Parents Can Invest for Years in Kids’ Sports, but Scholarsh

If not then this link from the Wall Street Journal

www.google.com/amp/s/www.wsj.com/amp/articles/parents-can-invest-for-years-in-kids-sports-but-scholarships-are-elusive-11555848000

U.S.
Parents Can Invest for Years in Kids’ Sports, but Scholarships Are Elusive
Spending on youth sports soars as families chase scholarships and roster spots for their sons or daughters
For much of the past decade, Richard Ness traveled with his son Chip, a youth wrestler, to events around the country. He estimated he spent “likely close to six figures” on his son’s wrestling career.
“I was a crazy parent, but there were other ones just like us, doing the circuit,” said Mr. Ness.
Mr. Ness, a financial adviser in Duluth, Ga., said the investment paid off in the way so many parents dream of: His son earned nearly a full-ride wrestling scholarship for five years to the University of North Carolina. He will graduate in May with degrees in economics and management and society.
As the recent college-admissions cheating scheme put in stark relief, competition for spots at top colleges is fierce. In addition, many families set their sights on the Holy Grail: athletic scholarships that earn a place on the team and offer a break on tuition, too.
Parents enroll their children in sports for a variety of reasons, including to learn values like discipline, teamwork and sportsmanship. And while participation in many youth sports is falling, spending has been skyrocketing as more young athletes take part in elite teams with high-cost equipment and strenuous travel schedules. But scholarships are rare.

Only 2% of high-school athletes will receive college scholarships in their sport, according to the National Collegiate Athletic Association. That includes awards well short of the “full ride” many parents covet. In some cases, athletes receive just a few thousand dollars to put toward tuition, housing and other expenses.
But in a 2019 survey on the cost of youth sports by TD Ameritrade, 40% of parents said they felt confident their child would get an athletic scholarship. They also said they were willing to cut back on spending, go into credit-card debt or delay retirement to fund their child’s sport, according to the survey of about 1,000 parents.
“It’s really a small fraction of students get recruited to play in college, and with that, the percentage is even smaller of them getting the sort of full ride, athletic scholarship people dream of,” said Kathryn Randolph, contributing editor at Fastweb, a service that helps match students with scholarships.

“They could be using that money to save for college, to be blunt,” she said, of the athletic spending.
Families with children who take part in elite teams spent an average of $3,167 per player in 2018, up from $1,976 in 2013, according to WinterGreen Research, a market-research firm in Lexington, Mass.
Participation in lower-cost local leagues are declining because many of the higher priced, more competitive leagues are picking off the best players. If a child is interested in playing baseball, the pricier club and travel teams may be one of the few options, said Dev Pathik, founder and chief executive of the Sports Facility Advisory, a sports and entertainment center management consultant company.
“There’s nothing else for that kid who’s lit up about basketball. There’s no free alternative,” he said, especially for lower-income families, who may then be shut out.
Costs depend on the sport. While baseball parents spend, on average, $4,041 per child a year, volleyball parents can spend as much as $8,027 per child, according to 2016 research from Travis Dorsch, founding director of the Families in Sport Lab at Utah State University. An activity like volleyball, while a less popular sport, can require higher-priced travel for faraway games.
Mr. Dorsch said he had seen some parents starting to pull back.

After a year of competitive tennis play for his then-11-year-old son, Colin William, an Indiana community-college professor, sat down to calculate how much he and his wife had spent that year traveling to competitions and funding their son Aidan’s tennis ambitions.
“We started out with small expenses and kept progressing in the direction his ability was taking him,” Mr. William said.
They had been putting money aside for college, but still had to pay for items such as new rackets, which cost more than $200. Clinics, lessons and one-on-one instruction set them back more than $4,000. Mr. William realized they had sunk $10,000 into their child’s sport, all in a single year.
“It really snuck up on us,” Mr. William said of the expenses.
Mr. William and his family hopped off the hypercompetitive sports ride. They started choosing tournaments more selectively, so they could budget for travel. They enrolled their son in less expensive lessons and instruction. His son is 14 now, and Mr. William says he doesn’t know if his son will ultimately play in college.
The following year, their tennis spending had dropped by almost 35%. That money now goes to general savings. Two years ago, they spent some on a trip to Europe, where Mr. William and his son attended the French Open. He says he is now better able to enjoy watching Aidan play.
“I don’t want to be looking at every tournament result as a leading indicator of what my investment is accomplishing,” he said.

DI Council annouces change to recruiting - www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer-articles/di-council-announces-change-to-recruiting_aid46126

In case it's behind a paywall

Under new rules adopted last week, a prospective student athletes’ college search is set to look a little different. Designed to curb on early recruiting, the proposal for most sports, including soccer would allow communication — either from or to a coach — on June 15 after the sophomore year of high school and would allow visits beginning Aug. 1 before the junior year of high school. Prior to those dates, zero communication is permitted between a college coach and club coaches or players. That includes any offers of a verbal scholarship.
“We feel strongly that it’s an incredible enhancement to our current situation and how students are being recruited,” Justin Sell, athletics director at South Dakota State and chair of the Student-Athlete Experience Committee, said in a statement. “At the end of the day, these changes will eliminate students in the ninth grade and younger being recruited while still providing access to our campuses early enough to make informed financial and educational decisions on where to go for college.”

The latest early recruiting review was undertaken by a subcommittee within the Student-Athlete Experience Committee, which will continue to work on regulating verbal scholarship offers. By opening the door to earlier communication, the stated goal is to allow a potential student-athlete a longer time to get to know his or her future coaching staff. Approved last week during the Division I Council meetings on Thursday and Friday, it marks the second straight year the NCAA is tweaking rules as early recruiting continues to run rampant in a number of different sports. The recruiting proposals are set to go into effect for soccer at the close of the Division I Board of Directors meeting on May 1.

NCAA New Rules for recruiting: www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/di-council-adopts-rules-curb-early-recruiting

I think both parents and schools are happy with this decision. For many, my child included, the process seems to be very rushed and stressful. I recently heard a girls D1 coach say that he/she was happy about the change because the commitments were starting so young. Kids still develop past 8th, 9th, and 10th grades. Many do not know what they want to do with their lives beyond college in 8th or 9th grade. So, hopefully, it will slow the process down for the girls side. I believe the boys were already on a good schedule for commitments!

It only prevents them from contacting the player or club coach, but a player or club coach can still email their info to a prospective school. The coaches can still go to showcases and scout talent and kids can still go to ID camps. It is just the offers and discussions that cannot happen before June 15 of the rising junior year. There is still a lot of leg work that can be done on both sides without contact breaches.

I think that the rushed feeling most were feeling was this pressure to make a decision before their daughters even have one year of high school behind them. So let's say your kid is an all A's except one B their freshman year...will they be smart enough and good enough at time management to do well at Duke? Who the heck knows? Yet these freshmen commit to a rigorous academic school before even knowing if they can handle the academic load while spending 30 hours a week on soccer related activities!! So they are rushing their decisions before having enough MATURITY or self-awareness. Not rushing a decision based on overall time.

Oraclesfriend is correct. Players will still be able to attend camps. Coaches will still be able to attend showcases. The only issue is that there can be no recruiting conversation between club coaches, parents, or players and college athletic staff. The strategies for recruiting will shift slightly, but pressure is off for 8th and 9th graders to decide their futures at such an early age. This actually allows for school admissions visits to gain a sense of whether or not the player would like the environment (coaching style, campus climate, etc.). They can attend camps and get feedback on their performance (so, they will have an idea of where they stand). Basically, players (and parents) have the time to look at the options and make informed decisions about where their child plans to spend some really important years of their lives.

The boys have been practicing these principles for years—across sports. Too bad it took this much action to make the girls recruitment process better.

I've always found it odd that players were allowed to commit so early into high school. Based on what I've seen and read so far, it looks like for once the NCAA is making a meaningful and much needed change. Will be fun to see how the rules are implemented over the next couple of years...FG

Another side note is I can't get off the college camp spam list! I get 2 or 3 a day, and every-time I unsubscribe they keep coming.....

Oh yeah, don't do that! It's kind of like the rabbit hole that is the report Amazon has showing how much you've spent in a year!!
😬😬 Somehow my brain only takes into account the club fee, but when you add up all of the other things, it's probably just as much. 🤢

I don’t invest all this time and money in my player for a scholarship. I look as this money as our form of family entertainment and bonding. Plus keeps them busy and out of trouble. If a scholarship develops later that would be a bonus.

This. I would pay good money to keep my daughter busy, healthy and associating with a great group of girls. There is definitely something to be said for being part of a team, especially those dangerous years heading into high school. She insists that she wants to play in college, we aren't anticipating a scholarship at this point but if we get anything, I will be ecstatic. Lol

Agreed. It also teaches time management skills that will serve them well in college. Not to mention that it is a good thing to put on the college application. I know a family where both daughters got into Harvard. The father claims that time spent on ECNL teams helped to set them apart from other applicants and the experience also helped them have cool things to write about on their essays. Neither of them planned to play in college (they thought they were too small to play D1 but that is another story). Whether he is right or not about it setting them apart is not provable, but it is an interesting theory.

Thanks. Kid worked very hard and is reaping the rewards. Lessons learned playing soccer supported kids social, emotional and academic development.

Agree. This is true for all activities kids do. There are no guarantees.