Let's Put Sportsmanship and Fun Back in Youth Sports. Why kids abandon youth sports and how we can keep them in the game!

When asked why they participate in organized sports, young athletes rank giving everyone a chance to play and having fun far above winning. But even though forty million kids play youth sports each year, an estimated seventy percent of them quit by age thirteen, and never play again! Why? Here's what they say:

• "It's not fun anymore."
• "The coach played favorites/was too negative."
• "There's too much pressure."

In addition, kids are seeing more and more negative behavior by parents and coaches. In one survey, three-quarters of young athletes reported seeing out-of control adults at their games.

After twenty years of experience as a teacher and coach, Kevin Kush thinks it's time to create a youth sports environment where character, sportsmanship, and fun are once again priorities. In Competing with Character®, he examines the good and the bad going on today on youth playing fields, along the sidelines, and in the stands. He urges us to remember that children look to adults as role models and gives coaches and parents a repertoire of skills to use that demonstrate respect, responsibility, courtesy, and much more to children.

Coach Kush gives tips and techniques for teaching young players how to listen to their coaches, get along with teammates, respect their opponents, handle disappointment and adversity, win with class, and lose with dignity. He also discusses other ways to ensure a healthy youth sports experience such as posting rules for spectator conduct.

At any level of competition - developmental or select, recreation or club, Y league or church league, jayvee or varsity - this book can help parents and coaches create youth sports programs that are not only fun and competitive, but that also encourage sportsmanship, character development, and life skills for kids.


Reviews:
"Competing with Character®: Let's Put Sportsmanship and Fun Back in Youth Sports" is a book calling for a return to the fundamentals of youth athletics - fun and sportsmanship. Children who are pushed too hard, or playing under coaches who are too obsessed with winning instead of the thrill of the game, are far more likely to give up a sport than those who are not under the harsh pressure of the must-win mentality. "Competing with Character®" is a must for any coach or parent of athletic children.
~The Midwest Book Review, March 2009

"Coach Kevin Kush has penned an impassioned plea to all organizers, parents and participants in youth sports, "Let's return to the roots of good behavior on the athletic field." Let's teach our children, who look to adults as role models, the lessons of respect, responsibility and courtesy. We have all had those cringe moments out at the ballpark where one bad apple can truly ruin the experience for everyone else. Coach Kush gives easy to follow tips and techniques for teaching young players how to listen to their coaches, get along with teammates, respect their opponents, handle disappointment and adversity, win with class, and lose with dignity. Parent testers were truly impressed with Coach K's ideas on encouraging sportsmanship and developing character."
~The National Parenting Center, November 2008

About the Authors
	Kevin Kush, M.A., an outstanding teacher, coach, and motivational speaker, has led the very successful Boys Town High School football program for troubled and at-risk youth since 1996. He has been honored as ABC "Person of the Week" and is also the author of The 100-Yard Classroom. He and his wife, Lynne, have two sons. Michael Sterba, M.H.D., is a senior writer at Boys Town, co-author of several books for youth-care professionals, and father of three children all of whom participate in youth sports.

Published by Boys Town Press
ISBN: 9781889322988
Dimensions: 5 1/2 x 8 1/2
Pages: 197