The playing field isn’t always level when it comes to youth sports. Access for kids and communities often depends on whether parents and families can afford the costs connected to teams, training and travel. Lea B. Olsen, a former college athlete with a career in sports, shares her how she found competitive basketball as a kid growing up in South Minneapolis. She talks about how the youth sports model has changed and anxiety’s impact on today’s young athletes.
The playing field isn’t always level when it comes to youth sports. Access for kids and communities often depends on whether parents and families can afford the costs connected to teams, training and travel. Lea B. Olsen, a former college athlete with a career in sports, shares her how she found competitive basketball as a kid growing up in South Minneapolis. She talks about how the youth sports model has changed and anxiety’s impact on today’s young athletes.
Hosts: Kari Haley, MD, and Steven Jackson, MD
Guest: Lea B. Olsen
HealthPartners website: Off the Charts podcast
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Kari Haley:
He's a rehab doctor from Chicago.
Steven Jackson:
She's an emergency medicine doctor from the Twin Cities.
Kari Haley:
Together, we're examining the health equity emergency.
Steven Jackson:
Inviting voices for change without the cue cards.
Kari Haley:
I'm Dr. Kari Haley.
Steven Jackson:
I'm Dr. Steven Jackson.
Both, together:
And this is "Off the Charts."
Steven Jackson:
Welcome to our show. Today we're going to be speaking with Lea B. Olsen about sports, business and life. Lea is a motivational speaker, sportscaster, so broadcaster, analyst, sideline reporter, all of the above, as well as a corporate board director and former collegiate athlete. Welcome, Lea Olsen. How are you today?
Lea B. Olsen:
I'm doing really well. Thank you for having me.
Steven Jackson:
Yeah. We appreciate your time. I appreciate the opportunity to sit down and speak with a celebrity, at least a celebrity to me. And would just love to know about your story. Tell us about just getting into sports and maybe your origin story.
Lea B. Olsen:
Well, my origin story for sports is really different than most people's because I didn't start playing sports till technically my junior year of high school. And I was 6-foot-1 at the age of 12, but I went to a school that did not have sports. So although I was very active and I played in sports and I played in gym class ... Back in the day you had gym class. You would play floor hockey, you would play volleyball, you would play whatever the gym teacher brought up. And so I did all of that and I was always really good at that. And I had three brothers that I played basketball with and eventually I think my brothers got tired of playing with me and they recommended that I transferred to a school that had real sports. So I went to (Minneapolis) South High and tried out for the team.
And I remember when I tried out, I was super excited and the coach was super excited to meet a 6-foot-1 athlete that he had not heard about. And then when he asked about my resume where I had played, I saw his face drop a little bit when I mentioned I had played in the backyard and in gym class and there was no teams, no formal teams. But what he saw was an athlete that was really raw in talent but had no bad habits. And so he was willing to take the extra time to teach me the game and that was the start. And as soon as I started playing, I knew that I wanted to stay in sports for as long as I could and then ended up having a career in sports. But yeah, so it's crazy to think because now that couldn't happen, really. You can't do it that way anymore.
Kari Haley:
Yeah. Just even thinking, I have a kid who plays soccer and they start them in this super competitive leagues so early on in their careers and everything. Can you talk a little bit about what you've seen through your own career and comparing how people do sports now and when there are inequities in that because of the way sports are really formed at such a young age with these high price tags a lot of the time as well?
Steven Jackson:
Yes.
Lea B. Olsen:
Yeah. I mean sports is really ... It's come down to the haves and haves-nots is how it really is. And as I was coming through, that wasn't the truth. Minneapolis schools were very strong in basketball and had football at the time. Back in the day even had hockey, even though that has come back around again. But because money wasn't the thing that was pushing it, and also everyone was starting at the same level, around the same age. It wasn't about traveling and it was about kids playing three sports. And so as all that has morphed, and my belief is it's not just the schools or the parents. I think we've had a societal shift and that shift is to be more competitive, to be a drive to get people into colleges that they can't afford and so everyone's desperate for scholarships.
So that focus is driving parents to put their kids into sports and want them to be in a single sport that entire time. And there are some positives to that, no doubt. I work in the WNBA and watching that league grow because of the way that young women have played sports has been really actually pretty cool to see. But those are the most elite athletes in the world. So that's about 15 people. So everybody else who plays sports is not going to have that experience, but they are going to have an experience that maybe isn't positive, that's probably more stressful than necessary and it's going to cost their parents a lot of money. Or they're going to be left out of that opportunity because their parents don't have money. So I think the system's really broken right now and I think it's really going to take a generation or two to change it because I think it's going to have to be another shift. And so just quickly ... But what you really see out of that is who suffers the most are kids in the inner cities or really far outstate that don't have money and they can't do that traveling around the country and they can't pay for those fees. And really if you're trying to move up in any sport right now, you have to be on a traveling team.
Steven Jackson:
It's definitely a different landscape. And I think about not only the financial pressures that are obviously more prevalent for some than others, but I also think about just the pressure from parents on kids. I don't know any numbers on this, but it seems to be a rise in fights with parents or umpires fighting parents on the field. There's just this drive for success and I just wonder how many kids are caught in the middle of that and it no longer becomes fun, but it's more of an obligation, almost like a job because "you're my ticket out of here."
Lea B. Olsen:
Yeah. It's real. I think sometimes the parents don't even know the pressure. I will say that in my own household, when my kids came through sports, my son was playing baseball at a pretty elite level as far as on the top traveling team and all of that. And what happens is you're just following everybody else and you're kind of doing the keeping up with the Joneses and you don't realize, "Oh, they got a trainer, let's get a trainer. Oh, they're doing extras on Sunday. They're doing an extra tournament." And so it's not like you're always thinking, I'm driving my kid to be this. You're just kind of trying to keep up with what's happening. And then one day we realized our son was exhausted. And when I took him to the doctor, it was simply just that he had played 115 games of baseball that year and he was just simply exhausted.
And so I think it's easy to fall into. Sometimes I think when we think about parents and what they're doing, we think of the craziest parent yelling and screaming and that parent is an issue and they are out there. But I think what most kids feel is there's just even an unsaid pressure around, we need you to do this and we're investing a lot of time and money in this, so we need you to do this at a high level. And that's not how athletes usually do it. Usually you fall in love with the game on your own because you just want to play and then you play a lot and then you start pushing yourself because you want to get to this next level. So those are the things that I think happen. There's just a lot when the pressure's coming from a different place rather than intrinsically.
Steven Jackson:
I have a daughter who's a pretty competitive ballet dancer and she's danced around the Twin Cities and she's ... And she'll hear this episode eventually. Sorry, dear. But she's had moments where she was mentally tired and she just wanted to do something else. "I just want to play volleyball this year." Or, "I just want to hang out with my friends." And that's fine, but I think sometimes there's also a reality that there is competition and if you don't do the summer intensive, maybe you won't get that part that leads to ... And it's a-
Lea B. Olsen:
That's the battle.
Steven Jackson:
Yeah. And it's tough because you want a kid to be a kid, but then you know some of the realities that they may not understand. Did you experience that in your own home?
Lea B. Olsen:
I did. I did. And it is that, how much is too much and when do you decide that I can't want it for them more or I can't push them so hard in it, but also giving them the opportunities and then trying to guide them that this probably will be a better track for you if you can do this. I think it's difficult and hard, and I think most kids find a balance in it. I will say that these young athletes coming through are the most anxiety ridden group of athletes that we've ever seen come through. They have more stress and anxiety and depression than any group of athletes. So it does impact them. And so the one thing I would say about that is I always like to tell people to check in with your athletes, ask them how they're doing. Why are you playing? Why are you performing? So you're making sure that they're OK in it still and that maybe there is some joy to be found in there and it's not just about getting to some point that they might not actually get to. But there has to be some joy and fun and excitement on the route there.
Kari Haley:
Yeah, it's such a balancing act and it's such a fine line. I'm just thinking too, as women in sports too, it's become much more of a commodity now. Even just, what, 20 years ago, women's sports didn't draw the crowds. They weren't bringing in the money, they weren't bringing in the advertisers. I mean probably still was very competitive, but it wasn't like this hyper, hyper-competitive because it wasn't as just well distributed and consumed by the norm. But now it's like almost every sport with women has a lot of that and there's a big push, which is awesome and it's great for women, but it also creates a new stressor or a new piece that is probably trickling down to now the young girls who are playing in their elementary school, their middle schools, their high schools. Since you work now with some of these younger athletes, what are you seeing? Do you see the effects of what has become with women's sports?
Lea B. Olsen:
Yeah. Well, I think again, the majority of it probably is really positive. Like we just saw Nebraska volleyball fill a stadium with 93,000 people, and that's phenomenal. That's empowering. It's impactful. So those things are all good. Women's sports are taking off and the opportunity has finally been given and now people are enjoying it and young women are the ones probably thriving the most in that. But what does come with that is yes, now it's becoming much more competitive. Now you're going to have to battle for those spaces and what may have been fun to you at one point now will become a stressor. I think back in the day when I was coming through, it was sports was supposed to just be fun until college. And then college is where you realize it was serious. People were losing jobs if you didn't win. All those types of things. Where now that's really been brought down to the really younger ages. And so again, I think I still am 100% an advocate of putting young girls into sports. I think it's one of my favorite things to see little girls being empowered, not just standing watching the boys do their thing. But I would say that the one thing I think people forget to do with young athletes is check in with them, give them breaks.
We call it the professionalization of youth sports where we try to treat them like professional athletes when they're not. And they're not just smaller athletes. They're young people who don't have the ability to play as much. They still need breaks, they still need rest. They have a whole different thing happening with them. So we can't drive them the same way we do our professional athletes. So I just remind people that often. And even if they don't get to exactly where they're going to go, that experience should be a really positive one for them to take wherever they do end up.
Kari Haley:
Yeah, I love that. And kind of just akin to thinking the parallels of medicine, we often say pediatrics are not just small adults. You have to treat them differently. You have to think about them differently. They have different pathophysiology. They have different psychology. So knowing that, learning that, if you're a parent or a coach and helping them thrive is so important.
Steven Jackson:
I've often had this following conversation in my home because of just what I would consider somewhat like a shift in the competition aspect of sports. And here it goes. So back in the day, if you got third place, you may get a third place ribbon or you may not get anything. And I don't know how it is nowadays. My kids are older now. But there was a time, and it may still be a time where everyone got a trophy. Everyone got a participation certificate because we're all winners. And I believe that. However, I think there are lessons to be learned from losing. There are lessons to be learned from failure. I mean the greatest basketball player to ever play the game in my opinion, Michael Jordan, was cut from his high school basketball team and he said that was probably one of the best things that could have happened to him. And so maybe putting you on the spot a little bit, Lea, what are your thoughts on allowing a kid to actually lose, not get a trophy, not get a certificate, and use that as a lesson to, hey, next time we'll work on this aspect of your game, or we'll try harder or those kinds of things. Because I think there is a balance and I'm conflicted, to be honest.
Lea B. Olsen:
Well, I think my point of view on it is I think everybody should have opportunities. So I believe across the board, whatever level you're at, you should have an opportunity to play. Now after that, then whatever team you're on, the one thing I always think about athletes is athletes always know who's the best. You just know when you're playing. So when we try to cover that and sugarcoat it and give you something that really belongs to another player, everybody knows it. So I'm not a big fan of ... I think it's absolutely fine for kids to fail in sports. It's a safe space for them to do it. It's almost why it's created. It's perfect for that. When you're standing on the free throw line, most people are going to miss, right? So that's where you learn, I want to get better because I don't want to miss so much when I'm standing on the free throw line. And that's how you get better at things.
So I am a big proponent of ... This is where parents struggle because parents can't bear to see their kids. And I'm with it too.
Steven Jackson:
It's tough.
Lea B. Olsen:
I get it.
Kari Haley:
It's hard.
Lea B. Olsen:
It's really hard. So one of the things I say to parents is talk to your kids about how they want you to show up at games. My son had said he preferred that I didn't yell at games, even if it was positive, like, "Go, Will! Go!" He was like, "Just because I hear your voice." And it's a powerful voice to him, so it can override a coach's voice. So for me to be able to do that, I had to sit at the scorer's table and physically be doing something else because it was really hard to not be active in that because I think it's so fun to watch your kids.
But I think that's why you see so many parents acting out and going way too far and why we have trouble getting officials now. I mean, there're going to be places where kids actually aren't going to be able to play because there aren't going to be officials and referees to do those games. So that's how out of pocket everyone's gotten with this. It makes me sad because really in the end it's just about everyone wanting success for their kids. And so there's obviously a real pressure that I think that we're all feeling from that.
Steven Jackson:
And sometimes you have the parent that maybe wasn't a great athlete, but they see something in their kids, so they live vicariously through their child and ... Yeah. But it is tough when you see your child not get the playing time that you know they deserve, or at least you think they deserve as a parent and no one wants to see their kid "wronged".
Lea B. Olsen:
Yeah. Well, and I say this too about sometimes parents can make things worse by ... There's never going to be enough time for all the athletes on the team. That's how sports are built. So the basketball team has five people out there, so you're going to have probably 10 to 12 people sitting there watching. But that bench matters and the bench is really important. And when you're involved in sports, you understand how important. And sometimes parents don't understand and value that position. So then when the kid goes home and then they hear the parent yelling saying, "You should be starting," it's devaluing them as a bench player. It's devaluing the game.
Steven Jackson:
That's a good point. That's a great point.
Lea B. Olsen:
And the importance of that role. And so parents sometimes miss that. That's part of them being part of the team in a different way. So I think those are the little things that we do as parents when we want more for our kids than just allowing them to have their own way through it.
Kari Haley:
I really like that because I feel like you hear that quite a bit as a parent. You hear the comments from the other parents or the group chat is going, "Why isn't little Tommy playing this and this? He only got two minutes." But I love the fact that ... In thinking, again, with equity, people have their roles on the team, especially in kids sports, but even up to the professional athletes, everyone has a role for their team. Some roles are not the starting players, but they're equally as important because it all adds to the team dynamic and it all adds to winning. Everyone on the bench, everyone on the field or the court, they help win a game.
Lea B. Olsen:
Yeah. If you look at all the greatest teams and you look at those bench players who had the hardest job to come in for five minutes and hit a big shot and be great and keep the defense up and then sit down and cheer for your teammates, that's what stabilizes teams. It really, really matters. And so I think sometimes if we can allow that ... I know for myself, I've had different roles on teams. When I was in high school, my years at (Minneapolis) South, I was a really good player. And then I went on to play in community college and I was one of the best community college players in the country. But then when I played at the University of Minnesota, now I jumped up to Division I, and now I was a regular player. And every time in those spaces you have a different role and you just kind of figure out how can I help the team from this angle and as this type of leader. But each one of those roles gave me confidence in myself and gave me something for me to grow as a person and so I think that's the other piece is just because your kid's sitting on the bench doesn't mean he or she isn't going to grow as a person or as an athlete.
Steven Jackson:
And you bring up a great point too because I think one of the things I love about sports is the many lessons that you can learn and translate into everyday life. And I'm just curious to know what are some highlights or some highlighted lessons that you've learned and have seen others learn through sports and their experience?
Lea B. Olsen:
Well, I would say for me it's pretty big because sports gave me my first confidence. As I said at the start of the show, I was 6-foot-1 at 12 years old, so I was always the tallest in the room and lanky and skinny and all those things. But when I got on a basketball court, all of a sudden this body had a great purpose and was doing great things and everyone was cheering. And so it really gave me a sense of purpose and confidence that I needed in high school. And so that was huge. I also loved working on a team with others, and that was just something ... I loved coming to school on Saturdays. We were the only people in the building. We get on the team bus, had the old school boombox playing
(singing) "It's ba-sket-ball."
Having all this fun, we're doing all this stuff. But it was like this sense of we were doing something bigger than ourselves. The first time I felt that as a young person was when I started playing sports. So sports allowed me to feel that way. I think also leadership roles, because it's happened supernaturally in sports. The best player on the team can only be the leader who leads in that way. They're the only player who can be like, "I'm leading just because I'm better than everybody else." But then there's going to be the player who's just that vocal, charismatic person that brings ... And that player can be a bench player, can be a starter. And then you usually have the work ethic guy who's just the person who works harder than everybody else, and-
Steven Jackson:
They might be the quietest.
Lea B. Olsen:
Yes. And so there's all these real natural leadership roles that you can find for yourself. And those are the same things in the workforce. You're sitting around with a group of people at work, there's just certain people who lead a certain way. So it's all those same things that translate into the work world, but in the sports world, they happen just very naturally.
Kari Haley:
And that is a good segue. I am wondering too, if you would like to speak to a little bit, that transition. So people who've done sports or they've done collegiate or they've done high club sports or something even at a young age, at some point you need to transition out of that not being all your everything. What kind of lessons or what kind of recommendations or advice do you have for people making that transition? And how do you pull in your lessons into now you're in the corporate world or now you're doing your nine to five? How do you pull those lessons in then still get that enjoyment?
Lea B. Olsen:
Well, it's really hard. I'll say most athletes struggle with it. And really at every level, whatever level, because I mean look at Tom Brady. Everyone hates stopping. It's such a unique thing to be able to do, to play on a team or to be in an individual sport, that when it ends, it's hard to find something that will make you feel that same way. But for female athletes, what's so amazing is that the statistics are just amazing on how successful they are post sports. And it's not just collegiate athletes, it's girls who have played sports at every level tend to be more successful than non-athletes, females later in life. So I just think it's just that sense of knowing how to prioritize your schedule and do a lot and have a great work ethic and all these things that come with being on teams. For male athletes, I think one of the differences is that they tend to go on ... Especially professional athletes, they make so much more money.
They're such bigger celebrities, so it's a different thing when they're coming down from that because that can be a big hit. And so that space is a little different, I think. But I think if we were just to look at collegiate athletes when they're done, I think it's really important to take the time to think about what do I do next? How do I use all these things that I've learned and how do I just set that experience away? But it's always going to be part of me. There's a really cool organization called Her Next Play that works with female athletes around this. And because they know that they sometimes need help with the transition, but the skillset is really there because you've had it through sports. It definitely is a real thing though that coming down from sports can be hard.
Steven Jackson:
I often wonder if ... And it's not an uncommon or a strange concept, but I think after doing something for so long and maybe you're getting recognition, awards, money, it almost becomes part of your identity. And now it's like, well, I can't do anything but play this fill in the blank sport. Or who am I if I don't play? And I can imagine that being a difficult transition. I wonder if there's an opportunity or any value in maybe having that conversation early as opposed to the last year of your contract. Maybe somewhere in the middle. You might not do this forever. Father Time is undefeated. So just a thought. I know for me-
Lea B. Olsen:
It's hard. Athletes, I think you do tell them all the time. I know in the pros when rookies come in, you try to give them this information and they do hear it. But when you're young and you're hearing that, it just doesn't quite hit you the same because you're like, "What are you talking about? I'm at the prime. I'm doing-"
Steven Jackson:
I'm invincible.
Lea B. Olsen:
Yeah, it's hard.
Kari Haley:
"I'm 20, and I can do everything."
Lea B. Olsen:
Exactly.
Steven Jackson:
That's right.
Lea B. Olsen:
Yeah. So those lessons are hard sometimes to learn ahead of time. But I think the balance is if you are a collegiate athlete, then you need to really be going to school and really be making sure you're learning. Because I think that's where you see a real issue is when you're done. And if you haven't done the actual student part of the student athlete, which has been quite a few athletes, then you're left really with a void that's like, "Uh-oh. I missed a great opportunity. I may have been used by the system and now how do I feel?" And there is a weird sense for athletes. It's like the day that you leave campus and you're done, it's like people look at you differently all of a sudden. You're not that person anymore. And so there definitely is an identity piece that can take a pretty good hit.
Steven Jackson:
As we think about equity and as we think about giving everybody an opportunity to play or experience the competitive environment in sports, how can we spread the love, so to speak? How can we get all people, all kids an opportunity to be exposed to sports and maybe a club team or a camp or something? Because obviously it comes down to exposure, and sometimes that comes down to your wherewithal, your financial status. What are some things that we can think about doing differently as we go forward?
Lea B. Olsen:
I think we have to look within our own communities for that, because back in the day, it really was like you were just going to the park to play. Well, we know that is not how our society works anymore. Kids just don't go out the door and play. But community centers do provide sports for kids. And supporting that and making sure that that still exists. Because what happens in traveling is, for the obvious reasons, the traveling becomes too expensive. But if you can always have an in-house space for kids ... And the problem is inherently kids see it as lesser because they know that, well, they're all going over here and I'm coming in. But if you can create an environment that's positive, with good coaching, that has good programs, I have seen that in various areas, that really becomes ... It's almost like that becomes even more powerful when you start building that up again, because in the end, sometimes people don't want to have to travel their kids all the time. So I think that is a big part of it. Yeah, you get your life back a little bit. But is really being aware of how can we support local programs that are supporting the kids in those communities.
Kari Haley:
Well, I think just kind of thinking about in closing here, I feel like we barely skimmed the surface of all the things that we could touch on with you, and hopefully we can have you back for another episode at some point in time.
Lea B. Olsen:
Of course.
Steven Jackson:
Please, please, please.
Kari Haley:
But I think just in closing, if you were to talk to a kid who didn't have access to sports but maybe had the interest or had the drive, what would you tell them and what kind of words would you give them and maybe even their parents of how to get involved, what they can do or the motivation that they need?
Lea B. Olsen:
I think really trying to track down. You're going to have to have some due diligence in just trying to find programs. There are programs out there that serve kids that can't afford to play. And every traveling team, they don't usually publicize it, but most of them are supposed to have access for kids who can't afford to play. So just making sure you ask. If you are trying to get your kid on the traveling team and they've made it, that you then go ... And this is sometimes difficult for parents to have to ask for help in that way, but at least asking the question, are there scholarships available? Is there something our child can do to earn that money? And just making sure to ask those questions.
Steven Jackson:
Yeah. Well, we appreciate your time. Being a big sports fan, I could talk all day about sports.
Lea B. Olsen:
There's lots to talk about.
Steven Jackson:
There is. But really appreciate what you do. Thank you for just setting such a great example and giving kids hope. Those that don't have much of a voice. I think a lot of people will hear this episode and be inspired and maybe inspired to change. So thank you so much.
Lea B. Olsen:
Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. And yeah, I would say keep putting your kids in sports and keep supporting them and stop yelling at officials.
Steven Jackson:
I was just about to say that.
Kari Haley:
Key point.
Steven Jackson:
That was to me. That was for me. Thank you.
Lea B. Olsen:
That was for you.
Steven Jackson:
"Off the Charts" is a production of HealthPartners and Park Nicollet.
Kari Haley:
It is recorded by Jimmy Bellamy, with creative by Peggy Arnson, Tina Long, Tim Myers and Jeff Jondahl.
Steven Jackson:
Production service is provided by Matriarch Digital Media.
Kari Haley:
Our theme music is by Ryan Ike.