<p>Why do parents pay so much for their kids to play games? One reason is to give them specialized coaching in a highly competitive environment, one that may not be available in recreation leagues or schools. Another is to get them noticed by college coaches, who almost exclusively recruit at showcase tournaments.
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<p>Given that athletic recruiting is a major "hook" in college admissions, and high achievement in sports is looked at favorably as an extracurricular even when the applicant is not being recruited as an athlete, is this phenomenon one more contributor to decreasing intergenerational SES mobility in the US through its effect on access to college by people from lower SES backgrounds?</p>
<p>Your question is probably only answerable if we know whether recruited athletes have always come from higher income backgrounds. If they always have, then nothing has changed in that regard.</p>
<p>It isn’t just about recruited athletes. High level achievement in a sport can be an impressive extracurricular even when one is not being recruited as an athlete.</p>
<p>It probaby depends on the sports and the region. </p>
<p>For instance, soccer in Texas is mostly a club level (select or travel teams) in terms of recruiting. College coaches do not pay any attention to the high school games as all the recruiting is done at large showcase tournaments and regional/national championships. By the time, varsity teams become relevant most recruited athletes have been known through those tournaments and the various ODP programs. </p>
<p>In a way, there is a lot of truth that to be in the running, one would have to be able to afford the fees associated with playing on a travel teams – not to mention the brutal selections at the highest level. </p>
<p>Baseball is tied to the hip to the Little League, and HS volleyball is also becoming less relevant for college recruiting. </p>
<p>It seems that the biggest leftovers might be basketball and football as they remain the “bread and butter” of the high school sport scene. They also happen to be the sports that attract most URMs in many parts of the country. And there is Lacrosse and wrestling.</p>
<p>But again, it might be very different in other regions.</p>
<p>I think the same things Xiggi mentioned hold in the midwest. Club teams are where most recruiting is done for Soccer and VB. In some ways I have a larger concern with pay-to-play for high school. That’s becoming more common where I live and it’s leaving some low income families really stretched.</p>
<p>Athletic recruiting has always been a major “hook”. We’ve always had high SES sports, such as Lacrosse, squash, rowing, sailing, fencing, mixed in with your other sports, such as football, track and field, basketball…</p>
<p>Title IX has had a significant impact on recruited athletics and sports that far out weights any impact from the rise of “travel” sports.</p>
<p>Both of my kids play expensive club sports. One lacrosse and the other volleyball. We do not participate in these sports to help bolster college apps. We do it because the coaching, competition and training are far better than typical rec leagues AND both kids love it. It is undeniable that playing a sport at that level is an impressive EC, but that is not a good reason to make that kind of time and monetary commitment.</p>
<p>I was driving through a very nice neighborhood in Princeton, NJ and saw a sign advertising fencing lessons. I drive through another neighborhood and see a young lady riding her horse and jumping hurdles (whatever that sport is called) and tennis often requires a membership somewhere to play year round and swim sports too. Boat racing takes money and access.</p>
<p>It’s always been the case that some sports favor the well heeled.</p>
<p>But all sports primarily favor the genetically gifted. I used to play basketball 8 hours a day in the summer and was really good. At 5’9" though, really good wasn’t enough.</p>
<p>Your child can play soccer in a league year round and get all kinds of special coaching but a slow kid will peak sooner despite all that than a kid who starts later with less money and less training that is an athletic phenom.</p>
<p>I think the division may also between those families that can afford to have a parent stay home or work part time and act as chauffeur and those that do not. Having the money for fencing lessons also means having the time to take someone there, or to pay for a real chauffeur.</p>
<p>From what I have seen from club soccer in my region if the player is low income and very, very good most clubs will let them play for free. Some of the DAP teams associated with MLS teams are also free, including travel costs. As someone mentioned the big problem for a lot of these kids is getting to and from practices and games. Public transportation is not always available and teammates are often spread out and can’t carpool.</p>
<p>My son played on a travel soccer team that played all over the US in tournaments and showcases. Several players were on scholarships with the club. There were some club assistant coaches that would pick up players that had no means of transportation to practice, and players traveling to any tournaments without their parents for whatever reason (financial or otherwise) either stayed in a room with another family (if invited to) or else unaccompanied players stayed together in a room connected to the coach’s hotel room. (A player never slept in the attached room by himself.)</p>
<p>I think the premise of the article is true. People with money are spending far more money on their kid’s sports than used to be the case and that extra money helps them to be stand-out athletes. I think there are several reasons wealthy parents do this but the 2 that I think are foremost are that parents want to support their kids passion in any way that can and more expensive options are available today and secondly for many parents the only realistic option for their kid to get into a top 10 college is through sports.</p>
<p>In our case, we are NOT wealthy AND we both work. So playing two club sports has been tough on our budget and our cars! Now, both kids drive so we have so much new found time on our hands!</p>
<p>“if the player is low income and very, very good most clubs will let them play for free.”</p>
<p>Can we tease out why someone is very, very good? Sure, there are some folks at the 99th percentile of performance due to being born at the 99th percentile of talent and motivation. Others would have been at the 96th percentile based on gifts and made it to the 99th through years of support and training. So the low-income kid has a tougher time showing the sort of performance that would get him a club scholarship.</p>
<p>A lot of good soccer players are from lower SES families…many times their families are immigrants from Europe or the Caribbean or Mexico…they are raised with a ball at their feet from their first step.</p>
<p>Others come from recreational leagues where they are standouts based on natural ability when they are young. A club team parent will tell the child’s parent about the club, or tell the club coach about the child, and the child will come to tryouts. My son was originally encouraged to try out for a club team by another parent on his rec team , who had an older child playing for a very selective club.</p>
<p>Also, there are many different kinds of clubs. Some just take your money, and are not really much above the level of a recreational team. Other clubs–very serious–are not about the money alone, but much more about the level of play and the coaching is at a whole different level.</p>
<p>One other point is that the full scholarships are primarily only in football and basketball–which are not the high SES sports.</p>
<p>A D-I soccer team only has 9.5 scholarships for an entire roster of players to share. So parents are not putting their children into travel soccer for the chance at college scholarships, but because it is something their child is passionate about. </p>
<p>The children who play sports at this level develop a lot of attributes that make them attractive applicants–so if the parents are making an investment, this is where I think it pays off.</p>
<p>I’m sure the club money we paid and donated, transportation and rooms shared, kept some of the amazing lower ses kids in the mix, and it was a great investment all around. That environment had a really positive impact on my son from 8 to 18 ( folks from the local club “stalked” him when he was little) , though he did not attract recruiters.</p>
<p>My D is a gymnast and it is extremely expensive in the optional levels and that is before even travelling for meets, paying meet fees, leotards, choreography. Just the tuition alone every month will weed out many. Sure you always hope for the scholarship at the end of the road, but it’s not why you put them in the sport to begin with. When these girls are training for 20+ hrs a week for years on end, with only 2 weeks off a year and they are not even back to back, if the girl is not enjoying the sport, they will not continue.</p>
<p>I know of a few families who spend a great deal of money on special sports training for their kids “so they can get an athletic scholarship.” And, by “a great deal” I mean “enough that they could just pay for college if they had put that money in a 529 instead.” Plus, the kids are spending the bulk of their time on sports, which at that level can’t help but impact academic performance. Frankly, it seems quite backwards to me!</p>