Where Have You Gone High School Athlete?

This week I returned to the Wachusett Basketball coaching staff (sort of) for the first time since 2006.
While I have been around the program as the Summer League coach the past several seasons, I was as excited as a kid on Christmas for my first tryouts since 2006. The past two nights I have witnessed what I have known for some time, the high school athlete is gone and may not be seen again.
 
 Gone are the days of kids running through walls to make teams, shoving matches in rebounding drills, fighting to beat the person beside you in laps and all other forms of competitive behavior. Blame it on technology, modern parenting or the overall wussification of sports making a high school team doesn't seem to matter anymore. Tonight's cut down day used to be an important day in kids lives and now it seems to bring them a mere 30 seconds of relief or ten seconds of disappointment.

  I am aware that most people don't see the world through my coaching eyes, but I long for the days of the competitive athlete. Uniforms used to treated like gold and seen as the reward of years of hard work. Friends used to talk about what it would be like to play together and win championships, now we are just the after school activity of the season and something to put on a college resume. I don't think there's a single player trying out who actually knows what the team's record was last season because no one cares and team achievements are not a topic of school conversation.

High school have divided in two very different groups: Professional level travel teams with top prospects garnering national attention and a bunch of recreational leagues. Your average public high school team plays with the same intensity as the over 30 league at the YMCA. Any player with talent runs to the nearest prep or catholic school and I can't blame them. High school coaching now resembles my days coaching the neighborhood Little League team.

This is the new world am fighting against as I return to the bench. Excuse me if I'm rooting for a tear or two tonight, a few scrapped knees, a bloody lip or any indication that someone still cares about something I've spent half my living doing.

WHERE HAVE YOU GONE HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETE?
THIS COACH TURNS HIS LONELY EYES TO YOU!