Recreational sports such as Little League and Munchkin soccer programs are staples in most towns, with little kids running around in jerseys hanging below their knees and eating orange slices at halftime. It seems as though this weekend activity could do no harm in a child’s life, but some CHS students tell a different tale.

With over 36 million playing sports, according to Statistic Brain, there are mixed views on the forced participation in sports from a young age in the CHS halls. Some students feel that playing sports from a young age helped them transition more easily into the competitive sports world, while others do not see a need to force their involvement.

Sophomore Meredith Prud’homme of Ocean believes that enrolling her in plenty of sports as a young child was the best thing her parents could’ve done.

But, Prud’homme feels that in order to give the child some say in which sport they want to take up seriously, parents should enroll them in multiple sports from the beginning and let them choose.

“Having parents sign their kids up for a lot of sports is good overall because it leads these kids to become well-rounded people and athlete[s]. To me, it seems unfair to a child to only ask them to focus on one sport so early on. I think that multiple sports and the ability to choose one to hone in on is extremely important in this being an effective method of parenting,” Prud’homme said.

Senior Brandon Kalika of Middletown also saw positive effects of his being forced into playing a sport.

“I had an advantage over others since I’ve played for so long and my hard work paid off because in my senior season, we made the second rounds of the Shore Conference tournaments, states and I also won the MVP award for that season so I am happy I pursued soccer for so long,” Kalika said.

Junior Tali Petto of Marlboro is thankful that she was not placed into sports as a young child.

“I just feel as though it’s not necessary at such a young age because the kids don’t have a choice and are extremely prone to injury,” Petto said.

Although the halls of CHS bear conflicting opinions on forced participation in youth athletics, most students seem to be happy with the decision that their parents made for them.