Why are youth and high school sports so competitive to get into now?

[Anonymous]

Just a side note:

I think it is safe to say there is no coed high school in the country that offers a relatively full slate of sports for boys and girls that complies with Title IX.

Virginia, for example, had high school sport participation numbers of; Boys 103,466 and Girls 74,960. Those numbers must be equal.
If we made Virginia comply with Title IX this year - starting this Winter - you would be good if you cut baseball, basketball, wrestling and golf.

How close do you have to be to comply. Michigan State cut its swimming program over COVID. It did not want to spend money renovating its pool. So it cut both the men’s and women’s teams. The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals found that, using the college’s numbers, the difference between men and women athletes was 18. And, that was enough for another women’s team. It didn’t have to be swimming, but it has to be something.

Go look at your high school’s numbers. Grab a yearbook and count. Include freshmen and JV. Don’t include non-sport activities, eg sideline/cheer, but do include activities with regular competitions, eg competitive cheer. What are your school’s numbers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just want my kid to play a team sport in high school and that’s starting to feel like a big maybe given the competition in our area. He’s an above average athlete who works hard and puts in extra reps outside of team but isn’t hyper driven in the sense that he has no expectations around being recruited to play in college. So, despite years of playing multiple sports at a fairly demanding level, love for the game, natural athleticism, and coachability he’s a bubble player and may find himself “retired” from his favorite sport(s) at 14. His athletic female friends are having far more success playing into HS than many of his male friends given the sheer numbers.

The number of girls and boys playing is the same thanks to title IX. It's not great for a boy who doesn't play football because football teams are needlessly and laughably large. If you're in FCPS, have him try volleyball. Our school was desperate enough that the boys team was no cut this year

The number actually playing is not the same as the number who *want* to play.

Go to girls volleyball tryouts and talk about how easy it is to make a girls team. Both genders have teams with hard cuts and both have teams that are easy to make

+100

Our HS had to cut 60 girls from flag football.

Similar numbers for girls soccer.

People thinking that making a girls team is easy just don't know what they are talking about. It may differ in sport by sport at different schools. But its not like girls can just sign up and play. They have to endure tryouts and cuts like the boys

Calm down. Literally nobody said (or even implied) that making a girls team is easy. It was merely stated that more boys WANT to play sports than girls. So Title IX, which is great in many ways, will inevitably lead to far MORE boys being disappointed than girls.

[Anonymous]

What makes you think more boys want to play sports than girls?

So many girls are cut every year from soccer at our school, same thing happens with tennis, basketball, softball,lacrosse, now flag football … it goes on and on.

What’s especially frustrating at our school is when coaches decide to take less than the allowed roster size “to make it easier on them.”

The corollary is how “it’s so hard for them” (the coaches) to make cuts.

When you are literally hurting kids’ self esteem and self worth and taking away an identity they have had since kindergarten in many cases, don’t make it about you and how hard it is for you to make cuts or how much easier it is for you to take a smaller roster.

And please don’t cut kids in front of other kids. It’s not a reality show.

I understand that smaller rosters may be more streamlined and easier to coach and understand that cuts must be made. I only wish the coaches had just an ounce of emotional intelligence.

Or how about some new policies?

[Anonymous]

I guess the problem I see is that sports have basically become all or nothing. Either you're doing travel teams and shelling out money for private lessons, or you're out of luck.

I grew up playing rec league sports in Toronto. Anyone who wanted to could sign up for a hockey team in winter and a soccer or baseball team during summer, which were run by Toronto's parks and rec, and have very modest signup calls. This provided a middle ground of giving kids the benefits of physical activity without having to devote your family's life to it. Whether you played a sport or not was irrelevant to college admissions, since college sports aren't much of a thing in Canada.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess the problem I see is that sports have basically become all or nothing. Either you're doing travel teams and shelling out money for private lessons, or you're out of luck.

I grew up playing rec league sports in Toronto. Anyone who wanted to could sign up for a hockey team in winter and a soccer or baseball team during summer, which were run by Toronto's parks and rec, and have very modest signup calls. This provided a middle ground of giving kids the benefits of physical activity without having to devote your family's life to it. Whether you played a sport or not was irrelevant to college admissions, since college sports aren't much of a thing in Canada.

This sounds so, so much better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess the problem I see is that sports have basically become all or nothing. Either you're doing travel teams and shelling out money for private lessons, or you're out of luck.

I grew up playing rec league sports in Toronto. Anyone who wanted to could sign up for a hockey team in winter and a soccer or baseball team during summer, which were run by Toronto's parks and rec, and have very modest signup calls. This provided a middle ground of giving kids the benefits of physical activity without having to devote your family's life to it. Whether you played a sport or not was irrelevant to college admissions, since college sports aren't much of a thing in Canada.

Plus we all know the average Canadian hockey player isn’t smart enough to attend college anyway

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess the problem I see is that sports have basically become all or nothing. Either you're doing travel teams and shelling out money for private lessons, or you're out of luck.

I grew up playing rec league sports in Toronto. Anyone who wanted to could sign up for a hockey team in winter and a soccer or baseball team during summer, which were run by Toronto's parks and rec, and have very modest signup calls. This provided a middle ground of giving kids the benefits of physical activity without having to devote your family's life to it. Whether you played a sport or not was irrelevant to college admissions, since college sports aren't much of a thing in Canada.

But that's still true.

For most sports, there are rec league options.

Outside of a few sports, there are still options for kids that are new to the sport or want the pressure-free version of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess the problem I see is that sports have basically become all or nothing. Either you're doing travel teams and shelling out money for private lessons, or you're out of luck.

I grew up playing rec league sports in Toronto. Anyone who wanted to could sign up for a hockey team in winter and a soccer or baseball team during summer, which were run by Toronto's parks and rec, and have very modest signup calls. This provided a middle ground of giving kids the benefits of physical activity without having to devote your family's life to it. Whether you played a sport or not was irrelevant to college admissions, since college sports aren't much of a thing in Canada.

I don't really understand what you are saying. There are plenty of rec leagues in the US where kids can easily play.

Here is a story in the NY Times today of a female Canadian hockey player. This doesn't sound much different from the crazy travel leagues/private schools others reference in the US throughout this thread:

Less than two years after making the switch from boys to girls hockey, Primerano was already one of the sport’s best young players, leading her team in scoring and winning Canadian Female Prep High School MVP in her 10th grade debut season. And after her international debut at the 2024 U18 worlds — where she led the tournament in scoring, set a record for points by a defender (16) and was named best defender and tournament MVP — Primerano already needed a new challenge.

She could return to RINK Hockey Academy in Kelowna, B.C., the hockey school that churns out NCAA talent, national team hopefuls and NHL draft picks such as Tij Iginla and Ryder Ritchie, or she could make a highly unusual move for a teenage women’s hockey player: graduate from high school early and start college at 17.

At 15 years old — in her ninth-grade season — Primerano was still playing boys hockey for the Burnaby Winter Club in the U15 prep league.

[Anonymous]

Some of the best experiences my kids have had are:

MoCo Rec Basketball
MSI kindergarten soccer
MSI rec and classic soccer
BCC rec and select baseball
Summer swim team

All of this was before going to travel/school teams and wouldn’t trade it for anything. This is what we will remember and look back on.

Wish someone would start a rec volleyball league.

[Anonymous]

That’s. Not a bet

[Anonymous]

I think the point the Canadian PP was making was that if you don’t play travel and supplement with training you have very slim to no chance of making your HS team. Of course rec options exist here but unless your child is a very very gifted natural athlete they won’t likely make the HS team with just rec under their belt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess the problem I see is that sports have basically become all or nothing. Either you're doing travel teams and shelling out money for private lessons, or you're out of luck.

I grew up playing rec league sports in Toronto. Anyone who wanted to could sign up for a hockey team in winter and a soccer or baseball team during summer, which were run by Toronto's parks and rec, and have very modest signup calls. This provided a middle ground of giving kids the benefits of physical activity without having to devote your family's life to it. Whether you played a sport or not was irrelevant to college admissions, since college sports aren't much of a thing in Canada.

Plus we all know the average Canadian hockey player isn’t smart enough to attend college anyway

Well, the best hockey players went into the hockey minor leagues after high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the point the Canadian PP was making was that if you don’t play travel and supplement with training you have very slim to no chance of making your HS team. Of course rec options exist here but unless your child is a very very gifted natural athlete they won’t likely make the HS team with just rec under their belt.

Right. The high school teams were what most kids aspired to play on, and there wasn't this entire ecosystem of teams you had to pay to join, and then spend your weekends traveling for games. Kids who were interested in sports really only started taking them super seriously around middle school, in the hopes of making their school's team. And parents were much less invested in their kids' sports back then. The lack of college sports meant there wasn't this idea that sports could help you get into McGill or King's University.

I'm not sure who the current system we have in the US is supposed to serve, other than the people who make money off of travel teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the point the Canadian PP was making was that if you don’t play travel and supplement with training you have very slim to no chance of making your HS team. Of course rec options exist here but unless your child is a very very gifted natural athlete they won’t likely make the HS team with just rec under their belt.

Right. The high school teams were what most kids aspired to play on, and there wasn't this entire ecosystem of teams you had to pay to join, and then spend your weekends traveling for games. Kids who were interested in sports really only started taking them super seriously around middle school, in the hopes of making their school's team. And parents were much less invested in their kids' sports back then. The lack of college sports meant there wasn't this idea that sports could help you get into McGill or King's University.

I'm not sure who the current system we have in the US is supposed to serve, other than the people who make money off of travel teams.

You are describing the system that most of us parents grew up in when we were in middle school and high school.

The key difference is what you describe with respect to college sports in Canada. Though, I guess it would seem that Canadians playing sports at high levels do try to get recruited to US colleges.

That said, my kid played in a travel baseball tournament over the Summer where there were 5 Canadian teams participating. So, perhaps Canada is increasingly adopting the US system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of the best experiences my kids have had are:

MoCo Rec Basketball
MSI kindergarten soccer
MSI rec and classic soccer
BCC rec and select baseball
Summer swim team

All of this was before going to travel/school teams and wouldn’t trade it for anything. This is what we will remember and look back on.

Wish someone would start a rec volleyball league.

There are quite a few rec volleyball leagues. Probably the best known is the Gaithersburg league, then probably Montgomery County rec league. You just need to keep your eyes peeled when the registration start because the spots fly.