One in a series of interviews with U.S. Olympic team athletes who are also parents as they prepare for the Winter Games in Vancouver. The conversations will focus on how these elite athletes juggle training and their duties as moms and dads.

Sarah Schleper stands alone on the U.S. Ski Team. She's the only female member of the team born in the 1970s. Her advanced age -- 30 -- isn't the only reason to be rooting for Sarah. She's also a new mother -- her son Lasse just turned two. And she's a bit of a comeback kid. This is her fourth Olympic Games. To make the Olympic team this time, Sarah had to overcome a torn left ACL. While rehabilitating the knee injury in in Mexico in 2006, she fell in love with her future husband, Federico Gaxiola de la Lama. They married in 2007. ParentDish recently spoke with Schleper. An edited version of the conversation follows.

ParentDish: Tell us about your son, Lasse.

Sarah Schleper: He speaks a lot of Spanish and a little English. He's started skiing already. He loves to eat. He loves to sleep. He's the perfect little kid. I feel really blessed to have this little guy.

JH: My mom definitely discouraged it. She wanted us to be outside and not just hypnotized by the screen. We were allowed to watch a few shows -- maybe one or two TV series and major sports. For a few years, one of our favorite shows was The Wonder Years.

Allison Pottinger: I throw the fifth and sixth stones. Also, I have the responsibility of being in the "house" and holding the broom while the skip goes down to shoot

PD: Thanks for trying. How can a child get started in curling?

AP: To any kid interested, my advice is get yourself to a curling club. You don't have to buy anything. Just bring sneakers. Everyone will welcome you with open arms.

Some kids dream of sinking the winning basket in the big basketball game. Bryan Carr's idea of fun is blowing a whistle in that big game. At six years old, he may be the youngest basketball referee in America.

Kevin Youkilis: In addition to his charity work through Hits for Kids, each year the Boston Red Sox slugger spends Christmas morning visiting patients at Boston's Children's Hospital. "It's just a great thing when you can make a kid smile that's going through some hard times in life," Youkilis told MLB.com.

High school sports are supposed to turn teammates into friends, sometimes for a lifetime. That's not what happened this season at Centennial High School in Circle Pines, Minnesota.

In November, a white member of the football team was suspended from school and kicked off the team after admitting he sent a racially offensive text message to an African American teammate.

The text was a case study in intolerance and insensitivity -- an image of a noose, a hangman's post and a sign that said "For sale: [N-word] swing set." The student who received it on his phone, Michael Gilbreath II, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that he found the text very disturbing.

Warning to high school football players: Beware the chest pump and the chest thump.

They're common celebrations after touchdowns and other big plays at every level from kiddie football to the National Football League. But high school officials are cracking down.

In Atwater, Calif., Atwater High School senior Angel Molina had just scored his third touchdown of the game -- a feat by any standard -- earlier this season when he tapped his chest twice and pointed his finger at the sky.

"I didn't say anything," Angel told the Merced Sun-Star. "I just pointed up. I was honoring God."

The team was penalized 15 yards for an unsportsmanlike display.

That was mild compared with the punishment dealt high school senior T.J. Peeler. In October, referees ejected T.J. from a game and suspended him from the next one for serial chest-bumping - a joyful smashing of chests, usually with a teammate.

Miller Donnelly, then 9, delivers his message about how parents can ruin sports for kids if they are too wrapped up in winning and losing. The Donnellys didn't expect the video to attract a large audience -- it was shot in their basement with Miller wearing his pajamas.


Most kids learn valuable life lessons playing youth sports. Miller Donnelly teaches them.

When he was just 9, Miller, who lives in a small town in Ontario, Canada, wrote a clever three-minute speech about overwrought sports parents and how their behavior squeezes the fun out of youth hockey.

First, he presented it to his school class. Then his uncle wanted to listen, so Miller's dad made a video and posted it on YouTube. One of Canada's top amateur hockey associations picked it up and posted the video to the club Web site. Then, last January, Miller really went big-time: One of Canada's most-watched TV news shows devoted an entire story to the speech.

Kniceley's 20-year-old son, Josh, is a sophomore offensive lineman who plays football for Fairmont State University in West Virginia. But he didn't get enough time on the field during one game to suit his dad.

After a 15-9 loss to Concord University on Oct. 31 in which the younger Kniceley saw action on only three plays, dad Kniceley allegedly had some strong words for one of the team's assistant coaches, Gary Lanham.

"Three plays, you have got to be kidding me three f---ing plays," Kniceley yelled at the coach, according to a police report quoted by the Charleston Gazette. The alleged exchange took place on Senior Day, when seniors traditionally see more action at the expense of underclassmen.

According to the newspaper, Josh Kniceley had to step in and make peace. "Come on, Dad, not here, don't do this," the football player told his dad, according to the Gazette.

Thanksgiving means family gatherings for some and pumpkin pie for others. For Scott Becher, it means the annual Becher-Ware Turkey Bowl.

"It started in 1991 with seven of us playing a little touch football to kill some time on Thanksgiving. Now it's 35 family members literally of all ages. This year we'll meet two new members -- one born in early November, the other a month ago," wrote Becher, an original Turkey Bowl participant, in an email to ParentDish.

No, the infants won't play. Not this year, anyway.

Sports run deep in our holiday traditions. From football games in the backyard to ski vacations on the slopes, they bring us closer. Depending on the activity -- full-court basketball, Frisbee golf -- they also help work off the second and third helpings of Thanksgiving dinner we promised not to eat this year but did anyway.