The Professionalization of Organized Youth Sport: Social Psychological Impacts and Outcomes

• Author: Jonathan J. Brower
• DOI: 10.1177/000271627944500106
• Published date: 01 September 1979
• Date: 01 September 1979
• Subject Matter: Articles

The Professionalization of Organized Youth Sport:
Social Psychological Impacts and Outcomes
By JONATHAN J. BROWER
ABSTRACT: The notion of professionalism in sport is not a
well-defined one. In essence, it is the degree of seriousness
and importance given to it by the athletes, management, and
spectators. Organized competitive youth sports ostensibly are
for the young athletes, but the cross pressures and often
overburdening demands from coaches and parents serve to
make the sporting experience considerably less than relaxed
and recreational.
In most youth leagues the model of how sport should be
approached is that of the adult professional ranks—those
athletes who earn a living from their sport. The concern with
winning above the concern with enhancing the experience of
the athlete is at the core of the professionalization of youth
sports.
Little League baseball is used to illustrate some of the
dynamics and processes by which the young athletes and the
adults on the scene—coaches, parents, umpires, and league
officials—interact and perpetuate a highly competitive,
organized game for youngsters in the mold of the big leagues.
Jonathan J. Brower is an Associate Professor of Sociology at California State
University, Fullerton. He has written both scholarly and popular works that deal
with various aspects of sport, including racism, youth, professional team owners,
and social psychological aspects of running. He produces and hosts "A Sociologist’s
Eye on Sport" for Pacifica Radio (KPFK-FM) in Southern California and is a
competitive distance runner.
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ORGANIZE youth sports are underlying amateur principle ought to
imitating their official profes-
be that the benefits to the participant
sional
are not financial, but social.
counterparts. A Pop Warner
Amateur
football player
...
sports, by emphasizing
may be in his tenth
the thrill of performance, have the
year of life and weigh but 80 pounds,
potential to build character, enhance
yet in his uniform and pads he
self-esteem and create a nation of
looks like a smaller version of his
healthy, capable, confident, well-ad-
National Football League hero. To
justed citizens.
bring the comparison to the pros
Sports can also do the opposite. They
closer, the youngster’s coach may be
can teach cruelty, greed, dishonesty and
ranting and raving and driving his
exploitation. Sports are not intrinsically
charges just
good.
as he imagines famous
coaches act in leading their teams to
Children in organized sports are
victorious glory. What sports fan can-
fast approaching the professional
not rekindle in his mind the image
model. True, the young athletes do
of a tough and unrelenting Vince
not get paid salaries from their
Lombardi getting every ounce of
teams, but they do help generate
effort from his loyal and dedicated
significant amounts of money for
players?
their leagues and associations.’ More-
Peter Gent, former wide receiver
over, organized youth sport often
for the Dallas Cowboys and best-
becomes an activity in which high-
selling author ofNorth Dallas Forty,
level performance and a &dquo;polished
points out that the bottom line of
show&dquo; is expected. More often than
professional sport is show business
not the players are embroiled in a
and that it is filtering down to
difficult situation because of the
youth sport programs.
1
adult expectations and demands
For there should be
placed
a fundamental
upon them.
difference between professional and
It is the results of the game and
amateur sports that goes beyond the
the statistics generated over a season
technical distinction of whether the
that help make youth sports re-
athlete makes money from his sport.
semble the professional sporting
I learned the difference at the end of
scene. Winning is the name of the
training camp my rookie year with the
game to the serious competitor and
Dallas Cowboys. Management called a
many coaches in youth sports def-
meeting to explain the responsibilities
initely fall into the serious cate-
of being a professional football player.
The
gory. Ideally, a child should ac-
man to give the best advice was
the team’s public-relations director. He
cept winning with a joy rather than
told
a relief
that defeat has been avoided.
us: &dquo;Boys, this is show business.&dquo;
Professional athletics
The dread of failure often
are first and
fore-
creates
most show business, dealing in illusion
unsavory strategies employed toward
and entertainment. The first respon-
the goal of winning.
sibility of the players is to the audience,
A five-year study of little league
not themselves.
baseball has helped to demonstrate
On
the other hand, in amateur athletics
how organized youth sport operates
the attention is supposed to be placed
on the experience of the athlete. The
2. The official Little League, Inc. is a
multimillion-dollar organization with large
1. Peter Gent, "Some Hard Thoughts on
cash reserves, real estate holdings, an in-
Games People Play," in the Los Angeles
surance company, summer camps, and a
Times, 26, November 1978.
plethora of other income-producing activities.

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41
and functions in the social psycho-
has distinct goals and expectations
logical matrix of adults and children
of what &dquo;their&dquo; sport should be. The
attempting to model their sport after
young athletes want to play, have
the pros.3 The generic term &dquo;little
fun, and emulate their athletic
league&dquo; will be used to include the
heroes. Parents and coaches have
official Little League, Inc....