Sports: Misspent Youth and Money

* Although I wholly support youth sports and a bit of healthy competition, parents such as Tommie and Arthur Alcaraz (“Bucking for an Advantage,” Feb. 27) did not spend their money on the weekend recreation of their children but rather exploited the athletic ability of their children to garner a college scholarship.

At about the high school level, just when the kids are beginning to get burned out and have more interesting social functions to attend, parents’ monetary investment in their children’s sport is too great to permit them to quit. Sadly, these children are pressured into continuing.

If college is the ultimate goal, then let them enter these institutions based upon their own academic merit--spend the $161,000 on supplementing their education rather than teaching them the intricacies of how to swing a bat and run bases.

TAMARA ASADA

Irvine