This is all unfortunately very true. These people are my age too, and make me feel terrible for the future of the country.
Youth sports has jumped the shark.
- Thread starter patdog
- Start date
That's real easy for him to say but I guarantee you he recruits the travel ball circuit. And all these kids are playing multiple sports anyway as kids, you think parents stop at travel ball? It's constant.
He has kids make the team every year who only played rec league. I also know another successful coach whose best player did not even pick up a baseball until seventh grade.
The problem is that we have created a monster where parents feel like their child has no chance unless they spend every weekend traveling and thousands of dollars a year. I have heard from two different park directors who had record registration numbers this past season compared to the previous five years. Both believe families are returning because they are burned out on travel ball.
Travel ball has its place, but it is not the only path. Playing multiple sports, learning the fundamentals, and simply fielding ground balls in the yard can still develop a very good baseball player.
He also does things differently from most coaches. He holds a week-long camp before tryouts and spends a lot of time talking with junior high coaches to learn which players are coming up. He is not out scouting travel-ball teams.
If that family member isn't your son (or daughter), you went well above the call of duty.
Oh my lord the roster is hilarious... he literally nailed about half my son's team. No wonder my kid has never gotten an AI commitment announcement with his stupid boring name from the Bible.
No. Our parents were busy doing grown up things so we just played. It was cool. I was six.
I coached a kid a few years ago who is one of the best athletes I’ve ever seen. Genuine five tool player. Threw mid-to-low 90’s, slider, changeup, hit from both sides. Spent hours and hours and days and weeks and months on the road playing year round. Family skipped a ton of “life” things in pursuit of the baseball thing. He is a banker.
Pro tip: let them be kids.
Pro tip: let them be kids.
Well then, it's obvious that you failed him as a coach. Expect law suites from him and his parents. *******
My favorite is when the parents brag about being “invited” to a tournament. Pure gold!
At the rate we're going now there will be Travel Ball NIL before long and they will get paid for playingTake out a loan, Alan!
I think there already is to some degree. I can't remember which former NBA player said this about AAU basketball. He said, if you're paying for your kid to play youth sports hoping for that college scholarship or that they'll go pro you're throwing your money away. If your kid is good enough, they'll recruit him to play for free.
Here's a volleyball experience we had where I looked at my girls and said "no more."
We had a pretty good team for Mississippi a few years ago. Star players from JA, Brandon, MRA, Madison Central, Germantown and Hartfield. In the Mississippi/Louisiana/Alabama circuit, this was a top five team every tournament. Someone not in the right mind decided they were going to send this team to an Open Division major tournament in Kansas City.
If you don't know, Midwestern corn fed girls are born with volleyballs in their hand. Teams from Nebraska, Wisconsin, the Chicago area - are at a different level. A USA Volleyball tournament works like this - teams are seeded and placed in pools. Based on the pool play performance, they are sent to a second round of pool play, then to a bracket. Gold bracket is your best teams, Silver, Bronze, Red, White, Blue, etc.
We get to this tournament at Kansas City and our first match is against some girls from Milwaukee. They beat our ***. Then we play a tea from Iowa, who beats us 25-2 in one set. Then we play a team from Chicago that started laughing at us mid-match. 0-3 first day, something like 35 points total scored in 6 sets. That's good enough to be the last seed on Day 2.
So Day 2, we get to play teams that aren't as good, maybe we have a chance. Nope. More of the same. Three beatdowns. Parents laughing.
Day 3, we are in a bracket with the 8 worst teams in the tournament. Our first game is against the team from Milwaukee that beat us on Day 1. They proceed to stomp a bigger mudhole in us than they did on Day 1.
0-7, last place. Somehow we get a bid to a national qualifier in Atlanta where we go 1-7 (we beat a team from Alabama). Its a money grab.
Parents are already pooling money to get the baseball of version of little Jimmy Chipwood on their kids travel ball team. They'll pay for a ringer/hitter/pitcher if it helps.
Look what private schools have been doing for the last 10 years.
It's all about the Ws!
Look what private schools have been doing for the last 10 years.
It's all about the Ws!
Count your blessings that you haven’t seen these already, but I’ve probably seen 6 local social media posts in the last week that are asking for donations to get little Billy’s all star team to the Bahamas.
Essentially there is where fees will be waived for a specific player. That $3K/player is being footed by the other parents.
Yeah, the elite will never pay a dime. The only question is whether a shoe company or other parents are footing the bill. We’ve got friends in Memphis that get emails every couple of weeks from their coach about pooling money to pay for a kid’s shoes, uniform, or travel expenses. Sheer coincidence that it’s their top player whose uncle comes to games in a bright orange corvette.
That or they’ll cut a deal to #9 to fill a roster so they can keep the first 8 under contract.
Ha, true. Or maybe because I only had him one year. Yeah, that’s prolly it.
It's wild yall got worked up about travel ball and this is just Dixie Youth baseball. It's rec ball that has some travel players mixed in. Dixie Youth is what 90% of kids played growing up back in the day and they just have to do all these age groups and WS because travel has killed them.
Go to the ATL airport on Thursday night, Friday morning and watch the 14 year old mercenaries roll through. Its common for kids to fly to play with a team they only see for certain tournaments.
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