Investing in Youth Athletics Can Be Costly

Parents: Are you helping your child reach their dreams or are you gambling with their future?

(photo credit: www.vegas.com)

As a result of my 10+ years of coaching youth basketball, and my time coaching at a nationally recognized college prep school, I became reflective about the sensibility of parents making a heavy investment in youth sports for their child. Recently, I came across this article http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/28/opinion/all-played-out.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region&region=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region&_r=0  (thanks to my Dad for passing it along to me) which is written by a doctor who constantly encounters injuries as a result of youth sports. The issue is the response by the parents, worried about their child’s athletic career, in some cases as young as 13 years old. He solidifies his point by showing the amount of money a father invested into his daughter‘s softball career in hopes of getting a scholarship. That amount, if invested wisely, turned out to be about the same as tuition to the school she was hoping to get a scholarship to –before she blew out her knee. Now, there is no scholarship, and money that could have been spent on college instead was wasted on softball travel teams.

This got me thinking about how prevalent this practice actually is. It also brought up another thought, even though the parent is paying, are they really doing so for the benefit of their kids, or for themselves?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not attacking the AAU system or parents who support their kids in sports that the kids truly love. I’m questioning the mindset of parents who see putting money into select and AAU sports as an investment towards getting their child a college scholarship. When one totals the amount it costs in travel, hotels, gear, gas to and from practice, club or select fees etc, that money if invested early on could develop a college fund that could help a student pay for school. Approximately 2% of all high school athletes earn college scholarships. Therefore, an investment towards your child becoming part of that 2% more closely resembles a game of roulette than making a wise investment.

As a first year coach at a college prep school, I got an opportunity to see the program director sell the idea of our prep school to families. Putting it into perspective, he would say that our school “was an investment. $15,000 for one year to get a scholarship saves you money in the long run as he’d be earning at least an $80,000 scholarship.” This made sense to me too, until one painful fact became clear. Just because their child attended our school, it did not mean that they would be earning a scholarship. Therefore, there was at least an equal chance that they’d spend $15,000 and still have to pay for college. Plus, a year was virtually wasted. This is not wise investing, this is gambling.

People wonder why there are such vocal parents hoping for their child to score 30 points per summer league game. I’ve seen parents ridiculing their children or their coach if their child doesn’t play enough, or play well enough. This is because they’re gambling on their kids. This is pressure that no kid needs. They try to please their parents, their coaches, the scouts, but eventually they don’t play the game for themselves anymore. It ceases to become fun.

Parents, it is okay if your child does not turn out to be a division one athlete. It does not make you look like any worse a parent. However, if you gamble with their future by placing possible college funds into sports, then you are failing them. I’ve seen it enough, if your kid is good enough, colleges will find them, club coaches that want to pick up the travel team costs will find them. Those are the kids that will get scholarships for the most part. Funding it yourself is your option, but doing so in hopes your child will get a college scholarship is not only a foolish investment, it’s gambling with your child’s future. Be rational, let your child enjoy his/her youth, don’t put unnecessary pressure on them by gambling with their future.

For more information, follow me on twitter @coachdesautels