Last Friday, in Cambridge, Mass., Thomas Junta was sentenced to six to 10 years in prison for the beating death of Michael Costin in a fight after a hockey practice in which both men's sons took part. What sparked the incident? Junta alleged that Costin's son had engaged in "rough play" on the ice. The sentencing has once again focused national attention on violence -- both on and off the playing field -- associated with kids' sports.
It is reassuring to note that most teens, interviewed for a Gallup Youth Survey taken at the time of the Costin's death last July* said that schools place "about the right amount" of emphasis on sports, and do not feel too much pressure to win -- from their schools and coaches, their parents, or from themselves.
However, a fourth (25%) of all teens said that coaches "apply too much pressure to win," and a similar percentage (27%) said this about their parents. Older teens and girls are most likely to hold this view.
If so many kids are being driven too hard to win, it's no wonder what a few will do to avoid losing. About 6% of high school teens, which projects to more than one million youngsters, say that "sometimes violence is okay if it helps win a game." And one in 10 teens admits to having been removed from a game for "playing dirty or breaking the rules." As one might expect, girls are less likely than boys to condone violence in sports, and the older a teen gets, the less likely he or she is to find it acceptable.
For the most part, school sports do what they are intended to do. Many teen-agers like sports, and most have played on a school or community team -- so parents and coaches are obviously doing something right. Sad, ugly stories such as the Cambridge hockey fight, however, point out the rough side of the sports environment, and serve as reminders of what many kids already know -- parents and teachers must always be aware of the line between healthy encouragement to achieve and relentless pressure to win.
* Results are based on telephone interviews with 500 teens, ages 13 to 17 conducted July - October 2001. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the margin of sampling error is +/- 5 percentage points.