Time is getting short and there are still slots to fill. If you are among the many-more-than-organizers-think who are neither internet aficionados nor Times’ readers who haven’t signed up to help out at the B.C. Seniors Games starting next week, call 365-2211 and make the offer.
It isn’t all weekend work, and won’t require much blood and tears - a little sweat, maybe - and it will be a big boost to many of your friends and neighbours - who are organizing or competing or volunteering in their attempt to make the event a summer highlight for participants from all over the province - and for many local business owners and employees.
There is some rigamarole involved, I suppose.
I may have been remiss by just offering the coordinator of one of the events my help early on without officially registering right away. With time getting shorter and my having heard nothing in the meantime, I eventually went on the, “official,” site and now await a response.
The sport I thought I had volunteered for wasn’t even on the list, but, I have what time I have and will help out where I am able.
You should, too, but you will likely have to be proactive in some way to get involved.
I don’t suppose we should be surprised, but the signing of a 14-month old Dutch boy to a professional soccer team took me aback. You thought the seven-year old in Spain was a shocker, right?
One wonders what parents are thinking about when attaching their toddlers hopes, dreams and future to some commercial enterprise that young, but it is more common than you might realize.
I think back to being appalled when hearing at a BCAHA convention 20 years ago, from a big time Western Hockey League mover and shaker, that a child needed to decide by age 12 whether, “he wants to be a hockey player,” or not.
That advice included focusing 24-7-365 on hockey development at least from that age, whether to the detriment of education or any other interests or not.
Then I was further disillusioned to hear that hockey icon Bobby Orr was going door-to-door recruiting 14-year olds to his sports agency.
But at least the young people in these examples had double digits to their birthday credits.
Fourteen months? Seven years? Neither, so far, can actually play as a pro until age 16, but what are the chances such things as homework will be shelved by these tots, “Because I have to practice for my future career?”
There are few examples of such narrow focus working out for a kid. Moses Malone came out of high school reading at a fourth grade level but went on to earn millions in the NBA. Eddie Shack had a learning disability which left him almost totally illiterate but compiled a strong career resume in both hockey and business.
Are those enough examples, however, to encourage guardians to go all-in-early with that big-bucks-in-sports flow?
For at least some parents - apparently.