The best option is to get on the travel team or private lessons with the high school coach.

Pay off meaning you play in HS and then on to a D1 school with a scholarship?

Most likely not. Some will play in HS and most will not in college. If they play in college, it is mostly likely a D3 school and there are very few scholarships. Many will play club or intramural in college, if that.

Do travel and club if kid likes it and you have the money. There is no ROI.

They rarely do, at any level you care to mention (college admissions, scholarships, but also just teamwork, bonding, work ethic, whatever), but I entirely understand how families get sucked into doing more and more intensive activities.

And that's true for every single activity taken to extremes. The extremes do not pay off, period.
Thank goodness I realized this before sucking the life out of our family with DD's chosen hobby. It's bad enough to spend 5 hours on Sundays doing it.

Everyone plays club on our girls varsity basketball team.

My DS quit travel sport as it started to take too much time in HS, but did private training during this summer daily. He's on HS teams for basketball and soccer.

At my kids’ FCPS high school it varies a lot by sport.

Boys Basketball, and both boys and girls soccer and both boys and girls swim: many travel/club kids cut

Girls basketball, softball, and baseball: most travel kids make the team, but not all.

Gymnastics, wrestling, golf, field hockey: pretty much all the club/travel kids make the team

Lacrosse, rifle, track, cross country, cheer, rowing: some cuts, but very few, most or all athletic kids make the team even if they are new to the sport.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

NP but it’s not weird or foolish. Not every kid plays travel sports in order to make HS or college teams.

+1 its ok of kids, even HS age teens just play sports for fun.

Of course they can. But if a kid is doing the team to improve their skills and make another competitive team, that is okay too. If you think "kids shouldn't be doing it" to achieve something, we disagree.

Anonymous wrote:I definitely see this. Kids switching club teams in order to make the most elite teams signaling to other kids that they are now better than them. Also, they do private coaching and tons of extra skills training besides the elite teams practice and games. So it does take a lot of time, effort and commitment to actually be good enough to make the high school team.

Which is fine for athletes who want to play in college. For others, that's just not how they want to spend all their time. It sucks but I guess it is what it is.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

What does this mean? What rec programs were gutted?

This could be a whole different thread. Essentially all the resources go towards low level travel/club (this is very sport dependent though) who charge fees substantially higher than local rec programs. The only people left in rec have 0 buy in often have trouble even fielding teams week to week. In the not so distant past, you had a decent variety of players (including some very talented ones) still playing rec to try different sports. That's all but gone now in most areas.

It is still possible to put together strong rec programs, but it's getting harder by the year (it feels like). I think the best compromise is what local baseball has found through majors: the travel players come back to play rec in spring because of the competitive all-star season in summer that still carries prestige. That keeps the invested parents volunteering for rec, keeps the level of play somewhat higher, that sort of thing.

Otherwise by it seems somewhere between 9 and 11 things really get weak in rec. And only the biggest programs can even provide teams past late elementary or middle school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

NP but it’s not weird or foolish. Not every kid plays travel sports in order to make HS or college teams.

+1 its ok of kids, even HS age teens just play sports for fun.

I definitely see this. Kids switching club teams in order to make the most elite teams signaling to other kids that they are now better than them. Also, they do private coaching and tons of extra skills training besides the elite teams practice and games. So it does take a lot of time, effort and commitment to actually be good enough to make the high school team.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

NP but it’s not weird or foolish. Not every kid plays travel sports in order to make HS or college teams.

* My DS's HS soccer coach

Whether your DC will make a team in HS really depends on local competition. If they have enough kids to pick from travel teams, they'll do so. Obviously if someone plays travel, they're more likely to be better than someone who does not. That said, if your kid is good and the coach is honest, they'll make the team in HS. My DS's HS has a coach who looks at all kids and is fair, he obviously knows who plays club and himself trains younger club kids (HS coaches are not allowed to coach age group), but looks at the skill and potential. The basketball team on the other hand is a complete mess.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

What does this mean? What rec programs were gutted?

This could be a whole different thread. Essentially all the resources go towards low level travel/club (this is very sport dependent though) who charge fees substantially higher than local rec programs. The only people left in rec have 0 buy in often have trouble even fielding teams week to week. In the not so distant past, you had a decent variety of players (including some very talented ones) still playing rec to try different sports. That's all but gone now in most areas.

Yep. Everyone wants to be able to say they do travel so rec suffers. Low level travel is basically rec level play but with more time commitments and $. DS just wanted to play rec soccer, not his main sport, just to basically have what would have been pick up games 30 years ago. Did rec all through elementary school. In middle school, even though it was rec (not low level travel), we had to travel all over the DMV for games. He quit the next year because he wasn’t looking to spend that much time on soccer.