be honest and advise them on their strengths and weaknesses and support them after that. how can you strive to win if everyone wins? if your not good enough its better to find out straight away than look a complete twat later on. better a terrible truth than a beautiful lie.

I feel that kids and their parents need to grow the f up.

Not everyone gets on the team.
Not every team wins.

People forget about what teams and competition are all about.

I mean, hell, are the football star kids going to start suing that they don’t get to be on the math or science team? Because I bet you, those geeky kids don’t want the jocks to lower their chances at winning.

I've always had an issue with participation awards. as a child/teen if I was not good at something my teachers or elders would tell me so and I would strive to be better if I was told "Oh it doesn't matter at least you tried." I would have been so angry, I was taught if you wanted something that you should fight tooth and nail to achieve it.