When USC head coach Lane Kiffin offered a football scholarship and subsequently received a verbal commitment from 13-year old quarterback prodigy David Sills this past February, a common reaction in the sports media went sort of like this.
When I first came across this story, I must admit, I too was uneasy about a seventh grader receiving and accepting a scholarship offer from a major college football power at such a young age. After all, history is replete with child prodigies who made successful transitions to adult accomplishment, but there are as many, if not more, who did not. In this context, several thoughts came quickly to mind.
I reflected on how I would react if my 2 1/2-year old son was in the same position. I concluded that if USC was my son’s dream school and USC‘s head coach and my son’s personal coach thought he already had the ability to receive a college football scholarship in four years…why wouldn’t we accept the offer? The maturity level of a 13-year old boy (or lack of) is usually unquestioned. But, if such an important decision is made in conjunction with sound parental deliberation and a nurturing environment that enables a child to gently develop his or her talent, would this be any less of an informed decision?
On one hand, there is little doubt that Sills was deserving of the offer. Steve Clarkson, is Sills’ personal coach and he believes Sills is physically and mentally (in a football sense) qualified to receive a USC offer:
"His skill set is off the chart," Clarkson said. "I've never seen anyone at his age do what he's been able to do."
The commitment has happened in college basketball previously, but is unprecedented for college football where it's harder to project how a player as young as Sills will develop physically. Clarkson says that won't be a problem.
"He's already six feet as a 13-year old," Clarkson said. "And he's breaking down NFL footage."
But on the other hand, a troubling question remains: is it possible to nurture Sills’ talent in a way that allows him to develop his special talent in an emotionally healthy way?
As a very bright and gifted child, Alissa Quart, now an adult, sought out former prodigies and gifted kids, as well as the parents of high-achieving children while researching her book Hothouse Kids: The Dilemma of the Gifted Child and offered some commonsense advice about raising gifted children:
"Designating children as gifted, especially extremely gifted, and cultivating that giftedness may be not only a waste of money, but positively harmful," she writes. "The overcultivated can develop self-esteem problems and performance anxiety.”
…[In a in a September 2006 interview with Time, Quart shares that parents should] Emphasize the work in itself, the process itself, the activity. The kids are trying, they're doing a good job, they're learning how to do something. Each thing they do is discrete; it's not part of a larger identity of being spectacular."
Obviously, Lane Kiffin is not suggesting that a 13-year old boy is ready to join his football team now and compete at a high level in elite college football. Nor is he suggesting that Sills’ verbal commitment is binding; signing a letter of intent to attend USC is—which Sills must sign when he is a high school senior. But, getting a head start on your competitors for the services of a young talent is not illegal nor unethical. At the very worst, especially if Sills does not have the appropriate support system in place, it can potentially lead to stunting the emotional well-being of this young man.
When the vision of THE GAME was conceived we wanted to create an open, flexible and extensible framework on which THE GAME could be built:
“THE GAME framework is simple: participants include anyone and everyone; THE GAME consists of anything and everything; THE GAME takes place anywhere and everywhere; THE GAME takes place at anytime and everytime; THE GAME participants can participate in any way and every way.”
This idea of openness has not changed. The beauty of THE GAME is that as a decentralized body, as it grows and becomes more complex, THE GAME is able to nimbly evolve and refine itself in specific ways that a large bureaucratic organization cannot.
A primary goal of THE GAME will continue to be a platform in which “anyone and everyone” (young, gifted or otherwise) can engage with others (who may happen to be younger or older) in one or more of the vast collection of nodes; while providing a safe and fun experience for everyone involved.
This decentralized framework of THE GAME is destined for abuse and being taken advantage of if not combined with a well-written and enforceable user policy. So we will be debuting a GAME site in the very near future that will feature the following:
- allow user policies and precedents to be proposed and discussed.
- a freely accessible and searchable rule and guideline database.
- systems and processes that will enable our users to propose and implement improvements and modifications.
This proposed site will also host an interim GAME enforcement entity while a more permanent organization is assembled.
So, we want to see gifted children like David Sills have an opportunity to compete in any venue in THE GAME he chooses, but we want him to do it in a way that is ultimately not detrimental to him or his family.
