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Retired Community Manager

What sports did you play growing up?

According to Aspen Institute’s State of Play, over 3.6 million youth in the U.S. ages 13-17 played basketball in 2021. What sports did you play growing up?

 

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Contributor

Track and field and flag football

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Newbie

football,baseball,hockey,basketball,skiing

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Regular Contributor

I played baseball, basketball, football, and ran Track. I have also played carroms, billiards, darts, racquetball, foosball, volleyball, soccer, and ping pong. Growing up I was very active. I played at the nearby park from sun up to sun down. When I went to college I didn't know what field I wanted to major in. After assessing my life, and asking myself what made me happy. I received a Bachelor Degree in Kinesiology. I have been in the Parks & Recreation field for 45 years. I had decided I wanted to play for a living. And that is what I do! 🙂

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Contributor

Loved your reply.... I also played baseball, basketball, and ran track. No football ( I am female),  but played volleyball, soccer and ping pong.  I wish that I had been in Parks and Recreation, but I studied Accounting in college and that's the field that I worked in. Retired now!

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Contributor

I was truly blessed to have had parents to point me to play outside, make friends & be home by the time the street lights came on 🙂 I'm 63 now & still competing in tennis. Played so many different sports & loved every minute! Had 2 great gym teachers in Jr. High, Mr. Nelson & Mr. Griffin! They made sports so fun & interesting also! I still remember an answer to an extra credit question on a test they gave, that the definition for physical education is a form of education where systematical games & exercises are taught. Can I have my A+ one more time 🙂

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Contributor

flag football in the fall, basketball in the winter and baseball in the spring.  Track meets in summer.  I tried them all but grew to love basketball and track the most.

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Social Butterfly

When i grew up, back in the day, there were no organized sports.m we had to make our own games.  Choose up sides and play whatever was in season.  Kids of most all ages participated and we had a ball.  (No pun intended)

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Regular Contributor

Badminton, baseball. calisthenics (chin ups, jumping jacks, pushups, situps), football, hide-n-seek, ping pong, swimming, tetherball, track & field (high jump, long jump, races).  About 30 kids nearly all the same age in my neighborhood so teams were not a problem and individual events were competitive.  We had a lot of fun and plenty of good exercise.  We also dug many foxholes in vacant lots connected by covered tunnels and built forts (Christmas tree or wood) there.

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Newbie

Badminton,  tennis,  racquetball,  downhill, cross country,  and water skiing, volleyball.

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Periodic Contributor

I played base baseball until 12 and then both baseball and basketball in high school.  I also played flag football in college as well as basketball, volleyball, fast pitch softball and tennis. 

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Contributor

I played basketball in high school. That was back when women only played on half court. Softball in the summer and ran track as well.

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Regular Contributor

I just couldn't make myself play the stupid woman's basketball and we didn't even have that available at our school. No softball or track for the girls either. Just nothing. I graduated in '63 and it wasn't until the 70's before our schools offered girls anything. I was so happy and now they want boys to play with the. It's so wrong. 

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Honored Social Butterfly

I was on the first soccer team in our high school. We played private schools initially. We had no coach per se. Brought our own beverages to hydrate. Didn't have uniforms that matched. The second year, four public schools fielded teams locally, we had a coach and uniforms at this point. We came in second in the state championships. The third year, we won the state championship.

My only memory of those times were concerning my playing time once we got a coach. We had an Arab coach. Myself and the other two Jewish players got "0" playing time during the entire season, even in games where we were leading 6-0 with minutes to go. As everyone knows by now, leading 6-0 in soccer is like leading 72-0 in football. That coach eventually got fired after I graduated when it came to light publicly that he purposely treated Jewish players "differently" than the other players.

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Regular Contributor

That is so wrong. When I was in school there really were no organized sports for girls. I wanted to play baseball and basketball especially. Luckily I got to bowl. We did play sports in gym but that was it. As a young adult I started playing softball and did not stop until I was 60. 

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Honored Social Butterfly

@jacrane,

 

While I am not a woman, I do have a couple of humorous anecdotes, one involving bowling since you mentioned it. I was in a bowling league since age 10 and by the time I went to college, I was a pretty decent bowler, averaging about 170. I took a one semester class in bowling as a physical ed. requirement. Luckily, the instructor recognized that I was better than the rest of the class, so he made me an offer I couldn't refuse. He said he'd bowl a three game set against me. If I beat him, he would give me a "A", and I wouldn't have to attend class all semester. I beat him handily, he gave me the "A", but I attended class anyway because it was fun.

 

I had similar luck for another semester. I took a semester long physical ed. course in soccer. Having been on the team in high school as noted above, I was very familiar with the sport. Back then, few in the class knew anything about soccer. The instructor in this class made me his assistant, gave me "A", and I barely had to exert myself.

 

As far as my other classes, my luck ran out.

 

I graduated, but barely.

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Regular Contributor

I would have loved to have had a class on bowling. Love how you got the grades for it.

 

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Honored Social Butterfly

Yep, I was lucky. Our student union had an up to date 12 lane bowling alley in the basement. During the day, it was mostly classes in bowling, but was open at night for recreational purposes.

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Regular Contributor

I would have thought I died and went to heaven. I was lucky to have two bowling alleys that gave me very reduced rates to practice. One of them because I was part of the 14 year old girls team that took the nationals in Ca. The Michigan team won. The other cause the lady at the desk liked me. 

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