Serious Question - College Athletes, Parents and Snacks

[Anonymous]

You know, that Grace/Aziz story is starting to make more sense now. When do these young people grow up?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are serious? This is a thing? My kids haven't been on teams that had post-game snacks since they were 8 or 9. This can't be real.

Seriously. I think it's ridiculous that we still do this for my 11 year old's games. Snacking in the US is out of control. They also think they need a gatorade or something after every game, as if they ran a marathon.

[Anonymous]

I know a few parents whose kids are in choral groups or theater troupes and they (the parents) don't miss a single performance.

I don't get the big deal about parents attending games. I was a college athlete and one or the other of my parents attended every single meet I had in the 4 years I competed. This was in the 80's. Woman's team. As another poster pointed out though if parents hadn't been in the bleachers then there wouldn't have been anyone there...sigh. Go Title IX!

[Anonymous]

I don't think the issue is the parents attending games - its the parents having to bring all of the food and snacks or the athletes don't eat.

[Anonymous]

So we often pack him a snack to have between games because the snack/lunch the school supplies is not enough. However, he would certainly survive if we did not and quite a few kids make do without

The "kids" reference is what I don't understand. These are grown adults

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HS DS and his teammates get fast food before, after or between games and practices. Many people seem aghast at the notion of anything from McDonalds, but I'd rather DS eat a couple of McDonalds chicken sandwiches (his post-practice go-to snack) than a team or parent supplied sandwich with lunch meat. I get that lots of people are concerned about obesity, and DS has teammates who have to manage their calories, but DS usually eats breakfast, a large lunch, two chicken sandwiches, a shake and a soda after practice and then a full dinner and he's still slightly underweight.

I anticipate that if he plays D3 in college as planned, my contribution to his meals will be money on his debit card. Is there some reason (other than pearl clutching about nutrition) that this won't work?

So lets sketch this out. Your son goes on to play a D3 sport in college. Let's say he goes to Washington and Lee since the PP cited them and they have a game up in Washington DC on a Saturday against Catholic. They will be leaving Lexington no later than 8 AM. I will assume that some of the boys will make it to the dining hall or eat at their house before they leave, but some won't. They board the bus for DC and presumably the school's dining facilities have packed lunches and snacks for the team. Maybe some kids bring their own snacks. Maybe some are provided by a parent provided fund. Maybe the school provides them. They arrive at Catholic around 11:30 (and that is being generous). Unload, go to the locker rooms and get prepared to take the field. They are on the field at 12:00 noon for warm ups. They play at 1 and are done around 3 or 4. They have now been on the go for 8 hours, including 2 hours of intense physical activity and its nearing dinner time with 3 to 4 hours still to go until they are back at school, so what are their options to eat?

1) Have a school or parent provided pot luck or catered meal at Catholic where the boys can eat as soon as they have showered and packed their gear.

2) Eat a cold boxed meal prepared the night before

3) Have the bus stop at McDonalds or Subway or some other restaurant on the way back where each kid pays his own way.

4) Eat locally with parents/friends and hitch a ride back to school.

Honestly, most D3 schools probably do a mix of these things depending on the distance for each game and the Coach's and school's preferences and budgets.

Also remember that there are NCAA limits and regulations as to what colleges can provide to athletes in terms of food and snacks, so working with the parents to coordinate some of these meals makes sense logistically and financially.

As for nutrition, I'm not going to say that the occasional McDonalds is bad, especially for a very active HS or college student, but anyone who is serious about their athletic performance should be focusing on eating the right foods at the right time so as to maximize their recovery and performance as well as their long term physical health. College athletics is pretty intense schedule wise and can put a lot of strain on students bodies, especially if they are not paying attention to their nutrition.

D3 coach here. You sound a little nuts. The kids don’t even get scholarships for this. And they don’t pay their own way for the stop after a meet. They’re given money provided by the school and must get a receipt. (It was the same when I played D1.) Typically we find an area ahead of time that we will plan to stop at that is close to the meet site that has several options in one place—Chipotle, Subway, pizza shops, sandwiches are popular among the kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think the issue is the parents attending games - its the parents having to bring all of the food and snacks or the athletes don't eat.

I guess if I felt that strongly about it then I would just not bring snacks or food. I never understand why people get so hept up about the littlest things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think the issue is the parents attending games - its the parents having to bring all of the food and snacks or the athletes don't eat.

I guess if I felt that strongly about it then I would just not bring snacks or food. I never understand why people get so hept up about the littlest things.

Because it's part of a culture that lowers the expectations on these young adults. Some parents think they are still responsible for feeding 18-22 year olds, as if they were still 10. It's not good for the young adults, and it's not good for our community as a whole to extend their adolescence to that age.

[Anonymous]

I find the attending every game thing strange, because it means that even when your kids are in college your entire life still revolves around them. All of your discretionary income goes for traveling to their events, all of your vacation time goes for their events,. Maybe I'm selfish, but I'd like to do some traveling to other places in the United States with my husband when my kids are in college, and not spend all my time in all my money on visiting My college aged students

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ivy League School - a women’s team - I’ll leave it at that.

Not surprised. You are at a school with lots of rich people and their children. Why wouldn’t parents fly in and cater meals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: I find the attending every game thing strange, because it means that even when your kids are in college your entire life still revolves around them. All of your discretionary income goes for traveling to their events, all of your vacation time goes for their events,. Maybe I'm selfish, but I'd like to do some traveling to other places in the United States with my husband when my kids are in college, and not spend all my time in all my money on visiting My college aged students

Why not? If money is no object, I would attend all of my kids college games, and rich people do

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are serious? This is a thing? My kids haven't been on teams that had post-game snacks since they were 8 or 9. This can't be real.

Seriously. I think it's ridiculous that we still do this for my 11 year old's games. Snacking in the US is out of control. They also think they need a gatorade or something after every game, as if they ran a marathon.

My kids are preschoolers and I'm unfortunately not kidding when I tell you that you can't sign up for a one hour kids' craft class around here without "don't forget to bring a snack for the snack break!". Without even any physical activity. It's outrageous. Pretty sure the rest of the kids there can survive an entire hour without eating, as can mine. When we raise eyebrows, we simply get "oh it can be healthy! bring fruit!" as if it makes it better.

I'm so shocked to hear that the madness continues into college. Maybe it makes the parents feel important, as a way to extend the helicopter parenting into adulthood.