Transparency: HS Coaches and Pay-For-Play

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will say this…I actually founded a travel organization with the intent that it would be volunteer parent coaches supporting one paid coach and the fees would be set to cover 100% of just costs (umpires at games, some shared batting helmets (like 5 per team), one set of catcher’s gear, jerseys, tournament entrance fees, and field permit fees).

It added up to more than you would think. This was maybe 8 years ago and the direct costs were like $800/kid for a 15 person team.

The one paid coach was getting $2000 for the season for two practices per week, mainly DH on weekend and two tournaments. We didn’t do any overnight tourneys so we didn’t have to cover any travel costs for the coach.

I would imagine just those direct costs today would probably put it at $1200+ per kid.

So use that as a benchmark to determine if anyone is getting rich off their travel fees.

Why can traditional organizations like Little League do the same for far less? They are bleeding but often provide the same kind of experience (parent coaches with some who played at high levels — college and pro).

For us, it’s the permit fees and having a paid coach spread over 15 players…I didn’t even mention that there are some admin costs of a non-profit.

Also, each tournament might be like $750/team while LL has none.

LL will get fields for a certain amount of time and sometime they make teams double up for practice. Especially the kids at the 6 year old ages where practice is kind of nothing. Also, our LL only practice once per week for 90 minutes vs travel at 2 hours twice per week.

Our LL also gets uniforms for free.

BTW, I would say less than 10% of our LL coaches ever played in college and one played Minors…but was ironically a terrible coach.

Why do you even need to travel. In baseball, several of the NoVa teams were all at the same tourney in SC. Seems stupid to travel when there’s already talent locally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will say this…I actually founded a travel organization with the intent that it would be volunteer parent coaches supporting one paid coach and the fees would be set to cover 100% of just costs (umpires at games, some shared batting helmets (like 5 per team), one set of catcher’s gear, jerseys, tournament entrance fees, and field permit fees).

It added up to more than you would think. This was maybe 8 years ago and the direct costs were like $800/kid for a 15 person team.

The one paid coach was getting $2000 for the season for two practices per week, mainly DH on weekend and two tournaments. We didn’t do any overnight tourneys so we didn’t have to cover any travel costs for the coach.

I would imagine just those direct costs today would probably put it at $1200+ per kid.

So use that as a benchmark to determine if anyone is getting rich off their travel fees.

Why can traditional organizations like Little League do the same for far less? They are bleeding but often provide the same kind of experience (parent coaches with some who played at high levels — college and pro).

For us, it’s the permit fees and having a paid coach spread over 15 players…I didn’t even mention that there are some admin costs of a non-profit.

Also, each tournament might be like $750/team while LL has none.

LL will get fields for a certain amount of time and sometime they make teams double up for practice. Especially the kids at the 6 year old ages where practice is kind of nothing. Also, our LL only practice once per week for 90 minutes vs travel at 2 hours twice per week.

Our LL also gets uniforms for free.

BTW, I would say less than 10% of our LL coaches ever played in college and one played Minors…but was ironically a terrible coach.

Why do you even need to travel. In baseball, several of the NoVa teams were all at the same tourney in SC. Seems stupid to travel when there’s already talent locally.

We didn’t travel…that’s the cost to enter the tournament.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will say this…I actually founded a travel organization with the intent that it would be volunteer parent coaches supporting one paid coach and the fees would be set to cover 100% of just costs (umpires at games, some shared batting helmets (like 5 per team), one set of catcher’s gear, jerseys, tournament entrance fees, and field permit fees).

It added up to more than you would think. This was maybe 8 years ago and the direct costs were like $800/kid for a 15 person team.

The one paid coach was getting $2000 for the season for two practices per week, mainly DH on weekend and two tournaments. We didn’t do any overnight tourneys so we didn’t have to cover any travel costs for the coach.

I would imagine just those direct costs today would probably put it at $1200+ per kid.

So use that as a benchmark to determine if anyone is getting rich off their travel fees.

Why can traditional organizations like Little League do the same for far less? They are bleeding but often provide the same kind of experience (parent coaches with some who played at high levels — college and pro).

The thread is about HS travel teams…while LL ends at 12 (for most kids…yeah there is a juniors division that goes to 14 but many LLs don’t have one).

[Anonymous]

Youth sports is all pay to play.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will say this…I actually founded a travel organization with the intent that it would be volunteer parent coaches supporting one paid coach and the fees would be set to cover 100% of just costs (umpires at games, some shared batting helmets (like 5 per team), one set of catcher’s gear, jerseys, tournament entrance fees, and field permit fees).

It added up to more than you would think. This was maybe 8 years ago and the direct costs were like $800/kid for a 15 person team.

The one paid coach was getting $2000 for the season for two practices per week, mainly DH on weekend and two tournaments. We didn’t do any overnight tourneys so we didn’t have to cover any travel costs for the coach.

I would imagine just those direct costs today would probably put it at $1200+ per kid.

So use that as a benchmark to determine if anyone is getting rich off their travel fees.

Why can traditional organizations like Little League do the same for far less? They are bleeding but often provide the same kind of experience (parent coaches with some who played at high levels — college and pro).

For us, it’s the permit fees and having a paid coach spread over 15 players…I didn’t even mention that there are some admin costs of a non-profit.

Also, each tournament might be like $750/team while LL has none.

LL will get fields for a certain amount of time and sometime they make teams double up for practice. Especially the kids at the 6 year old ages where practice is kind of nothing. Also, our LL only practice once per week for 90 minutes vs travel at 2 hours twice per week.

Our LL also gets uniforms for free.

BTW, I would say less than 10% of our LL coaches ever played in college and one played Minors…but was ironically a terrible coach.

Why do you even need to travel. In baseball, several of the NoVa teams were all at the same tourney in SC. Seems stupid to travel when there’s already talent locally.

We didn’t travel…that’s the cost to enter the tournament.

I understood that. But you don’t need tournamets except as a gimmick.

[Anonymous]

Some high school coaches have expensive camps over the summer and then give preferential treatment to attendee kids who lacked talent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will say this…I actually founded a travel organization with the intent that it would be volunteer parent coaches supporting one paid coach and the fees would be set to cover 100% of just costs (umpires at games, some shared batting helmets (like 5 per team), one set of catcher’s gear, jerseys, tournament entrance fees, and field permit fees).

It added up to more than you would think. This was maybe 8 years ago and the direct costs were like $800/kid for a 15 person team.

The one paid coach was getting $2000 for the season for two practices per week, mainly DH on weekend and two tournaments. We didn’t do any overnight tourneys so we didn’t have to cover any travel costs for the coach.

I would imagine just those direct costs today would probably put it at $1200+ per kid.

So use that as a benchmark to determine if anyone is getting rich off their travel fees.

Why can traditional organizations like Little League do the same for far less? They are bleeding but often provide the same kind of experience (parent coaches with some who played at high levels — college and pro).

For us, it’s the permit fees and having a paid coach spread over 15 players…I didn’t even mention that there are some admin costs of a non-profit.

Also, each tournament might be like $750/team while LL has none.

LL will get fields for a certain amount of time and sometime they make teams double up for practice. Especially the kids at the 6 year old ages where practice is kind of nothing. Also, our LL only practice once per week for 90 minutes vs travel at 2 hours twice per week.

Our LL also gets uniforms for free.

BTW, I would say less than 10% of our LL coaches ever played in college and one played Minors…but was ironically a terrible coach.

Why do you even need to travel. In baseball, several of the NoVa teams were all at the same tourney in SC. Seems stupid to travel when there’s already talent locally.

We didn’t travel…that’s the cost to enter the tournament.

I understood that. But you don’t need tournamets except as a gimmick.

You literally asked “why did you need to travel” and gave an example of going to SC…which we didn’t. We played a couple of local DMV tournaments.

If you understood you wouldn’t have given an example of tournaments 400 miles away.

The entire point is to give people an example of what the base costs may be for a team to decide if what they are paying is a rip off.