Being Quick To Anoint Leads To Faulty Expectations
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Roger Grossman, Lake City Radio-
So Jordan Spieth put the sports world on its proverbial ‘ear’ Sunday by completing a dominant win at the Masters Golf tournament. He started with an opening-round 64, then backed that up with 66, 70 and 70 to win his first major championship at the age of 21. He set the tournament record for lowest score after each round of golf’s biggest event on its most grand stage, and he’s the only golfer to ever have a “-19” placard hanging next to his name on the leaderboard. So what was coming next was predictable. The pundits began to put Spieth’s career into historical perspective and chart the path for his career to its conclusion … then they hit “SEND” as fast as they could. But there’s one tiny little problem – HE’S 21 YEARS OLD! We are so obsessed with finding and hailing “the next (insert legend here)” that we forget that the kid is just starting. What makes a legend is time, and at age 21 a kid like Spieth hasn’t given enough time to his craft for us to really know what he’s capable of. He IS off to a really good start though. The point is, Spieth’s shadow had barely started to follow him on that walk up the 18th fairway when the media was trying to make him the next Tiger Woods. Look, I have lost my interest in Tiger (see last week’s column), but at his prime Tiger was better than anyone had ever been, and that includes my favorite, Jack Nicklaus. But remember when Tiger started winning majors at a rate of two or three a year, the media anointed him “the next Jack Nicklaus.” That was totally unfair to both of them. It takes time to earn those kinds of labels. But we, and fans must include themselves in this, are constantly looking for ‘the next big thing’. We want to find the next Michael Jordan, the next Emmitt Smith, the next Joe Montana … and someday we will be scouring football to find the next Tom Brady or Peyton Manning. Why? Because we need to feel like we are part of something bigger than we are. This is not a national phenomenon. It happens right here in Kosciusko County too. Kevin Ault was the “next Jeff Grose.” Nic Moore was the “next Kevin Ault.” And here’s where the problem comes in. At some point some kid (boy or girl) is going to come along and they will get hyped up by their play in middle school and the expectations will be through-the-roof when they become a high school freshman. “He’s the next Nic Moore” they will say. Then what? Then that kid has to try to live up to that expectation set by others. Question: What happens if those expectations were totally off? I don’t play the stock market, but those who do know that one of the things that hurts a stock most is when it “doesn’t meet Wall Street expectations.” Well, whose fault is THAT? If the expectations were set too high to begin with and the product doesn’t match up, does that automatically mean the product failed? Nope. Now, part of the problem we have with high school athletes and expectations is that parents stop acting like parents and instead work as agents on behalf of their children. They bring upon their own kids the pressure of expectations by moving their kids (or by making it known they might move them) to other school districts to increase visibility, improve college scholarship opportunities and put them into “better athletic situations”. When parents do that, they aren’t likely to do it without an expectation that their child’s role on their new team will be a significant upgrade from where they’ve perceived it to be at the previous school. That leads to unfair expectations, and I am ‘selling that stock’. Does that mean the kid didn’t have a great career or maximize their potential? No it does not. I am sure that there are parents who have dreams of their girl being the next Shanna Zolman. Guess what? THERE WILL NEVER BE ANOTHER SHANNA ZOLMAN! Outstanding players? Undoubtedly. Miss Basketballs? Quite Possibly. Shanna Zolman? Really? I don’t think so. It’s great to have goals, but goals and expectations are NOT the same thing. You can move your kid to another school to make expectations happen, but 99 percent of the time it doesn’t work out that way. The kids must then deal with the stress of making new friends (and often playing against their old ones), and most of the time they end up playing at the same level of college they would have if they had stayed where they were. So, Spieth is the Masters champion, and his career is trending up and to the right. But let’s allow this kid’s career to play out a little more before we break the jar and anoint him the new king of golf. And let your kids do the same, too.
