RSS Feed
Print Story
E-mail Story
Too fast, too soon?
| Saturday, Mar 11 2006 10:35 PM
Last Updated: Saturday, Mar 11 2006 10:39 PM
On an unseasonably hot February afternoon, Colton Blankenship jogged onto the baseball diamond with the rest of his team. He ground his right cleat into the soft dirt of the mound as he looked across the grass at the batter.
BAKERSFIELD.COM HOT TOPICS:
Loading Stories
Advertisement
To view video for this story
please update your Flash player
Blogs:
He wound up and gracefully hurled the ball full-force across the plate.
Of the nine batters Colton faced that day, eight struck out.
Yes, his success is partly due to natural talent. But that talent has been nurtured and honed over the years, much like a pro athlete, through expensive training, dedication and constant competition.
Unlike a pro, however, Colton doesn't have expensive clothes and fancy cars.
He can't drive. Colton is 11.
But like more and more of his young counterparts, this middle school phenom is starting early on his big league dreams. And his parents are with him all the way.
Colton practices 16 to 20 hours a week and has private technique lessons at least once a week. He plays ball at school as well as for recreation and club teams. And he travels all over the country to compete.
That's an awfully heavy schedule on such young shoulders.
At this age, the elite teams consist mostly of rambunctious kids who really love to compete, have at least some natural talent and parents in a financial position to give them every possible opportunity to improve. But for junior high-aged players, that often means intense training on par with the most dedicated college-bound athletes.
High expectations
In some parts of town -- particularly on the west side -- parents say it's nearly impossible to get on a school's athletic team unless you've had at least a year or two of private or club training. Keeping their kids out of the competitive club setting would mean denying them the chance to play for their high school teams.
School coaches agree it's hard to make it onto some school teams without the extra training, but said it's not impossible for talented, hardworking kids to make it.
"At my high school we have kids who don't play club," said Judy Rexroth, varsity volleyball coach at Bakersfield Christian High School and director of Bakersfield Volleyball Club. "The more practice they get, the better they develop. Most high schools coaches want the kids that are developed."
With so much expected, it's not always an easy road to the varsity team. Parents of young athletes struggle with just how much training is too much and how to protect their children from the win-at-all-costs mentality of some coaches and other parents.
The Blankenship family wrestles with those questions all the time. Colton has a passion for baseball and a natural talent that makes his parents both proud and a bit anxious. He's not even a teenager yet and baseball is almost all he ever wants to do. He dreams of college scholarships and the major leagues.
"He wouldn't do anything but baseball if he had the chance," his dad, Scott Blankenship, said a few days after Colton's near-shutout game in Paso Robles. "After a whole weekend of playing, he wanted to go out and play more. Here I was exhausted and he wants to go out again."
Like a growing number of child athletes in town, he's too good to play with kids in his age group, but his parents worry about the pressure of competing with more mature players. What if the kids are mean? What if the coach is the "put-down" type? At what point does it become too much baseball?
"I've coached baseball and was fortunate enough to have children of high school coaches," Scott Blankenship said. "Their biggest fear was that they didn't want their kids to play too competitively early on and they didn't want them to get burned out early on. I learned a lot from listening to them."
To Colton, the idea that he could get sick of baseball is ridiculous. He doesn't see the hours he spends training as work. For him, baseball is the most fun thing in the whole world.
Why wouldn't he want to play all the time?
"I like the feeling of doing something good," he said. "Baseball is my favorite sport, it's fun to play. If I had a choice I would definitely play more."
Not worth the stress
That's exactly how 12-year-old Steven Davies feels about motocross. He loves the freedom he feels while flying through the air on a finely tuned motorcycle and the sense of pride he feels when he wins a race.
On a recent evening, hours after the sun had set, Steven was sprinting back and forth across a makeshift soccer field, doing up-downs and sit-ups while his mom, Mary Ann, looked on, a hot drink in her hand.
Steven's parents signed him up for soccer when he was about 5 years old because they, like many parents, believe team sports build strong character and will teach him life lessons that will come in handy as an adult. It also keeps him off the couch. But Steven grew tired of ultra-competitive soccer more than a year ago -- the other kids and parents took it too seriously.
"We have a lot of soccer parents at this age and younger who honestly think there are college scouts out there on the soccer field waiting to recruit their kids," Mary Ann Davies said. "They'll go to no end to promote their kids. Private coaches, $2,000 summer soccer camps, the best equipment, $200 soccer balls. At 12 years old, that's a bit much."
College and professional scouts are not looking at 12-year-olds. They find players by watching high school teams, going to club tournaments and from information garnered from a network of high school-level coaches whose opinions they trust.
"It's extremely unusual," CSUB women's basketball coach Tim La Kose said of scouting younger players. "We don't go to the youth camps for the purpose of recruiting. There are the exceptions. You'll see a (Olympic basketball gold medalist) Diana Taurasi in the eighth grade and you know she's going to be something special. But those are few and far between."
For a kid like Steven, who isn't interested in playing soccer at that level, the stress isn't worth it. He's out on the field, playing for a different team, because he's found that the running and agility required for soccer is the best cross-training for motocross.
He dreams of professional level races, world championships and big-time sponsors. And he knows the path to that success. His older brother, John Davies, competed at the professional level before being injured in a crash and quitting.
"My middle brother was very good at motocross and he traveled the nation and it interested me," Steven said. "I thought it'd be fun.
"I want to be as good as him. Better."
His parents encourage his ambition, but have realistic expectations. They spend about $20,000 a year on motocross, but draw the line at buying a house with a bigger yard or new property for a massive dirt-bike track like some of Steven's friends have. They don't let him ride unless he's made the school honor roll and money for college has already been set aside.
"Is he going to become a pro? Probably not," Roy Davies said. "But he's going to be a great individual."
Steven is willing to work hard to achieve his goals, despite the odds. He has no doubts about his potential. But motocross is a physically demanding sport. To be the best, he's got to be fit and soccer's more fun than a treadmill.
His parents have had to become a lot more careful about who he plays for and the attitude of the team. They'll spend countless hours with the other soccer families throughout the year and it's best if you get along.
Mrs. Davies would love it if Steven got a college scholarship in soccer, and worries about him crashing his motorcycle and getting hurt. She longs for him to love soccer like he loves motocross. But she knows it's not where his heart lies, so she doesn't push it.
"It's creating wonderful fun memories," she said. "It's just creating a family foundation for us because they do grow up fast."