Change Is Always Hard
Are these changes going to be met with resistance? Absolutely. Anyone for whom the existing system works just fine, for those interested in preserving the status quo, holding on to the reigns of power, feeding their egos, and preserving their ability to provide places for their own sons or daughters on the all-star teams is likely to resist reform and trot out every excuse in the book for why the current system should be left as it is. Will it take courage to fight for meaningful change, for a more equitable, fairer selection system? You bet. But if you are convinced that something has to be done, that the all-star selection process in your town or city is fatally flawed, and that fundamental changes need to be made for the good of the kids, you owe it to the kids to at least try.
If you get knocked down, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and keep the children in your focus. If you keep fighting long enough, hopefully it will be you that will eventually be the one left standing. And imagine how good you will feel when you see the picture in the paper, not of a single all-star team of coach's children, but of three or four teams. How you will feel when six years later, you turn to the sports section in the local paper and see that many of the kids on the high school varsity are not the children of coaches!
Brooke de Lench is founder and Editor-in-Chief of MomsTeam.com, youth sports consultant, and the author of Home Team Advantage: The Critical Role of Mothers in Youth Sports (HarperCollins 2006).
