Let me tell you about a three-year-old named Nevada.

Nevada plays soccer in an i9 Sports youth league in Winter Park, Florida. He's 3, playing against kids who are 5 — and according to his family, week after week, nobody could take the ball from him. Ten goals in a game. Subbed out again and again in a 30-minute game, and still unstoppable.

So what happened? According to his parents, the adults on the other sideline complained. The league removed him. Police were called. And this baby — this three-year-old — was escorted off the field with his family, under a trespass notice, in front of all the other children. The league refunded his registration.

His father's words say it all: “They really called the police on a 3 year old because he had the ball too much.”

Now, to be fair: this is the family's account, shared in their own viral video. The league hasn't told its side yet, and it should. There may be more to the story — some reports mention the parents livestreaming games, which other parents may have had feelings about. That deserves a conversation.

But hear me, because this is bigger than one Saturday game:

We do this to gifted children all the time. In sports. In music. In school. A child shows up with a gift that doesn't fit the room, and instead of raising the room, we remove the child. We call it "fair." But fairness is not making every child the same — fairness is letting every child grow. The answer to a gifted 3-year-old is not police. The answer is a higher level, a bigger challenge, a coach who says, “Let me find where this child belongs.”

I have spent 18 years at Dream Chasers Radio interviewing people who were that kid — the too-much kid, the too-loud kid, the kid who didn't fit the room — and grew up to change the room entirely. Gifts don't shrink to fit. They either get nurtured or they get punished. Nevada's gift got punished, in public, at three years old.

Nevada, if your mama and daddy ever see this: keep playing, baby. The ball was never the problem.

— Dr. Yaya Diamond, Dream Chasers Radio

YayaDiamond.com