Week 1 of the football regular season is coming up on Friday or Saturday for many upstate teams, but Colonie and Shaker are beating everyone to the punch by making their debut Thursday for the Town of Colonie Cup.

   It's bad enough that the season is beginning before school is even in session -- a necessary evil, unfortunately -- but getting started a day early is going to keep a handful of players off the field. That's both a shame and totally unnecessary.

   The Troy Record reported yesterday that the change was made to accommodate a cable television broadcast by Time-Warner. If that's the reason, then it's nonsense for which someone at one or both schools should be apologizing to some athletes who'll have to miss the start of their season.

   “The fact that they moved the game up to Thursday night, if a kid missed one practice, they can’t play in the game,” Colonie coach Mike Ambrosio said. “I have a couple of seniors, the kids got sick and couldn’t make a practice. And their senior year, they can’t play in the rivalry game. That’s wrong."

   He's exactly right. New York State Public High School Athletic Association rules require players to participate in 15 practices prior to competing in the team’s first game. Moving the game up a day took away the margin for error that every other team in the state has.

   “I totally disagree with moving it up and playing a rivalry game that early, but it’s not my decision,” Ambrosio continued. “I play where they tell me to go.”

   Youth sports under scrutiny: I'm not sure how you feel about the Little League World Series, but I was thrilled to see the 2010 edition come to an end Sunday. I think Japan beat Hawaii in the final, but I have to admit I didn't care enough to go onto ESPN.com to confirm.

   The LLWS used to have a special place on the sports landscape, and I used to make room on my schedule to watch the final, which was the only game shown on TV and typically consisted of Taiwan beating a U.S. team.

   Now, however, the LLWS is a nearly month-long reality series on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN-this-and-that and ABC. It's undoubtedly still a big thrill for the players and their

RoadToSyracuse.com Football Site

parents, but it's also pretty easy to view it as being over the top.

   With that as the backdrop, Ohio's The Columbus Dispatch launched a five-day examination of youth sports on Sunday, describing it as a $5 billion industry with virtually no regulation. In putting finances, physical well-being and other issues under the microscope, the paper says the series explores where youth sports have taken wrong turns in recent years.

   The paper spent a year examining the major questions and found physical, emotional and financial issues, including a Cleveland family that spent $30,000 in six months on their son's soccer dream and a mother arranged to send her 11-year-old son to live with a trainer in Alabama to improve his football skills.

   "Your kid is much better off studying and doing well academically than spending all the time on the soccer field,” said Sandy Baum, an economics professor at Skidmore College in Saratoga.

   The paper surveyed about 1,000 Ohio high school students and 213 coaches as well as 70 athletes and 33 coaches from Ohio State to gain insight for the series. More than 40 percent said their parents pressured them to play, and 10 percent said their parents’ behavior embarrassed them.

   Today's focus is on health issues.