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I think the bigger trend with more impact is the fact that these games are becoming more competitive. I can't speak for basketball, but in Michigan youth soccer, majors teams, with tryouts, tournaments, $1000+ cost per season and everything are down to U-10. 9 year olds. 3rd graders. Having to tryout for a soccer team. And now, if the kid doesn't make it onto a good majors team at U-10 or U-11, forget premier, forget club, forget high school, and definetly forget college, pros or international. Those have been some of the worst games I've refed as a soccer official (a lot of that is due to the fact that I'm the only one out there, but that's another story).
I was refing a U-7 game (1st graders), which is typically a no-contact rugby scrum back and forth until the ball pops out into a goal or out of bounds. I typically are fairly relaxed in these games, most notably any inbounding type play (throw-ins, goal kicks, corners) I give them an extra chance. Anyway, a little girl fouls another little girl. They go down in a heap, but pop right back up. This kids can barely run straight without falling over, so obviously no harm was intended. I had to physically restrain the coach of the player who was fouled from walking across the field and confronting the other coach, who, to his credit, took the high road and ignored him. What made my job tough was after calming down the coach, I then had to red card him, which got him riled up again (he dropped a f-bomb, and when I ref a soccer game, the field is my office. You kinda have reason to step on a basketball court, but not a soccer field, while yelling obscenties and making it halfway over).
Another incident was when I was waiting out a delayed game while a thunderstorm passed over. Everyone was in their cars, except me and the two coaches. The one coach though was continually demanding that I call the game. It was May, there would be plenty of light to play until 8:30-9:00 if neccessary, so I decided to wait it out, since it looked like it was going to pass. The one coach continued to badger me. A semi-truck rumbled down the road next to the field, and the coach refused to believe it wasn't a roll of thunder. Eventually I called the game, but not until the coach called me a liar, and that I had no respect for anyone's safety (when he said this, I pointed out that he could wait in the safety of his car like everyone else). He did the whole "I'm gonna report you" speil and left. The other coach came up, confirmed with me that he had been pressuring me to call the game, and said he was the commisioner of the league. I learned later that the coach was adament about not replaying the game, and finally let it slip that he didn't want his "playoff seeding" to be affected by playing the best team in the league. Too bad Troy Youth Soccer does random brackets.
Bottom line, you shouldn't be trying out for teams, investing a ton of money, or travling hundreds of miles until the kids are in middle school. If there were more decent coaches at the youth rec level, then there wouldn't be a need to identify kids with potential and give them better teaching at such a young age. The side effect is that players, coaches and parents are now going nuts much earlier.
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