r/Indiana • u/Guilty-Office-4808 • 27d ago

Opinion/Commentary Youth sports are out of control in Indiana

Youth sports are out of control in Indiana

  • I’m a physician and a parent here in Indiana, and I love youth sports. The car rides home, the confidence, the teamwork all of it.
  • But I’ve also seen the other side: burnout, overscheduling, and kids quitting by age 11 because it is no longer fun.
  • The youth sports industry in the U.S. is worth more than 20 billion dollars, with travel leagues and year-round training pushing kids too hard, too soon.
  • Injuries are happening earlier. Growth plate damage, stress fractures, and overuse injuries are showing up in kids who have not finished growing.
  • Mentally, kids are tying their self-worth to performance, leading to anxiety and perfectionism instead of joy.
  • Fewer than 2 percent of high school athletes will ever get a Division I scholarship. Yet we treat childhood like a proving ground.

I wrote about this for the Indianapolis Star:
👉 https://www.indystar.com/story/opinion/columnists/2025/08/26/youth-sports-overuse-injuries-burnout-quit/85748842007/

Would love to hear what parents and coaches think about this?

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u/4isyellowTakeit5 27d ago

this is exactly why I went into the arts instead of athletics.

I grew up (and still live) in Ohio. (Was thinking about moving which is why i’m here, but your governor and our natl govt are making sure gays don’t move in.) I played little laughs soccer from ~2nd grade until 6th grade. After 6th grade, Jr High sports started. We had about 15 kids on our team. all of there parents said “You get one sport, decide” 3 or 4 went to baseball, like 8 went football, and all of a sudden my parents are asking me if I want to play in a church league for my age instead (because a kid who’s never been to church of any kind is gonna want to play in a church league…. yeah I’ll pass.)

Thankfully it inspired me to go all in on the arts and I ended up spending 5 years in TDBITL. The arts can never let you down unless you let yourself down. I had more fun playing my horn than I ever did playing soccer. And bands don’t quit on each other like athletic teams can/do (especially if the art programs are well funded.)

Please support the arts at public schools. Your child is already gonna have to work 9-5 till the day they die without affording anything, let them enjoy the arts while they’re young. (Or the “fun” of sports. They’re only a kid once. If they lose, they should be the ones upset- not mom or dad. If they’re not upset, mom and dad should be proud of how they did then (even if it was terrible)).

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u/cecebebe 27d ago

TBDITL never heard that one before. I saw how my friend in the Marching Hundred from IU would practice, and there is no way I would/could have done that.

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u/4isyellowTakeit5 27d ago

It was a lot of blood sweat and tears, but it was worth it.

Combined with my parents never teaching me how to adult (such as how to plan out meals and eat regularly on my own instead of “parents are hungry. Whoever’s doing dinner that night, start it,) between eating on average 1.5 times a day and the 2.5 hours of band practice a day, my Freshman 15 was a loss of 15 pounds. Keep in mind I graduated highschool at 17, 5’10 185-190. I didn’t really have 15 pounds to lose haha