At first glance, it doesn’t look like anything’s wrong.

The dugouts are full. Kids are signed up. Uniforms are clean, rosters are complete, and schedules are packed. But look closer — and you’ll see what’s really happening in youth baseball.

Where are the players?

Not just the bodies wearing jerseys. Not just the kids in the lineup. I’m talking about real players — kids who know the game, have developed their skills, and are confident between the lines. Those kids? There are fewer and fewer.

We’ve got full dugouts… but half the roster just started playing. Some are brand new to the sport. Others have barely touched a glove since the end of last season. And now, more and more are joining the game late — 15 or 16 years old, walking into a sport that usually takes a decade of reps just to be decent.

And it’s not their fault.

The truth is, we’ve stopped working with kids outside of organized team activities. We assume that two practices a week and a Saturday doubleheader is enough. It’s not. It never was. Not for baseball.

Especially not in a place like Montana, where we get four months of decent baseball weather, if we’re lucky. That means every rep matters — and when kids aren’t getting any outside of scheduled team events, it shows.

We’re watching talented kids stall out at 12 or 13 because they haven’t grown since they were 9. Meanwhile, others are starting at 16 — way behind in experience, mechanics, and understanding — and there’s no system in place to help them catch up.

And the result? Dugouts full of kids. But not enough ballplayers.

Used to be, kids got better between the whistles. Practice ended, and the real work began — hitting off a tee in the driveway, throwing balls against the garage, playing sandlot games just to stay sharp. Reps weren’t scheduled. They were wanted.

Now, if it’s not organized, it doesn’t happen.

And this isn’t just a baseball problem. This is across all sports. We’ve built a youth sports culture based on convenience and optics — show up, wear the gear, take the team photo, play the game — and hope for the best. But development doesn’t happen that way. Confidence doesn’t grow that way. And kids sure as hell don’t stick with a sport when they’re not getting better.

And the numbers prove it. National participation in youth sports has dropped from 58.4% in 2017 to 53.8% in 2022. By age 13, 70% of kids are done playing altogether. Why? It’s not fun anymore. It’s frustrating. It’s demoralizing when everyone around you seems to improve and you feel stuck in neutral.

We’re giving kids jerseys, but we’re not giving them the tools. We’re filling rosters, but not building players.

Steph Curry didn’t just lace up a pair of Under Armour shoes and become the NBA’s all-time three-point king. You know how he got there? Countless hours in empty gyms. Hundreds of thousands of shots taken — and missed. More missed than made. No fans. No lights. No social media clips. Just work.

It’s the part you don’t see. The grind behind the greatness. The obsession with improvement. The willingness to fail in private so you can succeed in public.

You think Kobe Bryant showed up to a game and became the Mamba? No — he earned that. In the dark. In the gym. At 4:00 a.m. when nobody else wanted to be there. That’s what it takes.

That’s what’s missing.

We’ve got to teach kids that showing up isn’t enough. You have to work. You have to grind. You have to fail — again and again — and keep going. That kind of mentality isn’t built in games. It’s built in the spaces no one sees.

We’re not short on kids. We’re short on reps. We’re short on people willing to stay late, to get extra swings in, to throw one more round of grounders just because a kid wants it. That’s how players are made.

So yeah, the dugouts are full. But if we don’t get back to helping kids develop between the games — if we don’t get back to the grind — we’re going to lose a whole generation of players. Not because they didn’t love the game.

But because the game didn’t love them back.

Photo Courtesy Ian Raymond.
An animator sets a scene for a stop-motion animation film. A youth class in the art form will take place at the Copper Country Community Art Center in Hancock.

HANCOCK – Youth ages 6-14 have the opportunity to learn stop motion animation with instructor Ian Raymond in a four-week class at the Copper Country Community Arts Center. Students will learn how to animate frame by frame and create short stop-motion clips. Using the material of the week, students will create their own objects to animate and bring them to life by using instructed stop-motion techniques. Each student will work individually or with others to create a short animation movie.

The class is made up of four sessions and happens on Thursdays, June 5, 12, 19, and 26 from 4 – 6 p.m.. The fee is $60 per student or $50 per student for current CCCAC member families. Space is limited and students must pre-register. To register, stop by the CCCAC, call 906-482-2333, or visit www.coppercountryarts.com to register by the May 31st deadline.

Ian Raymond worked making stop-motion television shows for 10 years. He currently teaches photography and other digital media courses at Michigan Tech. His passion is telling stories using images.

The Copper Country Community Arts Center, located at 126 Quincy Street in Hancock, has more than 30 classes and programs offered this summer for adults and youth. View the full schedule on their website www.coppercountryarts.com

Donald Trump released yet another deranged statement on Tuesday, demanding that a transgender high school student be barred from participating in the California state track and field championships, which are scheduled to be held this weekend in Clovis, Calif. The inane thoughts that make their way from Trump’s obviously diminished mind onto his Playskool social media platform should not demand the attention of any right-thinking Americans, and yet in this case the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) snapped to attention, rewriting its qualification rules in an attempt to appease those behind what’s become a national hate campaign directed at a 16-year-old high school student.

The student Trump was referring to in his post is named AB Hernandez. She is set to compete in the high jump, triple jump, and long jump at the state championships, and she has spent the past few months being harassed by a local group of bigots. This group is led by Sonja Shaw and Jessica Tapia, both members of the Save Girls Sports association. Shaw is currently running for California superintendent of public instruction, and Tapia was recently fired from her teaching position at Hernandez’s high school for refusing to respect trans and nonbinary students’ pronouns. At a qualification meet earlier this month, Tapia and Shaw led a group that spent hours heckling and harassing Hernandez as she competed.

Cerise Castle of Capital & Main has done a fantastic job covering this story, which has all the familiar beats: Hernandez has been on the track team for three years and never drew any attention until now; she finished first in triple jump, eighth in high jump, and third in long jump at the qualification meet; she has shown nothing but grace and maturity in the face of intense bigotry. “There’s nothing I can do about people’s actions, just focus on my own,” Hernandez told Castle. “I’m still a child, you’re an adult, and for you to act like a child shows how you are as a person.”

Shortly after Trump targeted Hernandez with his statement, the CIF announced that it was changing the rules to allow “biological girls” who failed to qualify for events in the state championship the opportunity to compete in those events anyway. “Any biological female student-athlete who would have earned the next qualifying mark for one of their Section’s automatic qualifying entries in the CIF State meet, and did not achieve CIF State at-large mark in the finals at their Section meet was extended an opportunity to participate in the 2025 CIF Track and Field Championships,” the CIF said in a statement.

Hernandez will still be allowed to compete, which makes this rule change an awkward and misguided attempt at compromise that will only embolden people like Tapia and Shaw, who claim that Hernandez’s presence in the competition somehow infringes on the rights of her cisgender competitors. The CIF has essentially made it official policy that any student (or more likely any student’s parent) who feels aggrieved about not qualifying can pin their personal failure on Hernandez and show up to compete anyway.

Here we are once again confronted by a central truth about the people who lead these anti-trans campaigns in sports, which is that although they are first and foremost hateful bigots, they are also huge fucking losers. Sports serves many valuable purposes: Creating a place where someone like Hernandez can find community, camaraderie, and comfort in her body is a big one, but so is teaching kids and young adults how to deal with failure. The freaks who make it their mission to antagonize Hernandez and other trans athletes always claim to be acting out of a duty to fairness. Anyone who has ever played or seriously engaged with sports knows, however, that “fairness” is often the first word out of the mouth of a loser. There is always, always something “unfair” for the loser to latch onto and turn into an excuse. Walk around any youth sports competition and you’ll hear plenty of them: That team has a kid who is too big and strong; the rich kids from one county over have access to better equipment; my kid would have won if he hadn’t rolled his ankle last week.

Sports will always, eventually, take something from you, and then it will leave enough space for you to convince yourself that your loss was unjust. What you get out of the experience often comes down to what you do with the impulse to fill that space. Years of cultural conditioning has taught athletes that it is best to ignore that impulse, to accept failure on its own terms and derive whatever lessons you can from it. But now we are faced with a growing chorus of hateful losers who want to reverse all of that conditioning, and in the process turn sports into something small and stupid. The lesson these people want to give to their children is that if circumstance places their athletic failure near the success of someone who belongs to a specifically marginalized group, they are free to huff and puff and stomp their feet until the President of the United States himself intervenes to validate their tantrum. The quicker these people get shoved into a locker, the better.

Six to represent Rogue Valley in Florida, including first ever team in para event

By Holly Dillemuth, Ashland.news

The water at a nearly full Emigrant Lake reflected bright blue skies and expanding horizons for the Rogue Rowing Juniors as they carried their boats to the dock Saturday morning.

The irrigation lake is a training ground for the team of student-athletes who have rowed their way to a competition at the national level next month. Representing Ashland, St. Mary’s, and North Medford high schools and Logos Public Charter School in Medford, the Ashland-based team will compete with rowers from around the country at the U.S. Rowing Youth National regatta in Sarasota, Florida June 12 through 15. 

The qualifying team, made up of two seniors and four underclassmen, is raising funds to make the trip. As of Monday, rowers had fundraised more than $5,200 for the trip through a Go Fund Me, just shy of their $6,000 goal. Crowdfunding has allowed rowers to focus their efforts on training for the event.

The following student-athletes qualified for nationals in 2,000 meter races:

• Ashland High School sophomore Tobias Pew and AHS junior Marcel Starbird: Men’s Youth Para Inclusive Double. Pew also qualified for a non-para event in the U17 Single Scull
• AHS senior Amelie Requejo: Youth Single
• Requejo, senior Brianna Brownlee, junior Esme Medley, and junior Kiva Dilansa: Youth Quad (four-person boat)

A Rogue Rowing veteran, Requejo will make her fourth visit to nationals in June, her last big race as a member of the team.

Dilansa, also acquainted with the competition, will return for her second time qualifying for nationals.

It’s the first time Pew and Starbird, both 16, Brownlee, 18, and Medley, 17, have qualified for the competition.

On land after practice, Starbird said he is just hoping to do as well as he can at nationals, as he supports his teammate, Tobias Pew. The duo will compete together in the first para event for the Rogue Rowing Juniors team. Pew, whose right foot isn’t fully developed, competes with a prosthetic foot on his right leg.

“It’s harder to press on the foot plate, so you don’t get quite the amount of power, energy,” Pew said.

But don’t let that fool you though — about his abilities or his determination.

“He’s pretty gritty,” Starbird said of teammate Pew, “And he can be really motivating. I know he’s always going to be giving it his all, so I’ve got to give it my all.”

Pew qualified for nationals in the single boat division, but entered the para division to broaden his opportunities in the sport. His coach encouraged him to get certified to compete in para rowing events last year.

Born in China, Pew was adopted in the United States when he was 18 months old. He credits his mom with getting him into the sport in seventh grade after quitting baseball. His mom knew a master rower through the adult rowing club and after getting into it, he’s hooked.

“I’m so integrated into this club, I can’t imagine not being in it,” Pew said.

“The first year I came here (2022), I didn’t know how far you could go,” he added. “It quickly became a goal of mine to make it to nationals, compete, represent the Rogue Valley down in Florida. I’m definitely super excited to finally fulfill that item on my bucket list.”

He’s also looking forward to reuniting with friends from around the United States he has met since starting the sport.

“We’re going to compete against three other boats, and it’ll be pretty cool,” Pew said.

Requejo, team captain of the Rogue Rowing Juniors, is poised to compete in June in Youth Single and Youth Quad (four-person boat) with Brownlee, Medley, and Dilansa. 

As a four-time nationals qualifier, Requejo recalls the humidity and the heat in Florida as well as the “hustle and bustle” of national competition.

“It’s just a much bigger regatta than anything we’ve ever been to (as a team), so making sure that we can stay focused on the boat and how we’re rowing instead of everything around us is really important,” she told Ashland.news via phone.

“We know how to row,” she added. “We do it every day, and making sure we don’t forget that is really important.”

Goal-wise, Requejo said she just wants the team to do their best, both in single and quad events.

“This is the second time I’ve been rowing a quad, and I think there’s something different about being able to row a quad at nationals than just a single,” Requejo said. “You’re bringing your teammates with you, which is really nice to have their support, and they’re going through the training with you.”

Requejo also is looking ahead to a bright future beyond the youth national competition.

“I’ve been recruited to row at Stanford, so this team has been very transformative for me,” she said. 

For Requejo, it all started with a summer camp at the age of 12.

“I started rowing right before COVID,” she said. “I wasn’t really wanting to do it, but I got into a boat the first day and loved it.”

Going to practice, seeing friends, getting a workout in, and getting outside were important to her.

“I’d say the most amazing time is in the morning when the sun hasn’t quite risen, so you get to see the first rays of light and the water is just glass,” Requejo said. “It’s really magical.”

That affinity for the water and sport have led her to give back, too.

“For my senior project, I started coaching a little bit, so I think whether it be rowing or coaching, I’m going to try and stay around it,” she said.

A culture of support

After sending the rowers out on the lake on Saturday, coaches Mattea Fountain and Jillian Deller each followed along in motorboats. Using a bullhorn, Fountain called out directions to rowers during their warm-up sequence on the water.

Fountain, a former coxswain herself, noted the athletes’ devotion to their sport and to each other.

“A lot of these kids wouldn’t be friends (otherwise) because they’re from different school districts, different grades. But because of rowing and spending so much time together, they’ve all gotten really close,” Fountain said. “The team has a really good culture, supporting each other no matter what. That’s been really special to watch.”

Fountain praised all of the athletes heading to nationals, and shared how the sport prepares them for life. 

“It gives you so many opportunities,” Fountain said. “Rowing is the no. 1 sport for scholarships for women.”

Two of the athletes headed to nationals this year have scholarships waiting for them after graduation.

“(Brownlee) … it’s only her second year in the sport and she got recruited to row for Washington State (University) and she’s going to nationals,” Fountain said. “She is so strong and has such amazing awareness.”

“Rowing is good as a sport to keep you in shape and to get you moving and outside and meeting people, but it’s also really good for life lessons and learning how to work with people and how to work hard,” Fountain added. “It’s just a great way to learn how to be a person and how to be responsible for yourself. I think I’d be a very different person if I hadn’t rowed in high school.”

Recruiting always open for the team

Rogue Rowing Juniors, formerly known as Ashland Rowing Club, rows at Emigrant Lake almost daily, with weekday morning and Saturday morning practices added in to prepare for nationals.

The club used to have more than 70 rowers in its ranks prior to 2020, according to Fountain. 

“After COVID, it kind of dwindled down, and we’re currently trying to rebuild,” Fountain said. “It’s a really cool sport. Getting to be out on the water in the afternoon … it’s really special, but it’s hard to convey that in schools. It’s hard to get our name out there.”

Coach Jillian Deller has been working with Rogue Valley schools, attending eighth grade open houses and P.E. and weight room classes to help spread the word about the team. No experience is necessary to join the team.

The team has two seasons, fall and spring, making it easy to work with athletes who are in different sports.

“We really do recruit all year-round,” Deller said, with summer and fall being among the most popular seasons to try it out.

To learn more about the fundraiser for their trip, visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/vqkqk-help-rogue-rowing-juniors-reach-nationals.

Donations pay for flights, food, registration fees, hauling boats (by Oregon Rowing Unlimited) and car rental fees while the team is at nationals.

To find out more about Rogue Rowing, visit https://www.roguerowing.org/about-us.

Rogue Rowing Juniors is also offering summer camps for youth ranging from eighth grade to senior year. To learn more, reach out to Fountain at [email protected].

Email Ashland.news staff reporter Holly Dillemuth at [email protected].

Fiorentina winger Nicolo Zaniolo could be facing a lengthy ban after Roma accused their former player of assaulting two youth team players.

The incident allegedly happened after Fiorentina beat Roma 2-1 in the Primavera youth league title play-off semi-final on Monday, with Zaniolo watching the game from the stands.

Zaniolo, who spent the 2023-24 season on loan at Aston Villa, denied any wrongdoing after Roma issued a statement on the “regrettable incident” but the Italian soccer federation reportedly opened an investigation on Tuesday.

“On the evening of May 26, at the end of the Primavera Fiorentina-AS Roma semi-final played at Viola Park, Nicolo Zaniolo (a player from the Fiorentina first team) illegally broke into the Roma locker room area, accompanied by an acquaintance, despite not having accreditation,” Roma’s statement read.

“According to witnesses, Zaniolo appeared visibly upset. He urinated in the facilities reserved for Roma, provoked the players and, without any verbal exchange, physically hit Mattia Almaviva and violently pushed Marco Litti against a bench.

“Litti was recovering from shoulder surgery. Both players were examined in hospital: Almaviva received a prognosis of 10 days, Litti 21 days.

“AS Roma expresses its full solidarity with its young players and is deeply outraged by the violent and unjustifiable behavior that occurred at Viola Park.

“We trust that the competent institutions will act decisively to ensure justice and protect the values ​​of Italian football.”

Zaniolo is on loan at Fiorentina from Galatasaray. He joined the Turkish team from Roma after five years at the capital club, during which he was named Serie A young player of the year in 2019.

“At the end of the match, I went down to the locker room to congratulate the Fiorentina boys and then I went to the Roma locker room to greet and congratulate them on their season too,” Zaniolo said in a statement released by Fiorentina.

“But at a certain point they started insulting me so, at that point, to prevent the situation from degenerating, I preferred to leave.”

Zaniolo apologises but was ‘provoked’

Zaniolo then took to his personal social media account on Tuesday to apologise for the incident but insisted his reaction was “provoked” and no “physically aggressive behaviour” was used.

“I want to apologise with all my heart for what happened yesterday,” he said on Instagram.

“I know I reacted in a bad way and I take full responsibility. I went there with the sole intention of sending a positive signal, of being close to the boys in a difficult moment after the match.

“Unfortunately, I was verbally provoked by a boy and, mistakenly, I lost my temper. It is a mistake that weighs on me, especially because I know I have to be an example for young people.

“However, I want to point out that the facts are far from what has been reconstructed and that on my part, apart from a verbal argument, there was no physically aggressive behaviour.

“I know I have disappointed with this episode, but I hope you can understand that it was not my intention to disrespect anyone.

“Having said that, I renew my apologies. As a man, as an athlete and as a person who loves this environment, I just want to rebuild and look ahead with humility.”

Zaniolo was considered one of Italy’s most promising prospects and made his international debut as a teenager in 2019.

But injuries derailed his career. He has not featured for Italy since being ruled out of last year’s European Championship after breaking his metatarsal while on loan at Villa in the penultimate match of the season.

Sky Sports to show 215 live PL games from next season

From next season, Sky Sports’ Premier League coverage will increase from 128 matches to at least 215 games exclusively live.

And 80 per cent of all televised Premier League games next season are on Sky Sports

After a tremendous run in the playoffs, the Lady Tigers softball team (31-11-1) were unable to solve the big bats of Kingswood. They fell in two 7-1 and 16-6. The youth on the team that delivered the goods means next year can be as good or better than this one.

In today’s youth sports world, young does not mean inexperienced. That world is like child labor because from a very young age they are expected to be playing or practicing the sport most of the year. The player’s parents have to foot the bill rather than getting paid. Most have played more games before they get to high school than they will play in high school. In fact, if they are not able to start or play a lot their freshman year they probably won’t.

The baseball team is following the path the Lady Tigers just got through with. After coming back from a 6-4 loss to Pharr-San Juan-Alamo in the opening round of the Regional finals, the Tigers made their four runs stand up for wins in the next two 4-1, 4-2. This puts Dripping Springs (2810) in the State semis opposite the Kingswood boys (36-3). They will be trying to break the jinx the Lady Tigers had. In the new format for state divisions, the state semis are not played at the state tourney any more. Instead the teams play at a neutral site, best of three this week. Winner plays for the title.

Vs K1: Big innings were common for Kingswood in the two games. They came out swinging in the first inning. Starting pitcher, Sadie Bradford could not get out of the first inning giving up 5 runs, including a homerun. The Lady Tigers got outhit 10-3, with Bradford getting two including a double and the lone run in the second. Lillian Wearden got the other. Bradford started the game: .2IP, 4H, 5R, 5ER, 1W, 0K, 1HR. Tatum Green finished: 5.1IP, 6H, 2R, 2ER, 0W, 1K.

Vs K2: The second game was brutal as the Lady Tigers were outhit 18-6. Kingswood opened the top half of the first with three and the Lady Tigers matched it in their half. Four more crossed the plate in the second but DS could only manage one to fall behind. Five more crossed in the third. DS scored twice in the fifth but Kingwood would instigate the run-rule in the sixth with four more.

Lorelei Gamble would finally get a few swings and came away with two hits, including a HR and RBI. Green had two hits as well. Morgan Crain had a hit and 3RBI; Jai-Lynn Flores 1H (rbi). Gianna Hauser RBI. Other runs were by Morgan Riley 2, Kira Preslar, Emma Phillips, Kelly Hatcher. On the mound for Lady Tigers: Bradford 2.1IP, 6H, 7R, 6ER, 1W, 1K, 2HR; Green: 1.2IP, 8H, 5R, 5ER, 1W, 0K, 2HR; Addy Knapp: 2.1IP, 4H, 4R, 4ER, 2W, 0K.

LADY TIGERS DOMINATE ALLDISTRICT 26-6A SELECTIONS 

As should be expected, the Dripping Springs Lady Tigers got their full quota of All-District players named at the meeting held with the coaches voting on the honors.

Special Honors

MVP: Lorelei Gamble (soph): .547BA, 52H, 66RBI, 13D, 5T, 23HR, 60W, 144TB, 1.516Slg.

Newcomer of the Year: Sadie Bradford (Fr): .324BA.

Coach of the Year: Wade Womack (DS) 31-11-1.

First Team

Tatum Green (So): .343BA.; Emma Phillips (Fr) .339BA; Taylor Crain (Sr) .263BA; Lauren Byrnes (So) .238BA.

Second Team

Elianna Amato (Jr) .272BA; Jai-Lynn Flores (Sr) .250BA.

Honorable Mention Lillian Wearden (So) .239BA; Kira Preslar (Jr) .320BA; McKenna Riley (So) .222BA.

Taylor Tracey swings for the pitch.