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So many of us have done the Saturday relay race: karate to soccer game to basketball practice. From softball to swim team. Baseball practice to a hockey tournament.When my kids were young, the world of sports and activities was their oyster. They played multiple sports, tried on things to see what fit while we drove from one side of town to the other, coordinating calendars, resolving scheduling conflicts and keeping all the local drive-thru fast-food joints in business with to-and-fro dining in the mini-van.A few seasons of soccer, overlapping with the start of CYO basketball, which overlapped with the start of Little League season. Mix in the odd volleyball camp, rec department tennis class and some middle school track and youve got a drawer full of old team pictures, a lot of participation trophies and a whole lot of days on the snack schedule.Then maybe that club coach asked for a larger commitment, or the select team came calling. Maybe the schedule just wasnt working anymore and it was too tough to squeeze in multiple practices and games each week around homework and band or group projects.As many kids got closer to high school, they begin to narrow the field of their sports participation, some by choice and the natural culling process. Others because someone else thinks its best.They begin to specialize. And certainly, there are things to gain from the focus on one sport -- a true offseason, better opportunities against higher levels of competition, perhaps even a shot at being a collegiate athlete. But kids lose by specializing, as well, because there are some very good reasons to stay a multi-sport athlete.1. Fewer overuse injuries. Growing bodies can become overstressed by repetition and that stress can lead to injuries. A lack of rest and recovery time in year-round sports exacerbates the problem. There are plenty of examples of serious, grown-up sports injuries happening to kids at younger and younger ages, from Tommy John surgery for 12-year-olds to high school girls with multiple ACL injuries before they graduate. Studies show that playing multiple sports leads to better muscle, motor and skill development. It promotes general athleticism, balance, speed and agility.2. Less opportunity for emotional burn-out. Kids who spend so much time focusing on one sport -- and whose families are similarly solely focused -- risk tiring of the sport all together. Specializing raises expectations, the costs for parents for travel and club teams and the pressure on young athletes. Having a variety of experiences keeps things interesting, the monotony of a single sport goes away, and so does that pressure.3. Exposure to different kids. Soccer friends will be different from swimming friends, who will be different from the kids in your Tai-Kwon-Do class. Exposing kids to different sports allows them to share teammate experiences and make memories with a diverse group of peers. It helps them expand their social circle and their opportunities for interaction.4. Exposure to different roles. Being a bench player on the basketball team is a different experience than being a starting pitcher on the baseball team. Its an opportunity to broaden their experiences, socially and developmentally. Its an opportunity to become a better competitor and all-around athlete, the kind that coaches value because they are flexible, multi-dimensional, exposed to many situations and coachable.5. Not putting all your eggs in one basket. Playing only one sport limits your options. An injury, a bad experience with a coach or a reduced role on a more competitive team can bring an abrupt end to an athletic career. Such a small number of high school athletes move on to play a sport in college; even fewer earn an athletic scholarship. If the goal is to play as long as possible, perhaps it makes the most sense to play as many sports as possible? Just ask Derek Jeter, who played basketball in high school, or Elena Delle Donne, who played volleyball at Delaware before returning to the basketball team on the way to the WNBA, or Robert Griffin III, who played baseball and ran track.My confession here is that my son ended up being a single-sport athlete by the time he got to high school. Baseball was his passion, and the other sports fell off the schedule and the radar. The skateboard that used to be his constant companion in middle school started to gather dust in the garage, and the old basketballs and soccer cleats got donated to charity. He is now a college baseball player, competing at a Division III school.And while focusing on one sport may have played a role in getting him there, I cant imagine, in retrospect, that it was the only path. Ive heard him say that he wished that boys volleyball season wasnt the same as baseball, because he would have played. Ive heard him boast that the 3-point stroke he had on the middle school basketball team magically returned while playing pick-up basketball with some of his buddies. One of his high school friends was the football teams starting quarterback and hes?playing club hockey in college now and loving every minute of it.You just never know how things are going to turn out.I retired the mini-van a few years ago, traded it in for a new car and watched with misty eyes as it was driven off into the depths of the used-car lot. But not before I cleared out some old soccer cones and a least one ball bouncing around in the way back.The old days of the Saturday relay are long gone. I didnt realize at the time how good those days were. They were fun. And isnt that the whole point?John Matuszak Womens Jersey . The Canadian squad, skipped by Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg, got on the board first with two in the second end, and followed that with two more apiece in the fourth and sixth ends. Jim Plunkett Raiders Jersey . LOUIS -- Roman Polak was celebrating even before Alexander Steen scored the winning goal in Saturdays 4-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes. http://www.footballraidersmall.com/Youth-Howie-Long-Elite-Jersey/ . While hell be dialed in to that tournament on a course he loves, you can forgive him if his eyes glance down the calendar just a bit, towards April. Bo Jackson Raiders Jersey . Varlamov made 33 saves and Ryan OReilly had a goal and scored in the shootout as the Avalanche beat the New Jersey Devils 2-1 on Thursday night. Willie Brown Jersey .C. -- Kemba Walker and the Charlotte Bobcats got off to a fast start, and the Sacramento Kings were never quite able to catch up.LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Gonzagas fourth straight lopsided victory didnt come as easy as the final score would suggest.Jonathan Williams and Zach Collins led a balanced offense with 13 points apiece, helping the 11th-ranked Bulldogs shrug off a slow start and pull away to an 82-62 win over Quinnipiac in the first round of the AdvoCare Invitational at Disney World on Thursday night.The Bulldogs (4-0) also got 10 points each from Jordan Mathews and Josh Perkins to advance to the semifinals of the eight-team tournament.Like I told the guys, were not going to be up by 30 every game at half. Its Division I basketball, Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. Youve got to scratch and claw, and find your way through it, and I thought we did a nice job of doing that.Gonzaga used a 12-2 spurt to open a 37-25 lead late in the first half. Silas Nelsons basket put the Bulldogs up 48-35 with just under 15 minutes to go, and the closest Quinnipiac (0-3) got after that was 10. Mathews made 3-pointers on successive trips down the floor, sparking a run that enabled the Bulldogs to build the margin to 23.Not every game is going to be an easy game. Quinnipiac, they came out fighting but we fought back. We didnt let the first half dictate what was going to happen in the second half, said Collins, a 7-foot freshman forward. We executed much better in the second half. We played much better defense. ... We just fought, stayed together, didnt let it get us down and just kept rolling.Peter Kiss led Quinnipiac with 18 points and Daniel Harris added 10. The Bobcats limited Gonzagas leading scorer, 7-foot-1 Przemek Karnowski, to eight points on 4-for-10 shooting despite not having a player on the roster taller than 6-foot-9 forward Chaise Daniels.Im proud of our effort, proud of our togetherness. We have a very inexperienced group, a young group, QQuinnipiac coach Tom Moore said.ddddddddddddWe come into this game, obviously, against a program like Gonzaga with a different agenda than they had to have. Were trying to find ourselves, he added. Overall, tonight was a step forward for us. We have a long way to go, a lot of things to get better at. This is a blue-blood program that we played tonight. Im really proud of our effort from start to finish.BIG PICTUREThe Bulldogs figure to get a better idea of where they are over the next two days, when they could face a ranked opponent as well as another on the verge of cracking the Top 25. Quinnipiac stayed close for 15 minutes, but mainly because Gonzaga shot 41 percent in the opening half and missed nine of 11 attempts from beyond the 3-point arc. The teams remaining in the winners bracket pose a much bigger challenge.POLL IMPLICATIONSIf the Bulldogs can win this tournament for the third time, it would bolster their argument to crack the Top 10. At the very least, picking up two quality wins would help their position as they move toward a Dec. 3 trip to No. 9 Arizona.STILL PERFECTGonzaga improved to 7-0 in the Thanksgiving tournament at Disney formerly known as the Old Spice Classic. The Bulldogs won the event in 2008 and 2012.Its been great for us. Its always given us a great barometer where were at, Few said. To get out here on the road as a group at Thanksgiving, I think it does nothing but kind of draw us even closer, and weve been working on that all year.UP NEXTGonzaga plays Florida (5-0) in the tournament semifinals Friday night.Quinnipiac faces Seton Hall (3-1) in the losers bracket.---More AP college basketball: www.collegebasketball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25. ' ' '