Comments

• Kathy Smith, Roanoke, VA 03/21/08

  Something not mentioned here is wrestler's struggles to "make weight". Boys are wrestling at weights that are not healthy, too low for their naturally growing bodies, and they starve themselves to make weight and then binge eat. Some of them spit for hours to try to lose weight! The younger boys learn all of the bad habits of the older ones, while the coaches look the other way or are unaware.

• Alicia Morrow 03/06/08

  My daughter is a competitive athlete (basketball) and wants to go on with it in college and beyond. She’s very good, but not as tall as I guess she would need to be to go pro. Her coach hasn’t given her any encouragement. It’s also too late for her to take up in any other sport, since all the other girls would be way ahead of her. Her eating hasn’t been great lately, and I think it’s because she is so sad about this – I am hoping she sticks with phys ed because she loves it and could always teach (and be a better coach than the one she has now!)

• Gary Listro 03/06/08

  The whole sports thing is insane in schools these days – my daughter was a gymnast when she was little, and the whole competition thing was crazy, so we took her out of it. Then she joined a private swim team, and the hours were nuts, so we stopped that. She was disappointed more because her friends were all doing it (and of course watching every calorie they put into their bodies), but I feel good that she is now just out there exercising because it feels good. Parents have to just calm down about these extracurricular sports, because it encourages kids to drive themselves, instead of just being kids.

• Rolanda Peterson 03/04/08

  Our son haunts the health food store and recently started on a protein powder, which his coach recommended. He said it made him feel strong – and doubled up on the amount to make it more powerful. Now that I read this article, I’m worried. This is a young coach—wants the team to be great—which is fine, but he shouldn’t be pushing kids toward taking stuff. I’m sure he would never suggest that steroids were an option, but our kid is really expert online and could find it himself if he wanted to. I’m not sure he would tell me if he was using, although now I know signs to look for.