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Attack of Danger Bay (arrival)

A pink ribbon around my wrist marks me an insider, a camper, a racer, but I’m not.  I am the mother of a racer, a camper, an insider.  But, I am the one returning with food for the kids’ race weekend extravaganza.  After delivering groceries to my kids at the campground, I pull out of the mountain campsite nestled in a coastal forest and drive down the windy mountain highway back to my sister’s house where I will live in the comfort of a warm bed, hot water and a flat-screen TV, while my teenagers make due on old therm-a-rests, inside our twenty-year- old, and perfectly functiona

On My Summer Vacation

I remember as a kid going back to school and answering this basic question: What did you do on your summer vacation?

Renegades

Every year our city baseball league creates teams for the elite players. We have the 10 year old all-stars, the 11s, and this year for the 12s, we have two teams. For the 12 year old players, one team runs a 70 foot baseline from home to first. This team is the "A" team for all practical purposes. Then there the other team, the "B" team runs a 60 foot baseline.

Bullying: An Ongoing Problem In Youth Sports

Recently, I received the following letter from a mother who had attended one of my talks to a group of sports moms.

It is sad, but true, that some kids think that one way to keep moving up the sports pyramid is to eliminate the competition and drive kids to quit, especially if they perceive them as competitive threats, through bullying or teasing. We start off October is National Bullying Prevention Month with a personal story about bullying.

Little League International's Efforts Fail to Protect Children From Sex Offenders, Convicted Criminals and Injury

I am the mom of a nine year old Little Leaguer and I am worried about the safety of my child, and all the other innocent children who step on fields across the country, who are at risk of having their lives destroyed by sex offenders and convicted criminals who prey on them as youth sports coaches.

Busted

His scabby knees peaked through the gashes in his denim. “Lets talk about your knees, son.”
“Alright,” he said. He looked down, earnest, but down.
“You know the deal, bud—no knee pads, no riding.”
“I can explain.”
I waited for something that would explain the wounds still crispy with freshness.

My Ten Commandments for Youth Sports

TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR PARENTS WITH ATHLETIC CHILDREN By Bob Bigelow, Youth Sports Expert & Community Speaker, © 2008

Top 50 Of All Time At Northern Illinois University

I was surprised and humbled by a phone call I received from a former professor, Dr. Hubie Dunn, at Northern Illinois University this past Thursday night. He had called to inform me of my selection by the Northern Star (the NIU official newspaper) as one of the Top 50 of All Time who have competed for the Huskies.

What kind of a mother am I?

What kind of a sane parent would allow their child to break the speed limit on some extraordinarily precarious roads, on a skateboard? I'll say this right up front, this isn't by choice. He'd do it with or without my approval. Not that he is at all disrespectful, he's far from it. In fact he is quite a sweetie. He loves to race. I know I have said this before, but it is still true. So, as his doting parent I supply him with a firm set of rules.

A) no helmet= no skateboard. This is an easy one to enforce as the whole of our local longboarding community is in support of this one.

Sponsored!!!

Tonight, my son Wolf gasped--a happy and surprised sort of sound, from the couch across from me as he checked his email. He closed the lid and bolted to the phone. I didn't listen--very much. I heard a lot of thank yous.
Then he dance, skipped, twirled into the living room. "That was the best phone call in my whole life." His eyes, his face, his 'I just scored big time' arm crunch. 'That was Landy and they have a new board for me, and I don't have to pay for it and they want me to come into the shop to talk about putting me up on the factory team page.'

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