DANGERS OF CYBERSPACE: Now Athletes are Having their Twitter Accounts Scanned
Life used to be so much simpler with sports parenting…. But these days, in the year 2012, we have yet new challenges to encounter, most notably concerns about social media. We already know about Facebook and kids posting stupid comments and photos online that only result in trouble for them…but now as Twitter becomes more popular, … Continue reading
TRAVEL TEAMS: US Soccer Federation Continues to Make Life Difficult for HS Soccer Players
I had discussed this issue back in Jan and Feb of this year, and it was a serious issue then. Now, this issue only continues to spread, this time to Long Island, which is a long-time hot bed of excellent HS soccer. In short, the US Soccer Federation, one of the nation’s leading travel programs, … Continue reading
Youth Sports Are Expensive?
In truth, I often pick up a lot of wonderful articles and columns from the New York Times when it comes to the topic of sports parenting and youth sports. But I must confess that I’m still scratching my head from an article that ran the other day in which the Times’ reporter did an expose of sorts … Continue reading
“Big Brother is Watching You!”… Colleges Hire Outside Firms to Monitor Athletes’ Posting on Social Media
“So here’s how it works…if your son or daughter wants to play intercollegiate sports at our university, he or she has to first sign a waiver that gives us access to all of her social media, including the password to their Facebook account, twitter account, and so on.” Can that be possible? Isn’t that illegal? … Continue reading
Parents Have to Teach Student-Athletes about the Dangers of Social Media
It just seems like an endless comedy of errors….but sadly, there’s nothing funny about what’s going on. Consider these recent cases: o A top HS football player puts out a variety of offensive sexual and racial comments on his Twitter account. Within days, he’s expelled from his HS, and top college recruiters like the Univ … Continue reading
It’s Official! US Soccer Academy Development is Now Forcing HS Soccer players to choose betwen their varsity team and club team
In a press release that went out nationally last week, the US Soccer Development Academy fired a major salvo at traditional HS varsity programs. The essence of the message? If you entertain any dreams of playing college soccer or even pro soccer, you need to walk away from your local HS team and play exclusively … Continue reading
At last! An online college recruiting service that makes sense!
If you have a youngster in HS who aspires someday to play sports in college, I do hope you had a chance to listen to the Sports Edge this AM. I had the opportunity to speak with Vish Prabhakara, the young CEO of BeRecruited.com, and I must admit that I came very impressed with how … Continue reading
Another Top HS Prospect Gets Burned by the Internet…When are these kids going to learn?
For the past several years, we’ve been preaching on WFAN’s The Sports Edge that kids have to be EXTRA diligent when it comes to using social media. Whether they’re posting comments or photos on their Facebook account, or sending text messages, or posting comments on Twitter, they have to be aware that once something is sent … Continue reading
Why Force Talented HS Soccer Players to Choose Between their School team and Travel Program?
We all know that life is full of choices – many of them quite difficult — so why put talented soccer players in an awkward spot where they have to choose between two passions? Playing for their HS team or their US Soccer Academy travel team? But that’s what’s happening with increasing frequency around the country. … Continue reading
College recruiting: Be forewarned and do your homework first!
If the ultimate payoff for a young, talented, and dedicated athlete is to someday play at the collegiate level, you would think that parents would be better informed. The sad reality is that too many moms and dads sit up and fully expect scholarship offers to roll in during their kid’s senior year. Or that … Continue reading
Doug Abrams
Rick Wolff
Steve Kallas
Ask Coach Wolff 