How do you motivate the "unmotivateable"?

I have been experiencing a problem lately, and I am wondering if I'm just getting old, or if my worries are valid.

Why are the current Youth of America so unmotivated? And lazy? We definitely can't forget lazy...

As a part-time Assistant Wrestling Coach, I have been facing a serious problem: how to motivate my athletes. I feel like very, very few of them want to be there; of those few, the vast majority of them are Seniors (no offense to you older guys, but Senior year is a bad time to try to "make up" for wasting 4 years of high school). My main job as an Assistant has been to work with the JV and Younger Wrestlers at the high school. Yet, on this past Friday, only FIVE of my TWELVE Wrestlers even managed to show up to practice! What makes matters worse, I saw FOUR of those "absentees" at the Basketball game later that night.

What is it in Hard Work that has these young men so scared to take part of it?

I asked two of my "absentee" Wrestlers why they didn't show up to practice. One of them responded that he hated the sport of Wrestling, while the other one told me that he just "didn't feel like it." Now, I can understand that, since the end of the year is upon us (the JV Region Tournament is next week), these boys are tired. But don't they have enough heart, and sufficient guts, to finish the season strong????

Now, as for the Wrestler who "hates the sport;" why is it that you hate the great sport of Wrestling so much? I happen to know this boy's family.... grew up with his older brothers, was raised by his parents while mine were in school, etc. And he never seemed like a lazy child when we were younger (granted, I knew him best when he was age 6 and younger...). Yet he explained to me that he hated Wrestling because he hated going to practice, hated "killing himself" to make weight, and hated "doing it all just to lose."

What ever happened to using losing-experiences to make oneself better? Whatever happened to using practice time as an opportunity to hone one's skills and abilities so that they didn't "just do it all to lose"?

In the end, I guess things have changed too much since I was in high school. Or maybe they haven't. Maybe I'm just noticing this more because I'm getting older... maybe it really is impossible to see "the power and destiny of one's youth" until it has passed you by. Maybe my ramblings really don't matter, and will never have any effect on people.

All I can hope, is that one day, these attitudes will change, and America's Youth will be motivated to work hard toward a common goal.... a motivation that will improve our economy, our society, and the way we handle most political issues.