Amy Roegler and her husband Octavio Herrera live with their young kids, Jake and Alyssa, in Los Angeles. So, when it comes to pro baseball, they’re all Dodgers fans. And Jake loved balls even as a baby, Octavio says.
“We have a picture of him as a 3-month-old with a little Dodger jersey and a glove,” Octavio says. “So he was definitely going to be introduced to sports early, and he took to it right away.” Today 10-year-old Jake is on his baseball league’s All-Star team.
Meanwhile his sister, 8-year-old Alyssa, has a passion for gymnastics. She, too, was a natural, her parents say — swinging on the monkey bars at age 2, and practicing the splits on a balance beam today.
The parents know that the physical exercise their kids are getting is good for their health. But that’s not their only motivation for encouraging the children to participate in organized athletics.
“When you do sports as a kid,” Roegler says, “you learn how to win and how to lose. You learn what it’s like to put in lots of work and have things not turn out terrifically. And you learn what it feels like to put in a lot of work — and then win.
“I think you can’t teach those lessons,” she says. “You have to experience them.”
Jake Herrera says he likes to get to the field early to help with the equipment and get in a little extra batting practice. (Benjamin B. Morris for NPR)
The majority of parents in NPR’s recent poll on the role of sports and health in America seem to agree.
