Hamden’s youth sports are popular and successful. In 2020, Hamden won the Connecticut Little League state championship, beating Montville 12-1 in four innings in the championship game. That was the year of the pandemic so there was no Little League World Series for Hamden to qualify for, but that did not stop the kids and coaches from Hamden from playing the best ball they could and win the state championship. Manager Bill Rhodes told the New Haven Register at the time “(the kids) went to a training facility all last fall and winter. They stopped as soon as COVID hit, but they came back with a vengeance.”
Hamden offers a lot of different youth sports programs besides just baseball and softball. Lacrosse, tennis, soccer, football, hockey, basketball and martial arts are all programs that are offered in Hamden for kids to get involved in youth sports. This is important because experts say youth sports are very important to kids
Mike McGarry is a board member of two different Hamden youth sports organizations who said, “sports help kids make friends, learn how to work as a team, understand how to deal with a bad call and get more exercise.” Whether a kid plays soccer, football, basketball, baseball or softball, lacrosse or hockey, it is vital for kids to play sports starting at a young age. Sports benefit kids’ mental, emotional, physical and social health as well. According to the PCSFN Science Board, participating in sports lowers rates of anxiety and depression, increases self-esteem and confidence and gives kids a greater enjoy to physical activities.
Scott Greisberg, Ph.D., said that he is very much in favor of kids playing youth sports. Greisberg, a psychologist, works with a bunch of kids and said that he does see a difference between kids who play sports and don’t play sports. “Kids who don’t play sports are on screens more and they don’t have as many friends,” he said. On how youth sports benefit kids, Greisberg said “besides the exercise, (sports allow) decreasing time spent on screens and increasing the number of relationships they have. (Sports also) becomes an example of life lessons, not always going to get fair calls.” On if there are any cons to youth sports, Greisberg was blunt saying “No, kids who don’t want to play sports try and say that they’re but they’re not. They say that they’ll have more free time to get homework done but that is not the case. More free time leads to less productivity.”
The PCSFN Science Board also said that youth sports lowers rates of anxiety and depression, lower amounts of stress, raise self-esteem, reduced the risk of suicide, increased cognitive performance and creativity and greater enjoyment of all forms of physical activities. As McGarry said, “(youth sports benefits kids) in numerable numbers of ways, experiences of winning and losing, discipline, kids get outside, having to deal with stressful situations like playing goalie in soccer and late game foul shots, get along with people, work towards a common goal, work in groups and teamwork.”
Penn State Pro Wellness is a non-profit organization that educates the youth and their families about healthy life choices and they say how important it is for girls to play youth sports and that not enough play. Every year, ROX, Ruling Our Experiences, does a survey every year called the Girls Index. It found that 39% of girls do not feel like they belong at school, 57% do not believe they are smart enough for their dream career, 79% feel like they are going to ‘explode’ from pressure and 33% do not speak their mind because they want to be well liked. Many people believe that playing sports can help that.
Christa Doran is a coach and commissioner in Hamden, and she was very passionate about girls in youth sports. “Sports prepare you for life. Girls are so wrapped up in what their body looks like and not what it does and sports show what their body can do. It also teaches kids how to work with people they don’t see eye to eye with and how to bounce back from failure,” Doran said. The Women’s Sports Foundation also is a big proponent of girls in sports, the group says “girls and women who play sports have higher levels of confidence and self-esteem and lower levels of depression. Girls and women who play sports have a more positive body image and experience higher states of psychological well-being than girls and women who do not play sports.” According to Jeff Porter of EventPipe.com, a website for bloggers, girls are playing sports more than they used to and 35% of girls are now playing sports. Meanwhile those numbers are down for boys.
While 40% of boys still play youth sports, 5% more than girls, those rates are down from 41% in 2019. Matt Avani is a basketball coach and commissioner in Hamden and he said “the social aspect and coming together trying to accomplish one goal. Life is very me, me, me and this gives them the chance to work as a team. Also, if something is going on at home, it helps them get away. It also teaches commitment and (kids can) get exercise.” The numbers say that boys are playing sports less than they used to. Coaches can be a big part of making sure that boys play sports more. As Doran said, “coaches are so powerful to change or break kids in sports and I wanted a hand in impacting the next generation of athletes.”
Playing sports builds character for a lot of kids and it teaches them how to work on a team. Sports make it easier for kids to make friends as well. McGarry said that youth sports “allows kids to meet kids from different parts of town, like a kid from North Hamden can meet someone from South Hamden, and if they play travel sports, they can meet kids from totally different towns that they can then hang out with at the different camps they go to.” School is the primary place where friends are made but it is important for kids to find friends outside of their direct social circle in school and sports are a really easy way for kids to do just that. In fact, youth sports can help the loneliness epidemic that the U.S. Surgeon General highlighted in May 2023. As Porter said, “Participating in sports teams fosters a supportive environment rich in social interaction and camaraderie, countering feelings of isolation.”
Exercise is also a big part of why youth sports are so important for kids to play. In 2016, the State of Childhood Obesity reported that there was a 13.5% increase from 1978 to 2016 in obesity among kids 2-19 and that one in 16 kids were dealing with obesity. Those numbers are staggering and in 2021, the CDC said that obesity rates only get higher with age. Childhood obesity is a big problem in the United States and the exercise youth sports gives kids is a way to limit those rates from continuing to increase the way they have in recent years.
As former youth sports athlete Timmy Anderson said, “playing sports benefitted me because I got to do something that I love and make friends. Playing sports also taught me how to work together on a team.”