My Take on Entitlement in Youth Athletes

This post was inspired by a team of basketball players I recently competed against in a local tournament with some of my friends.  All 8 or 9 of the players were a bit younger than my teammates and I and all competed at the same junior college. I don’t have you tell you how rattled they were when they got beat by a bunch of washed up former athletes. They played hard, they were big, and they were talented.  The problem was this: for most of the game they bitched, they moaned, they groaned, made excuses, and still walked as tall as Bill Russell after he won his 11^th. Obviously nobody had ever mentioned to them they were playing junior college basketball in a town in ND that nobody outside of the area has ever heard of.

Before I rant, let me first say this: I too was a young, talented, cocky, self centered athlete in desperate need of a reality check. (I got mine when I tried to compete in a great conference in college baseball) Also, athletes today spend more money, more time, and WORK HARDER than athletes ever have in the past. With populations (especially in public schools) on the rise, you have no choice but to put in the work to make an athletic team. When I played, which wasn’t even that long ago, if you were talented you played. And if you did some sort of strength and conditioning, you got better. Nowadays it’s extremely hard to find an athlete competing at the varsity level year in and year out that isn’t putting in some time in strength and conditioning in his/her offseason. It’s become a necessity, and I think that’s great.

But now, to the meat and potatoes. Youth athletes: Let’s all make a conscious effort to quit acting like entitled assholes. Please understand in the grand scheme of things, YOU’VE DONE NOTHING AND YOU’VE GONE NOWHERE. Take it from one with experience. I understand; you work so hard, dedicate so much time, silence the doubters and eventually convince yourself it’s you against the world. Acting as if people are trying to tear you down is a great way to create extrinsic motivation, but it’s also a great way to have an unfulfilling athletic career with teammates wanting nothing to do with you. If you want to play next level you don’t always have to defeat those around you, sometimes you have to defeat yourself. Trust me when I say this; the minute you set foot in that college locker room nobody gives a damn who you are, where you’ve been or what you’ve done. Every coach and upper classmen that you play for/with now, wants to know who you will become, where you will go and what you can do now that you’re apart of their family. Instead of reminding yourself that everyone wants you to fail, start reminding yourself that you haven’t yet succeeded. If you’re a great athlete, you’ll know you haven’t. Look outside yourself, do what you can to help the team, seek to understand your worth, strengths, and weaknesses, work harder than everyone else, earn respect and help others grow into better competitors. This, I promise you, will make you feel much more accomplished when it’s all said and done. And God forbid you come out of it with a few friends.

This was something I’ve wanted to get off my chest for some time now and I thank those big bruising JuCo basketball players for finally giving me incentive to do so. If at least one youth athlete out there, somewhere, can take this and learn from it, then it’s been worth my time. I just hope, with time, we can continue to breed a culture in the athletic community that values hard work and progress instead of talent and accomplishments. Being able to look back and see how far you’ve come and how much better you’ve gotten through the years should be the barometer for success. Not how full a stat sheet or trophy room is. Hope this can be a friendly reminder; control what you can control, keep your nose out of the air and on the grindstone, everything else will fall into place.

Caleb Heilman

“The only thing I know is I’ll never know everything.” – Jason Green