<p>That is the objective and correct way to look at it. Unfortunately, walk enough sidelines of competitive soccer games, and you will find that the parents who have visions of athletic scholarships and cannot wait to tell how Little Suzy and Little Nathan are being “recruited” are the norm and not the exception. </p>
<p>And, fwiw, this is hardly dismissed by the coaches who have been justified their fees by painting a romantic pictures of the possibility. </p>
<p>For full disclosure, I was a member of very competitive travel team, and I have nothing but love and respect for the coaches and my old club who sent plenty of players to the highest leagues here and abroad. The reality, however, is that many families with more money than talent spent small fortunes pursuing a dream that had no chance to come to fruition, including that elusive bragging right in the form of a scholarship that was … not worth the paper it was printed on!</p>
<p>I have begun to have some concern about this issue. One reason is that now even public school sports teams have fees. They’re aren’t exactly low enough to be labeled “nominal” in our district, and can be an issue for those who are lower middle class. The free lunch kids will get their fee waived, and the affluent can easily pay.</p>
<p>As for Bay’s post above, the landscape is changing even in running, which has historically been a low cost sport. In our area we are observing a definite uptick in club track and private coaching. For example, a top runner may now skip the low-level training offered by his high school and instead work with a private coach who at the very least will give him individualized workouts to do on his own or at his team practice. The student may participate in the big state meets with his school team, but otherwise will forgo the low-level conference meets and instead travel to run in open college races. </p>
<p>D runs for a top 10 Div. 1 program, and many of her teammates are from private prep schools like Harvard Westlake and Andover, or at the very least fancy publics in high income areas, such as West Windsor near Princeton.</p>
<p>Here’s the lie that’s being told around here. “If the college coach wants you, the school will find enough money”!</p>
<p>I can’t tell you how many times I hear this. We have a pretty good lacrosse player on our HS team who can’t maintain a decent GPA while taking all college prep level courses. He failed alg I last year and had to go to summer school. So what was his parents reaction? Hire a personal trainer to help kid improve in lacrosse! So he goes to school lacrosse weight lifting twice weekly, plays indoor lacrosse twice weekly, sees a trainer twice weekly and plays pick up scrimmages on Sunday. Makes sense…right?</p>
<p>Yep. If your child loves a sport, let them pursue it at the level that works for your family, and at the level that yields the positives (discipline, social engagement, responsibility) while avoiding the negatives (entitled attitudes, misplaced priorities, insufficient commitment to academics). </p>
<p>Do NOT think for a moment that a sport is going to get your kid into college or help you to pay for it. 99.99% of the time, those benefits are at the margin – your low GPA kid is not going to get into an Ivy because they are good at Curling and he or she will not get a “full ride” on the basis of his or her rhythmic gymnastic skills. You might get a boost of “oh, cool, our curling team needs a good sweeper, that kid might be a better bet than the other one with the same stats” or a small scholarship funded by the Ribbon Manufacturers of America…</p>
<p>^^^ all true, but I think UCB’s point wasn’t about scholarships ($), but about sports as a “hook”. If you have the grades, and are a recruited athletic, you do have an advantage at highly selective colleges.</p>
<p>Is club (pay) sports helping high SES students get into selective collages, and hence making it harder for low SES students?</p>
<p>Maybe, but I don’t think it’s any different today than it was 20 years ago. The rise of travel soccer (or baseball) doesn’t really make that much of a difference.</p>
<p>Well, it’s not helping lower SES applicants, that’s for sure. I’m not sure the escalation of athletic training at a young age is helping the higher SES kids as a whole, either. I see a lot of privileged kids around me whose families are in a <em>mania</em> for these camps/clubs/extra training…and in so many cases, the kids end up with falling grades or they take non-honors level classes so they don’t have as much homework or even get lifetime bans from their oh-so-special sport because of injury. (I know a kid who isn’t even 12 yet who has been told she has had too many concussions to play soccer safely any more, and an 8 year old who has already needed knee surgery)</p>
<p>It’s possible that it doesn’t help the lower income kids get into elites ( a lot of communities don’t care about that) but it might help those kids in other ways. Seeing more things, hanging out with different people. Could be they are more likely to graduate, or more likely to go to college. Maybe more likely to finish a CC and transfer. We have a CC here that is known for kids transferring to Div 1 soccer teams.</p>
<p>My son was very lucky with his club coaches over the years. They were an eclectic bunch and my son learned a lot from them in addition to uber soccer skills. He learned, for example, that you always show up–even when it is pitch dark and pouring at 41 degrees at 6 a.m., but that you need to card in and warm up before that 7:45 game. Great life lesson. You learn that there is always someone out there who is better than you. You learn to win with grace, and lose with grace, and you learn that it’s not always about you–because the coach makes decisions based upon team considerations.One coach (from Wales) left school in 8th grade. My son was sitting in the hotel lobby soaking a sprained ankle in an ice bath while reading Ovid for his Latin class. Coach sat down next to him…and began discussing Ovid with him. The coach had had to leave school because his family could not afford school fees – but he had never stopped educating himself. Another coach (U15 or U16?) had the whole team read How Soccer Explains the World as a team exercise, to be discussed on a cross-country trip. </p>
<p>The club he played in for his high school years had required study tables at weekends out of town, and recruited parents to supervise and act as tutors in subjects in which they were competent. The coaches required players turn in grade cards every marking period, and had severe discussions with any players not taking care of their academics. Players that did not improve were not allowed to practice–and if you did not practice, you did not play. The coaches knew that if the players wanted to use soccer for college purposes, that soccer would be worthless if the academics were not there first.</p>
<p>My son and his friends all did well. One friend is playing at Harvard…and by the way, he is full pay. I think he might get book money. Another at Kentucky, another at Maryland. Several played at “lesser” schools.Three friends are playing in the MLS. My son had first decided to play at a great LAC–and then decided that he did not ultimately want a soccer career, and instead chose a school that spoke to him in other areas of his life, and played club in college instead.</p>
<p>As for Pay to Play at the HS…in CA , the ACLU filed suit against districts charging activity or team fees. No child can be banned from playing for a parents refusal or inability to pay. We used to pay a bussing fee, a mandatory team fee, spirit wear, etc. Now, the team fee is " optional", and the boosters are forced to find more and more ways to pay for busses to away games and other associated costs of the sport. Bottom line, those who are able end up paying more. I don mind if its helping tense who truly cannot pay, but when some of these folks are driving newer cars, and wearing high falutin’ fashion…it riles me.</p>
<p>I do think that many competitive sports are pushing out the lower income families. 20 years ago, college coaches often recruited directly from high school. Now, more and more sports are recruited only from club teams, including soccer. My son played with a very competitive soccer club, and many of the tournaments where recruitment took place required travels all over the US. Playing soccer at that level is extremely expensive by the time you add in the club costs, the travel, hotels, food etc. Our team members came from a very diverse area economically. One previous team that my son played on folded because so many of the players were given scholarships that the team was no longer economically feasable. His last team had only one scholarship kid, and it was a big challenge to get him to practices, games etc. College coaches typically only recruit from the high level teams, and those teams are often comprised of kids from a huge geographical area (at least in So Cal.- our members were spread out over a 100 mile radius) so it is not always feasable to carpool.
That player opted not to play his final year because it was just too much stress for him to coordinate practices. </p>
<p>Also, as far as Pay for Play being outlawed in CA, many California Districts are now opting to eliminate some sports because Boosters Clubs can no longer fund them. Usually the Districts where sports are eliminated are in low-income areas. Many schools in our Dist. have eliminated Frosh/Soph teams so that only kids who can make the JV and Var. teams are able to play sports. I completely support the concept that kids who can not afford a high school sport should not be penalized and should still be able to play. However the reality in our area is that many Districts will just eliminate sports as a result, leaving many kids with nothing. I think it is sad as I know some kids who really do not like school, and sometimes only make it through because they are involved in a sport. Unfortunately, with budget cuts sports is the last area to receive funding.</p>
<p>The majority of high school recruited athlete are football players and one can play this sport at a high level at a low cost. For timed sports such as swimming and track once your time are entered into a national database such as USA swimming or Milesplit all college coaches can see your times. This can be done by participating in a regional meet at a relatively low cost.</p>
<p>I know students who won D1 tennis scholarships and please, it was only possible because the wife didn’t work and could chauffeur them around and sit and kill time and accompany then out of town the way a mother with a career couldn’t. They easily spent more than the full rides were worth. I think it’s a shell game.</p>
<p>The big income sports–football and basketball still tend to be over-represented by minority players often from lower SES homes but not always. In other sports the number of scholarships varies a lot my region. NE schools might fully fund lacrosse while midwest schools have ice hockey etc. The type of sports can influence the type of players you can recruit. Tennis, golf, rowing, gymnastics and maybe lacrosse tend more higher income. Hockey, wrestling, sand vball are regional.</p>
<p>I don’t know any kids who are playing a sport (DI, II, or III), whose parents did not invest a lot of time and money in camps, trainers, club fees, travel expenses and expensive equipment. Even the track and cross country people, although their expenses were less, even those people traveled to national events before being recruited.</p>
<p>I don’t know anyone who was recruited based only on what they did on a high school team.</p>
<p>I think most people would agree that if an athlete is investing in any club or elite sport with the sole intent of acquiring an athletic scholarship, they are making a big mistake. It is such a crap shoot with so many factors, including that the athlete could lose interest or be injured. Our son played soccer because, simply, he LOVES soccer. He is fortunate to be able to continue playing in college. However, if we had saved the money that was spent so he could play club soccer, it would have been a tidy sum we could have put towards college costs. The kids on my sons club team were pretty well informed about college soccer and the chances for scholarships, but that club was very informed. I always cringed when I heard parents talking about how their kids were going to get scholarships because they played with a club- some were not even with good teams.</p>
<p>One of my kids played club volleyball and that was pricey but he enjoyed it. He thought about playing in college (there aren’t that many men’s Dl vb programs) and had some recruiting interest (he was an all state player) but he didn’t really pursue it. He did play club volleyball in college for a year , which fit in better with balancing being an engineering major.</p>
<p>Nike sponsors youth elite travel basketball teams. My nephew was on one of the teams and now plays in college. Kids do go to college and some to the NBA from those kinds of teams. But there is no guarantee of course. My understanding from my BIL was that Nike covered all or most costs but I am not 100% sure of the exact specifics. [EYBL</a> « Nike EYBL](<a href=“http://www.nikeeyb.com/eybl/]EYBL”>http://www.nikeeyb.com/eybl/)</p>