If you have a 9th- or 10th-grade football player in your household who has aspirations of playing the game in college, you might consider enrolling him in a combine for underclassmen which is scheduled for May 4 in White Marsh.

And if you do sign your kid up for this combine, it's imperative that you read an op-ed piece that ran in yesterday's Sun, from Kelsey Twist, a former lacrosse player at Roland Park, who nails the mess that high school and youth athletics are rapidly becoming dead on.

Though Twist's piece is tailored to her experience as and with female athletes, her observations and advice are certainly applicable to boys and their parents. The article drew the attention of officials at the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Administration, who posted it to their Web page, which speaks volumes.

Frankly, every coach of every sport, whether played by boys or girls, should copy this piece and distribute it to every parent of every kid on the team, while there's still time to rein in the spreading excesses of high school sports, up to and including football combines for 14- and 15-year-olds.