Do travel/club sports always pay off?

[Anonymous]

Do all kids who play travel or club basketball end up making their middle or high school teams? I know many have been training for years to prepare, but does it ever happen that a player still doesn’t make the school team despite all the effort they’ve put in? Interested in basketball specifically. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Kids shouldn't be doing it for it to "pay off". They should do it to have fun.

[Anonymous]

At our school, it definitely happens often for basketball, soccer, and baseball. For soccer, there are still lots of club options in high school, so the kids continue to play. The baseball players I know no longer play. The basketball players who didn't make it seem to play rec and just have fun.

The competition is so much worse than when we were kids. Making the high school team can't always be the expectation, unfortunately.

[Anonymous]

It depends how you define pay off.

For our DD I would say yes. But her pay off was doing an activity she loved at a level she enjoyed with teammates that were committed, a friend group that wasn’t solely school based, kept her fit, and helped her develop really good time management skills.

She had no desire to play in college so that was never the goal.

[Anonymous]

We're at a relatively small private where I think everyone who plays club makes the team, but not everyone who plays rec. And in some cases you don't have to have had any sport exposure before to make a team. It just depends on the sport. It's harder to make boy's basketball or girl's volleyball where lots of people play and there are limited spots on the team. Easier to make bigger teams where not as many people might play club.

But I agree with 08:54 that the payoff should be measured in whether your kid loves the activity, is learning how to juggle lots of things in life well, might be learning grit or the value of hard work, that sort of thing.

[Anonymous]

OP here- we are at a competitive public. Most boys who are playing club basketball are doing it in order to make middle and high school teams. I am sure they all love the sport and have fun as well, but their parents and the kids goal is to make the middle and high school teams.

[Anonymous]

I also think there’s a status or ego component for kids playing on competitive club teams. The more elite the team, the higher the perceived status at school. So the goal may not be to make the school teams even though it might appear that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids shouldn't be doing it for it to "pay off". They should do it to have fun.

What a weird comment. Trying to call someone out but you just sound foolish.

This is like telling a strong musician that her private lessons to try to get into an orchestra should really just be for funsies.

[Anonymous]

at our large public, it is much easier for girls to at least make JV teams.

for boys, playing travel/club is no guarantee of even making freshman (basketball) or JV (soccer). Both those teams cut a lot of club/aau players. Boys JV soccer is particularly brutal for freshman-I think they only took 6 9th graders last year. Its hard to be one of the 6 best soccer players in a class of 350 boys.

[Anonymous]

Not for us and we had little to no interest in the whole culture surrounding it so we bounced when it wasn't fun. DS is 6"6 and naturally athletically inclined so we were generally supportive, but again, if it becomes something they hate we are fine with quitting. Never considered sports as a factor at all re: college.

[Anonymous]

Obviously not always.

There are schools where the players are so strong that the numbers don't allow everyone who is good to be on the team.

[Anonymous]

NO! Not at Williamsburg MS and YHS in Arlington! Its nuts.

[Anonymous]

A lot of travel/club sports are rec in disguise because those programs have been gutted. High level is probably worth the price tag, but there are many clubs cashing huge checks for barely rec programming. So, my final answer is YMMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of travel/club sports are rec in disguise because those programs have been gutted. High level is probably worth the price tag, but there are many clubs cashing huge checks for barely rec programming. So, my final answer is YMMV.

Agree, especially for girls.

[Anonymous]

That’s an interesting way of thinking. It might be a fraction of how they pay off, but sports pay off in myriad other ways.