youth-sports Page 1 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Youth Sports Need a Wake-Up Call
Youth sports have transformed in front of our very eyes. ...

Kobe Bryant Finds Outlet For Passive Aggression In Youth Basketball Team
Kobe Bryant, when not sloppily cosplaying Michael Jordan, has been sharing occasional updates on his Mambas youth team. Two days ago, the retired Laker congratulated the girls after they beat an opponent by 88 points. Yesterday, he shared an image of a fourth-place trophy they received two years ago...

The Mastermind Behind The College Admissions Scandal Used To Be A Crazy Middle School Basketball Coach
The members of a middle school basketball team that represented a Jewish Community Center in Omaha, Nebraska, were not expecting the 2001 season to be an auspicious one. The previous season had produced mediocre results, and there was no reason to expect much of an improvement going forward. That al...

Youth Wrestling Tournament Quickly Turns Into Parent Fighting Tournament
A Feb. 3 wrestling tournament for kids in Kimberly, Wisconsin devolved into quite the scrap after some adults forgot that their children were the ones supposed to be sparring on the mat....

AAU Contest Ends In Massive Brawl Between Players And Referees
This is madness. An AAU game being held in Emerson, Georgia descended into violent chaos in the final minute when players from Chicago’s R.A.W. Athletics got into a massive brawl with at least one of the referees:...

Sweaty Softball Parents Try To Brawl, Roll Around For A Bit, Ruin Daughters' Weekend
The video you’re about to watch is going to look chaotic as hell and sound like the end of days—almost immediately, your ears will be flooded with girls screaming at the top of their lungs while your eyes fixate on what appears to be a violent brawl. Upon closer inspection, however, you’ll realize t...

Exasperated Lacrosse Coach Emails Parents: "Most Of Our Team Focuses On The Fortnight Video Game Instead"
Find a kid with a tablet or computer these days, and chances are they’re watching or playing Fortnite. The online video game in which players build stairs and walls and then shoot each other has spread like a virus, and it’s derailed at least one boys lacrosse team, to the point where the coach sen...

Report: New Hampshire Youth Baseball Coaches Planned To Bean Their League's Lone Girl Player Into Quitting
In another hideous example of adults and men being absolute shit, the father of a New Hampshire youth baseball player says two coaches in his daughter’s league conspired to have her beaned so that she would quit the league, according to a Foster’s Daily Democrat report:...

14 Dead In Canadian Junior Hockey Team Bus Accident
Friday night the Humboldt Broncos, a Canadian junior league hockey team, were on their way to a semi-final game in Western Canada when the team bus was involved in a highway collision that caused 14 fatalities, the bulk of which may have come from among the players and coaches of the team....

Iowa Correctional Officer Recruits Inmates As Outside-The-Box Solution To Youth Sports Ref Shortage
So, there’s a nationwide shortage of youth sports referees, related to crappy pay and ridiculous workloads and abusive parents. Here’s a novel idea for how to combat this problem, by way of sunny Iowa: train prison inmates in the subtle arts of basketball refereeing....

Lawsuit: Rick Butler Sexually Abused Six Girls, Threatened Their Careers To Keep Them Quiet
A mother whose daughter played volleyball under coach Rick Butler has filed a federal lawsuit against Butler and his wife, Cheryl, saying that Butler sexually abused “no fewer than six” underage girls and that the Butlers hid the abuses so their coaching business could continue. The lawsuit goes in...

AAU Removes Volleyball Coach Rick Butler Following Years-Long Sex Abuse Investigation
The AAU has banned the legendary youth volleyball coach Rick Butler after a multi-year investigation into sexual abuse allegations. The removal was announced Friday. In an emailed statement, the AAU, which had remained silent for months about the allegations, said:...

Report: Olympic Sports Dragged Feet On Protecting Athletes From Sexual Abuse
The Washington Post has a report out today detailing how failures to address the sexual abuse of children and young women go far beyond USA Gymnastics. And it includes some pretty big numbers on how many reports of possible sexual misconduct are lodged from many of these sports each year. ...

Youth Hockey Coach Fired For Completely Fucking Bonkers Pregame Rant
The Littleton Hockey Association has removed a coach from its Bantam travel team after video surfaced on social media of what can only be described as one of the most incredible and unhinged pregame motivational rants in the history of youth hockey, hockey, and, indeed, sports:...

Ornery Columnist: Snacks In Youth Sports Are Making America Soft
Snacks: Are there too many of them? I don’t know—when I look in my pantry, I am often disappointed by how few snacks there are. If you ask me, there should be a lot more snacks around me at all times. Snacks are good is a broadly popular opinion, judging by the contents of aisles four thru six of my...

There's A Nationwide Shortage Of Youth Sports Referees, And It Could Get Worse
If you’ve ever seen a youth official get jeered by a crowd after a close call and thought, “Why does anyone want to be a ref?” you’re not alone. Across the country, high school athletic associations are getting more desperate as they try to recruit qualified officials for their sporting events. ...

Youth Basketball League Kicks Two Girls Off Of Fifth-Grade Team; Team Forfeits In Protest
A group of 10-year-olds in New Jersey decided to forfeit the rest of their basketball season rather than play without their female teammates, who had been kicked off the team by the league. ...

Unruly Hockey Kid Fights Ref
This large hockey son is definitely getting booted from his high school hockey game in Buffalo, NY for knocking down the ref trying to put him in the penalty box. But to be perfectly honest, I’m pretty sure the ref shoved first....

Bruce Arians Is Fed Up With Moms' Extremely Sensible Safety Concerns
Moms, we need to talk about football, a very popular sport you may be harming. It is, in the words of one of its alleged coaching minds, “the best game that’s ever been fucking invented.” (Pardon the salty language, but I figure if you’re a parent you already appreciate the miracles that fucking bri...

The Wildest Youth Sports Highlights of 2016
This has been a crazy year for sports—and an even crazier year for youth sports. These kids are knocking it out of the park....