ABSTRACT
Playing soccer has been a role that has dominated Tyler Ward's life, with his father Kevin, an affluent financier, his fervent supporter. Signed up at age 2 for a toddler soccer class, Tyler joined an actual league at 3, and two years later was designated one of the 15 best players on the 6-and-under team and joined the so-called 'pre-travel' program. This chapter examines the three principal categories of participants in youthful organized sports, namely the players themselves, parents, and coaches, and also focuses on several contentious issues that arise in these programs, such as, playing time, injury, and early specialization. Some sports seem to lend themselves better than others to youthful participation. It is apparent that parents' behavior is influential in the area of sports programming. A dysfunction is a disruptive or destabilizing consequence produced by an individual, group, or situation and affecting a particular group or society.
