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Sizing Up Scoring

Youth-sports programs should match scorekeeping and competition to children’s age, development, enjoyment, and readiness for winning and losing.

4 min read

Photo Credit: NAYS

If you poll recreation professionals on the Top 10 issues they face in youth-sports programming, everything from parent behavior to coaches’ background checks make that list.

And near the top of that list is another headache-inducer: keeping score at games. That’s right--the age at which the score should be kept in youth sports is a hotly debated topic in the industry.

I recently received the following letter on this subject from Penny Hernandez, program coordinator for the city of Vacaville Community Services Department in California: