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lead to continued participation and all of the benefits that come with it. No teacher can force a child into athletic participation, but they can be encouraging and supportive of athletic endeavors and put youth sports in a positive light to their students.

While there is a lot of evidence that supports the positive correlation between youth sport participation and academic ACHIEVEMENT, there is a large amount of disagreement in the academic community as to whether the claims are valid. Proponents of youth sports will point to a variety of studies that clearly show a positive statistical correlation while others will say the increased attention athletes receive is the primary cause for the correlation. I personally believe that participating in youth sports has a positive effect on the whole child. Whether a kid's grades are improved by participating or not, the benefits of exercise, co-operative play, goal setting, teamwork, competition and FUN can only be beneficial to participants. If better academic performance is a by product of participating in youth sports, then that's great! Nobody should sign their kid up for sports just so they get better grades-that would be putting the cart before the horse. A child who is having fun playing the sport of their choice will be more fit, happier and ultimately better off for the experience. "The researchers believe that parents and youth sports coaches sometimes lose touch with the fact that young athletes, even elite young athletes, are children. The youth sports experience should be designed in such a way as to provide children with the experiences they want. Because parents and other adults organize, finance and implement youth sport programs, administrators need to ensure that adult expectations, inappropriate behaviors and achievement standards are not imposed on young athletes. A sincere effort should be made by parents, coaches, and youth sports organizers to listen to the children and to incorporate their suggestions into the youth sports programs." (Pugh) In other words, let the kids have fun playing sports and good things will happen.

REFERENCES

Tucker, Delano W., The effects of interscholastic athletic participation on academic achievement and selected motivational factors for athletic participation by urban youth, ETD Collection for Wayne State University, 1999

Pugh, S., Wolff, R., DeFrancesco, C., Gilley, W., & Heitman, R. (2000). A case study of elite male youth baseball athletes' perception of the youth

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