

Central Illinois Xpress Emerge as Unlikely Force in Fifth-Grade League - orin_hanner
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/19/sports/central-illinois-xpress-emerge-as-unlikely-force-in-fifth-grade-league.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=photo-spot-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

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nickstefan12
This article has some nice points about what the girls are learning (team
work, discipline etc), but it's not nearly "breaking down barriers" as it
seems. I coached swimming for 8 years:

Girls are 10x easier to coach than boys (on average). At that age they are
also more coordinated, taller and sometimes stronger.

Also at that age: continual year round well coached practice is infinitely
more important than gender. The boys teams in this article are seasonal
recreational, while the girls team is a year round club team. I can tell you
from swimming that a 5th grade year round swimmer would easily crush a
recreational swimmer, regardless of gender, on average.

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kendallpark
> Too many youth coaches, Mr. Toran said, spend their time designing intricate
> plays.

I could not agree more. So many coaches at this level of play want to try out
the fancy stuff before establishing the basics.

> At the time, he said, he was an assistant coach with a semipro men’s team
> and was eager to escape what he described as the “whining and complaining”
> of players who were resistant to coaching.

> In search of a more mature audience, he turned to a group of 9-year-old
> girls.

> “You can actually teach them basketball,” he said.

I already posted this comment on HN
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8910371](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8910371)),
but I think it relates to this article as well:

 _I play women 's football and coach high school guys football. Football is
one of the most teamwork-dependent sports out there. Everyone has to be doing
his job every single play. There's no way for one player to carry the team._

 _Before I started coaching guys ' football, I had heard consistently from
other coaches in my women's league that women are way easier to coach than men
in the game of football. Reasons given included less attitude, less
individualism, less ego, more willing to work together, etc. When I started
coaching high school ball, this was exactly the case. So much of my time was
wasted beating the individualism out of these boys and getting them to play
for each other, not themselves._

 _Maybe it 's that football attracts a certain type of male. But I think women
might be more naturally disposed to working on a team than men on average._

~~~
bsder
> Maybe it's that football attracts a certain type of male.

Um, _DUH_. Most boys play sports to _stand out_. Mostly with girls. Sometimes
against other boys. Sometimes in the hope of getting a scholarship.

Game it out. What's the point of being a team player on a mediocre team?
Better to be the guy who makes the big play that people remember.

In addition, most high school coaches suck by simple Darwinian mechanics. The
good ones get pulled up to much bigger schools _REALLY_ quickly. The poor ones
get left behind.

~~~
kendallpark
> Most boys play sports to stand out. Mostly with girls. Sometimes against
> other boys. Sometimes in the hope of getting a scholarship.

I completely disagree. This is a very pessimistic depiction of young male
athletes. I believe the primary reason for high schoolers playing sports is
still interest in the game itself, not ancillary benefits. When I started
coaching high school the team was 1-7 and a joke to the school. There were
still thirty boys that came out to practice everyday because they loved the
game.

> In addition, most high school coaches suck by simple Darwinian mechanics.
> The good ones get pulled up to much bigger schools REALLY quickly. The poor
> ones get left behind.

I also disagree with this. Coaching promotion is highly dependent on whom you
know and whom you're friends with. There many excellent high school coaches
that never get pulled up simply because they do not have the connections.
There are also many good college coaches that leave college ball because they
would rather be head coach of a great high school program than the third
defensive back specialist of a college team.

~~~
anigbrowl
American culture is awash in thinly-disguised fertility rituals, from
cheerleader routines at sports fixtures to selection of 'prom queens' who are
stereotypically paired with the quarterback of the football team. From a non-
American's perspective, football is _massively_ sexualized.

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bsder
A professional coach can out-compete the local yokel coaches with a team a
year or two behind.

And, at that age, girls on average are bigger than boys.

Um, okay. This is news, why?

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teamhappy
We have a team of girls who are doing mighty fine (shocking, I know) and a
newspaper that turns their story into such an unbearable headline (for
profit). Pretty good summary of where we're at right now.

~~~
kendallpark
I agree. The headline is inflammatory. Very unfortunate because the article
itself was an interesting read.

