I'm not necessarily talking about organized sport, just that they should be playing pick up sports regularly for health reasons.
High schoolers should have an hour of gym class every day of the week . IMO.
That may be the difference between the "old days" and now.
When I was under 20, way back in the 1950's and 60's in Winnipeg, pick-up games were the norm. Really talented guys got more serious with organized and league sports, as well as high school and University teams.
But for regular less talented guys like me, pick-up games were the way to go, whether it was outdoor hockey almost every winter evening at various city community clubs with no defined teams, no "checking", and no "lifters", or "work your way up" baseball games at large enough empty school playgrounds almost every summer evening after hours.
Even football games were played as "touch" games without helmets or other protective equipment, although for those we would choose teams at the start of each game.
All with no coaches, refs, umpires, or parental audiences.
Nowadays it seems that kids are either involved in scheduled and organized team sports with coaches, etc., sometimes with league play, or they don't bother at all...
