we believe that participating in a group of that type eventually creates a better, stronger student, and a better person. Well if that's the case why don't we, instead of kicking kids out of school for being in trouble, say 'Oh, you've been tardy four times and you're failing two classes, now you have to play football.'"

Of course there are draw- backs to that answer which Johnson readily admits. "If you did that (make kids turn-out), who would want to coach a team where 20 of your 40 guys really don't want to be there?"

Still, it is an idea that has been used in at least one school district I can remember from my time teaching in a small school in Oregon. Participation in a sport was required and accounted for P.E. credit. Whether that still occurs, is legal, etcetera, I do not know. But it is interesting to think about.

For one thing, sports par- ticipation occupies the after school hours when parents typically aren't around and teens readily get into more trouble-including abusing drugs. Physical fitness, com- petition, and new relation- ships built in athletics may also work as a replacement pleasure over drug abuse- though addictions will still have to be overcome. Of course, in some families, drug use among parents is common, so removal from drug-abusing friends and after-school 'trouble hours' may not solve the problem.

One problem that has no ready solution is our lost innocence as a society. When I was a youngster in the 1970s and early 80s, my friends and I roamed town from one end to the other. The only requirements placed on us (usually) were to use the Second Street crosswalk, and come home at lunch and dinner. Otherwise, we hiked in the Patit Creek, scaled Rock Hill, walked up the dike to the football field to throw the pigskin, or crossed the footbridge to go play basketball on the black-top or tennis courts.

Some parents still allow their kids to do this, but very few in comparison to my youth. And why? Because somewhere along the line a whole bunch of people became warped, and they turned children into prey in their degenerate perverted minds. In turn, parents re- acted and continue to react to the specter of the Joseph Edward Duncans of the world by keeping their kids safe in their own cramped backyards, or in the living room playing video games behind locked doors.

I can't blame them. And that is the saddest thing of all.