Sometimes kids say the wisest things

Moms, pops and coaches might want to add these two headlines together and reach some sort of conclusion.

Sunday's Daily Herald: "Youth sports leagues find fewer suburban kids are signing up to play."

Jan. 30's New York Times: "A survey of youth sports finds winning isn't the only thing."

Organizers around the Chicago suburbs are wondering why fewer kids are playing.

Peter Barston, a sophomore at Fairfield Prep in Connecticut, is way ahead of his elders on the subject.

Barston asked 255 members of the Darien (Conn.) Junior Football League and 470 boys and girls from the Darien YMCA basketball league why they play sports.

The results were similar from football to basketball, boys to girls and grade four through grade eight.

The results also were similar to a Michigan State University survey in 1989. Actually, they probably would have been similar if anybody asked any kids, anywhere, anytime during the past 100 years.

What a revelation: Kids just want to have fun. If they quit playing even when their parents can afford it, the fun must have been sucked out.

Barston asked kids to rank 11 options for why they play sports. Ninety-five percent of boys and 98 percent of girls put having fun on their list, nearly twice the number that mentioned winning.

"It shows kids are out there to get away from their lives and have a good time with friends," said Barston, at 15 close in age to the kids whose opinions he solicited. "They're not out there just to win."

Fun also ranked ahead of making friends and earning scholarships.

"Adults may lean toward turning children's games into an approximation of professional sports," the N.Y. Times wrote. "But ask young players what they want, and the answer can be disarmingly simple. More than training to be a Super Bowl star, more than even winning, youngsters play sports for fun - at least they do in Darien, Conn., Barston said."

The curious teen intends to research baseball and softball youth leagues near his home. He also wants to extend the survey throughout the country via the Internet.

Barston just might find that kids aren't running away from sports by retreating to video games. They might be running away from their parents' involvement in sports.

Listen to some adults at youth games - from parents to grandparents to coaches to mere spectators - and you'll hear too many sounding like winning is their priority.

But combine Barston's unscientific survey with Michigan State's scientific survey and the indication is that winning isn't as important to kids.

Fun supersedes all, so stacking those headlines adds up to youngsters withdrawing because they just aren't having enough of it.

Furthermore, maybe they aren't enjoying themselves because adults are too involved in organizing games that in the past kids organized for themselves.

Seriously, might video games be an escape from adults and not from sports?

"It's a great project," the N.Y. Times story quoted MSU researcher Martha Ewing on Barston's work. "Within communities, parents and sport organizations need to do more of it - talk to the athletes."

What a novel approach.