CHILD'S PLAY

Author(s):    Joe Burris, Globe Staff Date: June 27, 2004 Page: C17 Section: Sports

Tiger Woods's parents helped produce the phenomenon. They introduced him to golf at an early age and discovered what the world now knows, that he was physically gifted beyond his years. Nowadays, many parents do similar things, and the result is a growing number of gifted teenage athletes who are responsible for a new golden rule in professional sports.

Why wait? Can you imagine if 14-year-old Michelle Wie had waited her turn, languishing on the junior golf circuit, outclassing players her age, when she's clearly able to compete at the LPGA level? She never would have received that special exemption into the US Women's Open, which will be played at The Orchards Golf Club in South Hadley this week.

Or what if 15-year-old soccer sensation Freddy Adu of D.C. United, who has held his own in his rookie season in Major League Soccer - often against players twice his age - had stuck to youth soccer? He certainly wouldn't have those lucrative endorsement deals with Nike, Pepsi, and Campbell's.

And there were a record eight high school players selected in last week's NBA Draft, including the Celtics' first pick, Al Jefferson, 19, of Prentiss, Miss.

Indeed, there's a youth movement that appears to be pervading sports.

"Kids just get better younger now because of all of the training," said Dan Doyle, founder and executive director of the Institute of International Sport in Kingston, R.I. "If you look at guys like Bob Cousy and Bill Russell, they didn't have anywhere near the training these guys have. They didn't have basketball camps."

Doyle is working on a book, "The Encyclopedia of Sports Parenting," and has compiled data that appear to point to why athletes are competing at top levels at such early ages.

"We've done a lot of research on time commitment of amateur athletes, and we've found that even as recently as a decade ago the time commitment was 65-70 percent of what it is today," said Doyle. "Kids are in an 11 1/2- to 12-month training regimen in sports.

"It's very common in sports such as tennis or swimming, even in kids in the 6- or 7-year-old range. When you get to team sports like basketball and soccer, we're finding that the 11-month regimen is absolutely the norm."

These athletes scoff at folks who ask, how young is too young?

"Age doesn't mean anything in this sport," said outfielder Delmon Young, who at age 17 was the No. 1 pick in the 2003 baseball draft by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. "You see 20-year-olds dominating the big leagues and you see 40-year-olds dominating the big leagues. You always have to keep your confidence up that you're going to get there when you think you should, or else you shouldn't be playing the game anymore."

Wie and Adu are the most visible, but athletic wunderkinds are everywhere.

* In Atlanta, 14-year-old tennis star Donald Young has vaulted to eye-popping heights, capturing this year's Easter Bowl boys' 18 singles title, the youngest to do so. Last year he became the first American since Jim Courier to win the Orange Bowl 16s championship. He also played his first professional match this year, losing in the opening round of a USTA event.

"I read about [Wie and Adu], I like the things they're doing, but I don't compare myself," said Young. "I like beating older people, and now I'm coming closer in age range to the pros, but age doesn't matter."

* In Canada, the player being hailed as the next Wayne Gretzky is center Sidney Crosby, who last season became the first 16-year-old to win the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League scoring title (135 points) en route to becoming Rookie of the Year, Offensive Player of the Year, and Most Valuable Player.

* Swimmer Michael Phelps was the youngest American competitor at the 2000 Olympics (15), and the following year he became the youngest male to set a swimming world record, in the 200-meter butterfly at the Spring Nationals when he was 15 years 9 months.

* LeBron James, 19, and Carmelo Anthony, 20, made a major impact in the NBA this past season. Darko Milicic, who just turned 19 on June 20, was the second overall pick in last year's draft (between James and Anthony) and earned a ring with the world champion Detroit Pistons, becoming the youngest player to appear in the NBA Finals.

* Bruins center Patrice Bergeron, who turns 19 on July 24, was the youngest player in the NHL last season and was more than four years younger than the team's next-youngest player.

His racket makes noise

When Illona Young saw her son was dominating younger competitors, she asked herself, "Why wait?"

He played in his first tournament at age 6, against a 10-year-old. By age 8, he was beating 10-year-olds regularly, and when he turned 10, he won the boys' 10 singles title at the 1999 ATA national championships. From there, it's been a steady progression of tournament victories and higher rankings.

"When he was young, they thought he was cute; when he started playing 12-year-olds when he was 9, then it was an issue," said Illona, who also serves as his coach. "Last year, when we played Midwest 18s, I got all kinds of calls. People said, `Why not put him in 16s?' They wanted to put him there even though the deadline had passed.

"We said that we have put him in a situation where he has the best competitive chance to play. He beat boys on their way to college, and that's when we stopped playing Midwest 18s and went to nationals and internationals."

Young accepted a wild card to play in the French Open juniors and competed in the 18-and-under division two months before his 15th birthday (he lost in the first round). He is taking advantage of a new rule that allows professionals to play in USTA junior events.

The approach is somewhat different for Wie, who has remained an amateur despite her strong performances in LPGA events and the constant presence of equipment-makers waiting to offer her endorsement deals.

"Sometimes, if someone gives you like $50 million, it's kind of hard to say no," she said. "But, I really don't want to accept that money right now and then feel really burdened and just like drop out of golf. I think that I should wait. I think big money should be handled by mature people, and right now I am a little bit too immature for that big of a money. I feel like I really have to go to college to be mature enough. I don't want to turn professional way too early."

And so her father, B.J., and his wife, Bo, have spent their own money, much of it from their savings for Michelle's college tuition, to pay for her travel from tournament to tournament.

"She is chasing her dream," B.J. said. "We have to support her."

Lessons and warnings

Delmon Young, who is currently playing for the Charleston RiverDogs in the Single A South Atlantic League, said he learned from the pitfalls as well as successes of his older brother, Dmitri Young of the Detroit Tigers.

"Watching him over the years in the minor leagues, it seemed like he really didn't care how fast he moved up, and they weren't going to move him up to the big leagues, where he wanted to be, if he didn't take care of himself and [take] care of things on the field," said Young. "He got serious and won the batting title in Triple A, and then he started moving faster."

Said RiverDogs manager Steve Livesey: "I've been impressed with an 18-year-old kid going from high school to the South Atlantic League. I've been impressed with him offensively and defensively. He can hit with power to all fields and he has a real good outlook. He doesn't get too high or too low.

"It still takes a special kid to be able to jump from high school to this level and have success. You need a lot of poise and confidence because there are going to be struggles. I don't care who you are."

Players like Delmon Young and Bergeron have been able to keep up with the grueling demands of their sports, and because of that, their age is not a factor.

"It was a great experience for me to play at that age," said Bergeron. "I knew that I had to learn something and I just tried to do my thing and I didn't speak too loud and I learned from [older teammates]. I think that's what they expect from a young guy, and all the veterans helped me out."

For players like Adu and Donald Young, going up against older competition has had its problems, too.

At 5 feet 8 inches, 140 pounds, Adu is among the smaller players in MLS, and he has complained about the physical nature of play. For Young, tennis often takes a toll on his body and he may need more time to recover than older players. According to Illona Young, Donald sometimes needs as much as three extra hours of sleep on days he plays.

Former Cleveland Browns linebacker Jamir Miller can relate to that. Miller began playing at UCLA as a redshirt freshman and completed three seasons in college before entering the National Football League draft in 1994. He was selected as a 20-year-old by the Arizona Cardinals, the 10th overall pick. According to the NFL Players Association, he is believed to be the youngest player drafted since the NFL's merger with the American Football League 35 years ago.

"One thing I found out was that after practice I was dead tired and I had to go home and go to sleep," said Miller, who after nine productive seasons in the league retired last year, partly because of an Achilles' tendon injury.

"Everyone matures differently. Everyone mentally and physically plateaus at different points in their lives. You have to be mature enough to handle responsibilities off the field, such as paying bills and other things besides rent. Extra stuff is there, and it's there in abundance.

"It takes a strong-minded individual at 25 to be able to handle the NFL. I know 33-year-old guys who still can't handle it."

Indeed, pro football appears to be adamant about enforcing its eligibility requirement, which says that players must be three years out of high school to be draft-eligible. Just this year, Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett and Southern Cal wide receiver Mike Williams challenged that rule, but after much legal wrangling, they were denied in their attempt to enter the NFL draft.

Not many Mozarts

In addition to the physical demands of professional athletics, there are psychological and emotional challenges, as Miller alludes to. At very young ages, one such challenge can be handling the pressure applied by unrealistic parents.

Child psychiatrist Dr. Alvin Rosenfeld, author of "The Overscheduled Child: Avoiding the Hyper-Parenting Trap," said that for the rare elite young athlete, there is nothing inherently wrong with playing top-level sports. The problem, he said, is the growing number of unrealistic parents. At the first sign of talent, they can believe they have the next Tiger Woods on their hands and wage an all-out effort to develop a prodigy.

Because of such expectations, Rosenfeld said, structured sports time has doubled over the last 20 years, while unstructured children's activities have declined 50 percent, family dinners have declined 33 percent, and family vacations have declined 28 percent.

"Parenting is now America's most competitive adult sport," he said. "For Freddy Adu, it's a good thing, but as a model, a Tiger Woods model is very, very destructive. Most of these kids are not Mozarts, and what we're doing is turning sports from something that should be fun into something that's all about winning."

For parents who insist they will never know whether their children are athletic Mozarts unless they take steps to develop their talents, Rosenfeld said, "You will know very early. Everyone knew Freddy Adu was a talent right away. It's very, very rare, I promise you. But then, kids in the next five tiers will be seduced into thinking they are."

Ironically, these increased numbers in younger professional athletes come at a time when the nation's youth is decried as being overweight and lacking in exercise.

Said Doyle, "It's almost as if we're heading toward two categories of young people: highly gifted athletes who stay physically fit, and the youngster who tries a sport and doesn't succeed and quits at 14. They don't play competitive sports or see it as a value to stay physically fit."

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