The problem with school sports in America is that they already are designed for the elite. Think about it. We spend billions of dollars on high school sports teams so that a relative few can play. Whether a school has 2,500 students or 100, the size of the teams is pretty much fixed — 12 kids on the basketball team, 100 or so on the football team, 25 on the baseball team. That means everyone else sits on the sideline and watches.

And we wonder why American kids are fat?

We would have been much better off spending the time and effort on intramural programs that provide athletics for every student who wanted to participate. Not only would it provide physical activity for a generation of kids whose exercise consists of moving their thumbs on the X-Box controls, it also would keep millions of kids off the streets and out of trouble.

In retrospect, it would have been wiser to adopt the European system, which does not base its youth athletic system on schools but rather private clubs. But we've thrown our lot in with the school system for better or worse and we're stuck with it.

Let's not make it worse by caving in to the desires of a few and cater to the elite anymore than we already do.

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Doug Robinson is an assistant football coach and head track coach at Alta High. Doug Robinson's column runs on Tuesday. Please send e-mail to drob@desnews.com.