UPON FURTHER REVIEW: MULTI-TASKING MAKES SENSE.

Byline: RAMONA SHELBURNE  LOCAL

For three weeks out of the year, Jake Maddox is bored. We're not just talking nothing-on-TV, no-good-movies-at-the-AMC kind of bored.

No, Maddox' malaise is the 1,000-miles-and-hour-to-zero type.

For all but about three weeks out of the year, the Newbury Park High senior is playing some kind of sport. In the fall, he's got football pads on. In the winter, he wrestles. And in the spring, he runs track.

Summer time is something of a smorgasbord of the other three.

But for the week in between each season, Maddox is lost.

``I have no idea what to do with myself,'' he said. ``I just sit there and wait for the next season to start.''

He's kept up this routine all four years of high school and last week, he was one of 47 student-athletes honored by the school as part of its ``Triple-Threat'' program which encourages athletes to participate in more than one sport.

At Newbury Park, multi-sport athletes are encouraged. But that's fast becoming a thing of the past. So often nowadays, young athletes are encouraged to pick a sport and specialize. The logic goes something like this: Pick the sport you're best at, drop everything else and focus intensely on getting a college scholarship.

The decision is being made earlier and earlier.

The other day, at a park not too far from Newbury Park High, I saw a youth soccer team with players who couldn't have been more than 10 years old, being coached by a professional soccer trainer. I'm sure he was better than somebody's dad, who read a soccer book and volunteered to coach. But that's not the point.

The real question is why we play sports?

All but the most elite athletes will never make a dime off their athletic talents. Even when you factor in the possibility of earning a college scholarship, the cost-benefit analysis of investing in early-childhood athletic specialization is fairly dreary.

The only tangible guarantee of playing sports comes in the form of memories. It's up to the athlete and his parents whether those memories are good or bad. There's more than a few flaws in putting an early emphasis on sport specialization.

For one, there's no guarantee that specializing in a sport at a young age will lead to a college scholarship. And second, well, it's just not as much fun to have to choose one sport when you're 12.

``Football was my best sport,'' said Newbury Park senior Josh Baker, who also played soccer and baseball. ``I might've gotten a college scholarship if that's all I did. But I wouldn't have had as much fun.

``I think you should play as many sports as you can. You meet so many more people and your experience is so much better.''

Baker was one of the area's top receiver's in football last season. He caught 95 passes for 1,571 yards and 12 touchdowns. Eye-catching numbers to be sure, but the only number that caught the eye of college scouts was his 5-foot-11 in the height column.

If he pushed, Baker had the talent to play at a lower-level Division I school or a junior college. Instead, he decided to go to Cal State Northridge, where he'll study to be a crime scene investigator.

Jim O'Brien, Newbury Park's athletic department coordinator, said that the school started the program, along with the backing of assistant principal Steve Lepire, in response to a growing emphasis on specialization being put on athletes by some coaches at the school.

``It was following the modern direction in sports where coaches wanted their kids all year long,'' O'Brien explained. ``Their belief was that playing year-round will make a better basketball player or better soccer player.

``We wanted to dispel that notion. We think an athletic department's job is to foster athletes, not just basketball players or soccer players.''

The coaches at Newbury Park got on board with the program right away. Football coach George Hurley and basketball coach Steve Johnson even stagger their summer practice times so that athletes can do both sports without having to choose.

They may not have to choose, but it does require a fair amount of time- management.

Carly Yamauchi, who ran cross-country and track, played soccer and even did a stint on the swim team in her four years at Newbury Park, once had a day where she ran a cross country meet in La Canada Flintridge, then played a club soccer game in San Bernardino later in the day. Talk about being in shape!

``My mom makes it my responsibility to do my schedule,'' said Yamauchi, who will run cross country at the University of New Haven next year and might tryout for the soccer team. ``A lot of my (club soccer) friends specialize. But I never wanted to. I think you learn something from everything.''

Harvard-Westlake of Studio City senior Bridget Ballard is one of the most accomplished multi-sport athletes ever to come through the area. Ballard was the Southern Section Div. I girls' soccer player of the year, a Div. IV state finalist in cross country, a Mission League champion and Div. I finalist in swimming and league runner-up in the high jump during her senior year.

Asked how she excelled at so many different skills, Ballard just shrugged.

``I have six brothers and sisters and they all played a lot of sports. They kind of ingrained it in my head that high school was the last time I'd get to do all these things,'' said Ballard, who will play soccer at Brown next year.

``There were parents on my club team that were always so mad I wasn't giving 110 percent to soccer because I was playing other sports.

``If I'd played soccer year-round, I might've been a better player. But if I'm not having as much fun, I might not be as motivated. And then maybe I wouldn't have trained as hard. People are so obsessed with being the best instead of just having fun.''

Let's get back to the math, though. Ballard is off to Brown to play soccer, Yamauchi will run cross country for New Haven, Baker will study forensic science at CSUN and Maddox will attend BYU.

Half of them earned the elusive college scholarship without specializing in one sport. The other two probably could've at a lower-level athletic program.

But all four had the time of their lives.

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Photo:

Among the 47 two- and three-sport athletes graduating from Newbury Park High are (top row, from left) Jordan LaSecla, Josh Baker, Jake Maddox and (bottom row, from left) Ricky Alvarez, Carly Yamaguchi and Ryan Bray.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer