Sacrificing Children to Sports, Part Two: Recruiting Websites for Tweens<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On the heels of my post from last week, I offer this link to a Chicago Tribune story that raises serious questions about the ranking of twelve-year-old\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2009\/06\/sacrificing-children-to-sports-part-two-recruiting-websites-for-tweens\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sacrificing Children to Sports, Part Two: Recruiting Websites for Tweens\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On the heels of my post from last week, I offer this link to a Chicago Tribune story that raises serious questions about the ranking of twelve-year-old\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2009\/06\/sacrificing-children-to-sports-part-two-recruiting-websites-for-tweens\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thought Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-06-15T20:28:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Owen Strachan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Owen Strachan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2009\/06\/sacrificing-children-to-sports-part-two-recruiting-websites-for-tweens\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2009\/06\/sacrificing-children-to-sports-part-two-recruiting-websites-for-tweens\/\",\"name\":\"Sacrificing Children to Sports, Part Two: Recruiting Websites for Tweens\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-06-15T20:28:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-06-15T20:28:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#\/schema\/person\/75c661f536302cda0daa8b7615fd8e53\"},\"description\":\"On the heels of my post from last week, I offer this link to a Chicago Tribune story that raises serious questions about the ranking of twelve-year-old\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2009\/06\/sacrificing-children-to-sports-part-two-recruiting-websites-for-tweens\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2009\/06\/sacrificing-children-to-sports-part-two-recruiting-websites-for-tweens\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2009\/06\/sacrificing-children-to-sports-part-two-recruiting-websites-for-tweens\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sacrificing Children to Sports, Part Two: Recruiting Websites for Tweens\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/\",\"name\":\"Thought Life\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#\/schema\/person\/75c661f536302cda0daa8b7615fd8e53\",\"name\":\"Owen Strachan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2dbab262f37be4cfe0660ee979173e8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2dbab262f37be4cfe0660ee979173e8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Owen Strachan\"},\"sameAs\":[\"brandygrenier\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/author\/ostrachan\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sacrificing Children to Sports, Part Two: Recruiting Websites for Tweens","description":"On the heels of my post from last week, I offer this link to a Chicago Tribune story that raises serious questions about the ranking of twelve-year-old","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2009\/06\/sacrificing-children-to-sports-part-two-recruiting-websites-for-tweens\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sacrificing Children to Sports, Part Two: Recruiting Websites for Tweens","og_description":"On the heels of my post from last week, I offer this link to a Chicago Tribune story that raises serious questions about the ranking of twelve-year-old","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2009\/06\/sacrificing-children-to-sports-part-two-recruiting-websites-for-tweens\/","og_site_name":"Thought Life","article_published_time":"2009-06-15T20:28:01+00:00","author":"Owen Strachan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Owen Strachan","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2009\/06\/sacrificing-children-to-sports-part-two-recruiting-websites-for-tweens\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2009\/06\/sacrificing-children-to-sports-part-two-recruiting-websites-for-tweens\/","name":"Sacrificing Children to Sports, Part Two: Recruiting Websites for Tweens","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-06-15T20:28:01+00:00","dateModified":"2009-06-15T20:28:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#\/schema\/person\/75c661f536302cda0daa8b7615fd8e53"},"description":"On the heels of my post from last week, I offer this link to a Chicago Tribune story that raises serious questions about the ranking of twelve-year-old","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2009\/06\/sacrificing-children-to-sports-part-two-recruiting-websites-for-tweens\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2009\/06\/sacrificing-children-to-sports-part-two-recruiting-websites-for-tweens\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2009\/06\/sacrificing-children-to-sports-part-two-recruiting-websites-for-tweens\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sacrificing Children to Sports, Part Two: Recruiting Websites for Tweens"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/","name":"Thought Life","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#\/schema\/person\/75c661f536302cda0daa8b7615fd8e53","name":"Owen Strachan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2dbab262f37be4cfe0660ee979173e8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2dbab262f37be4cfe0660ee979173e8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Owen Strachan"},"sameAs":["brandygrenier"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/author\/ostrachan\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1680\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":1680,"date":"2009-06-15T20:28:01","date_gmt":"2009-06-15T20:28:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/owenstrachan.com\/?p=1680"},"modified":"2009-06-15T20:28:01","modified_gmt":"2009-06-15T20:28:01","slug":"sacrificing-children-to-sports-part-two-recruiting-websites-for-tweens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2009\/06\/sacrificing-children-to-sports-part-two-recruiting-websites-for-tweens\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacrificing Children to Sports, Part Two: Recruiting Websites for Tweens"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

On the heels of my post from last week, I offer this link to a Chicago Tribune story that raises serious questions<\/a> about the ranking of twelve-year-old athletes.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a sampling:<\/p>\n

\u201cShaon Berry believes he has seen the future of football, and to demonstrate, he clicks a key on his computer.\u00a0 Up pops a video showing a 14-year-old receiver so large that he dwarfs his fellow players, so fast that he leaves a swarm of smaller boys in his wake. Even as an 8th grader, the youth appears destined for big things on the gridiron.<\/em><\/p>\n

But Berry said even good athletes like this one could later be overlooked by college programs, so he is about to launch a service to help players get an early edge: For $79, he and his staff will rate 7th-, 8th- and 9th-grade football players and feature them on a Web site for anyone, including recruiters, to check out.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is true that athletes can get overlooked by colleges.\u00a0 That\u2019s a valid point.\u00a0 It\u2019s no bad thing for kids to play sports, even at a pretty competitive level, especially with close parental oversight.\u00a0 But website rankings for twelve-year-olds?\u00a0 That\u2019s ludicrous.\u00a0 Christians will have to use discretion in their involvement with youth sports, but they should flat out avoid all kinds of silliness like that above, staying aware of its harmful effects.<\/p>\n

Honestly, the \u201ccommon sense\u201d factor will help greatly here.\u00a0 Parents need to take counsel from their pastors and elders, who need to teach in some form on matters like this.\u00a0 Few parents are tempted to overinvolve their children in strange pagan rituals; many are tempted to overinvolve their children in youth sports in contemporary America.\u00a0 Pastors and church leaders need to know this and reference it in their preaching and teaching.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"