Draft

Jon Mitchen

English Comp. II

Lauren Garcia DuPlain

3/23/11 Positive Impact of Youth and School Sports

As the director of a youth football in my community, I have seen many of the bad things that come from youth sports. I have seen broken bones, concussions,

fights, unsportsmanlike conduct, and a lot of moms home cooking come back up [**I WAS WITH YOU UNTIL THIS LAST ONE - EW. AND IT MIGHT DETRACT FROM YOUR POINT...]**. I have seen parents in arguments with officials, coaches, board members, kids, and

other parents. I have been down at Manchester Youth Football for 7 years now and I can say I have almost seen it all. If this programs has so many bad traits, why am

I still an active member of it? The answer is simple, because it is a positive influence in kids lives. There are very few bad situations that happen in one football

season, but they do happen. Every night though, there are many good lessons and morals taught to kids that greatly outweigh the bad. Controlled aggression,

competitive sportsmanship, and responsible leadership are all good traits that come from youth sports. Most of the opposition believes that youth sports teach these

traits to become out of control.[**THIS LAST SENTENCE SEEMS OUT OF PLACE. WOULD YOU WANT TO END ON THIS?]**

Circle was founded in 2001 to conduct studies on how youth engage in civil and political aspects of life in the United States. They are funded by many different

companies and grants, such as the Ford Foundation and Pew Charitable Trusts. They have many different experts and professors working for them in many different

fields of research. These include Community Participation and Civic Knowledge. Circle really seems to not show any biases to one side or the other. They seem to

collects large amounts of information from groups ranging from 15-25. [**CONDENSE THE CONTEXT HERE. SOMETHING LIKE "FUNDED BY...AND LED BY SCHOLARLY EXPERTS..."** Circle did a detailed survey to see how sports involvement correlated to civic involvement. They

found that people that where involved in sports in school volunteered are a rate of 32% compared to 21% of non-sports players. [**IS THIS MANDATED?]** They also found that 58% of athletes

where registered voters as opposed to 40% [**OF WHAT?]**. This is a good sign because, according to the National Federation of High School Associations, high school sports

participation has steadily increase of the past 16 years. It also found that 42% of students, in 2002, ages 18-25, played sports in high school. So youth and school

sports have positive impacts on civic engagement, but what else could it help? [**I'D LIKE TO SEE YOU DEVELOP YOUR POINTS MORE. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? IS THIS TRUE ACROSS THE BOARD OR MORE SO IN SOME AREAS?**

Dr. Brian P. Greenwood, the Interim Coordinator, The Center for Teaching and Learning, California Polytechnic State University, has been an active member of

many youth development institutions and studies. He has conducted many youth development clinics and has also made many presentations of his findings. Dr.

Micheal A. Kanters has done the same. Their article shows the correlation of middle school athletes ability level compared to their morality and goals. The subjects

where middle school football players (about age 14) attending a training camp. **[AND WHAT DID THEY FIND? LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING THE REST.]**