Anonymous wrote:Surprised no one has mentioned recruiting at public schools which is supposed to be prohibited

Anonymous wrote:A lot of high schools are absolutely huge now. In many sports only top travel players have a shot at making JV, much less varsity. Obviously this trickles down and makes the youth sports scene far more competitive- working towards making a HS roster by age 10. It is crazy.

There at exceptions. Many smaller privates in my area have plenty of availability on rosters- most students can make any team they want (though they may not see much playing time) and can play multiple seasonal sports. In the small town where I grew up (high school has about 800 students 9-12) it is much the same. Many all-conference varsity players on those teams would be iffy to make JV at huge suburban high schools.

Huge high schools are the driver of most of this- especially in UMC areas.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO the underlying mechanism too few facilities, gyms, fields, courts, pools, etc. In my area there are several "great" schools that have graduating classes of six hundred plus students three times the size of my graduating class.

The manifestation is that parents employ hired guns to train their kids to ensure that the kids will have spots. These hired guns use all kinds of techniques to ensure parents get what they pay for including, teaching unsafe or dirty play. These hired guns often monopolize public resources. Contracting soccer fields near schools or contracting pools and control both the access to teams and training reducing the game to a pay for play scheme.

The unsuspecting kids from families that aren't familiar with a sport trying to have fun are literally driven off the field.

This statement is NOT accurate. If you go to Langley High School on weekends, the football field is literally emptied during the summer (also on weekends during school year), and anyone can use the field to practice soccer. There is an adjacent grass field right next to the football field and anyone can use that field.

Practice what? Practice being a field cone on a soccer club's scout team.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't believe this is even a NOVA issue since it is happening all over America, whether it is California, Texas, Massachusetts, and so on. You have to put your kid in competitive sports at a young age to even have a chance of playing at the high school level. There aren't many rec options once you get to the middle school level, and every school team by then has competitive tryouts. There is no way to pick up a new sport by late elementary or middle school. Kids have to determine their interests at their young age or else it is too late. I don't want to encourage my kids to get into sports because I know it is going to suck for them in the end.

It is especially frustrating when there is basically nothing you get in return for investing so much into youth sports. Most kids will never play in the NCAA, and varsity sports don't matter much for college admissions. I don't know how it is reasonable for any family to invest so much time and money and risking their health for basically nothing.

Lol. Wow. Most people who play sports from pickup at the local park to pronhall of famers play because it is fun. And exercise. Also some people do go far sstarting late. Why not just do rec for a couple of sports and have fun meeting people and exercising

what a terrible attitude

The rec experiences in many sports aren't all that great. It's part of the hired gun problem. You would expect that the kids that are in competitive programs would seek better competition, but nope there they are swimming in summer leagues playing in rec tournaments, practicing their slide tackles on kids. So, you have kids practicing three or more times per week all year long with professional coaches playing against kids that have had maybe a dozen practices in the year. See what I mean, driven from the field.

Then most of the rec leagues have reduced scope of play. We did rec league basketball four practices four games. Yeah, it was fun, but not enough. Most of the rec kids just don't want to keep doing if after a season or two.

I can confirm the bolded part (but it may be different for different sports). One year in, you have a lot of player turn around and you feel that your kid cannot make progress because the level is so low. You look around and find clubs, then you realize that your kid is terrible compared to the kids who were playing club. You have the frustrating choice of continuing rec or the costly choice of moving to club. There is rarely something in between. I would not call this a hired gun problem though, it is capitalism at it's finest.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The bottom line is that over time inefficiencies get eliminated from the system and more resources are required to compete.

30+ years ago Texas high schools went on a size binge in order to become more dominant in sports. The natural culmination is Allen high school with well over 1000 students per graduating class. Historically that would have comfortably been sufficient for three high schools. Instead, those 2000 or so boys all compete for spots on one football team, one basketball team, etc….

Parents with resources also pour money into development in a way not previously seen. It’s basically an open secret that in college football, the QB position is mostly dominated by kids from wealthy, in tact families. The Colorado head coach basically admitted that those are part of the recruiting criteria when he looks for QBs. One of the most successful high school coaches in the country said that leading the Southlake Carrol football team was the easiest job in the country because all the kids had personal trainers and position coaches. He just had to show up and draw up plays.

The problem is noticeable in other ways. At our (non-DC) local powerhouse high school, the multi-sport athlete is basically extinct. Gone are the days when a great athlete could simply wake up and transition from a fall sport to a winter sport. The coaches require specialization.

There are outlier high schools. Particularly in the elite/small private school world and under resourced public schools. There a great athlete can still play three sports a year.

+1

A lot of high schools are absolutely huge now. In many sports only top travel players have a shot at making JV, much less varsity. Obviously this trickles down and makes the youth sports scene far more competitive- working towards making a HS roster by age 10. It is crazy.

There at exceptions. Many smaller privates in my area have plenty of availability on rosters- most students can make any team they want (though they may not see much playing time) and can play multiple seasonal sports. In the small town where I grew up (high school has about 800 students 9-12) it is much the same. Many all-conference varsity players on those teams would be iffy to make JV at huge suburban high schools.

Huge high schools are the driver of most of this- especially in UMC areas.

Anonymous wrote:The bottom line is that over time inefficiencies get eliminated from the system and more resources are required to compete.

30+ years ago Texas high schools went on a size binge in order to become more dominant in sports. The natural culmination is Allen high school with well over 1000 students per graduating class. Historically that would have comfortably been sufficient for three high schools. Instead, those 2000 or so boys all compete for spots on one football team, one basketball team, etc….

Parents with resources also pour money into development in a way not previously seen. It’s basically an open secret that in college football, the QB position is mostly dominated by kids from wealthy, in tact families. The Colorado head coach basically admitted that those are part of the recruiting criteria when he looks for QBs. One of the most successful high school coaches in the country said that leading the Southlake Carrol football team was the easiest job in the country because all the kids had personal trainers and position coaches. He just had to show up and draw up plays.

The problem is noticeable in other ways. At our (non-DC) local powerhouse high school, the multi-sport athlete is basically extinct. Gone are the days when a great athlete could simply wake up and transition from a fall sport to a winter sport. The coaches require specialization.

There are outlier high schools. Particularly in the elite/small private school world and under resourced public schools. There a great athlete can still play three sports a year.

Anonymous wrote:The bottom line is that over time inefficiencies get eliminated from the system and more resources are required to compete.

30+ years ago Texas high schools went on a size binge in order to become more dominant in sports. The natural culmination is Allen high school with well over 1000 students per graduating class. Historically that would have comfortably been sufficient for three high schools. Instead, those 2000 or so boys all compete for spots on one football team, one basketball team, etc….

Parents with resources also pour money into development in a way not previously seen. It’s basically an open secret that in college football, the QB position is mostly dominated by kids from wealthy, in tact families. The Colorado head coach basically admitted that those are part of the recruiting criteria when he looks for QBs. One of the most successful high school coaches in the country said that leading the Southlake Carrol football team was the easiest job in the country because all the kids had personal trainers and position coaches. He just had to show up and draw up plays.

The problem is noticeable in other ways. At our (non-DC) local powerhouse high school, the multi-sport athlete is basically extinct. Gone are the days when a great athlete could simply wake up and transition from a fall sport to a winter sport. The coaches require specialization.

There are outlier high schools. Particularly in the elite/small private school world and under resourced public schools. There a great athlete can still play three sports a year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO the underlying mechanism too few facilities, gyms, fields, courts, pools, etc. In my area there are several "great" schools that have graduating classes of six hundred plus students three times the size of my graduating class.

The manifestation is that parents employ hired guns to train their kids to ensure that the kids will have spots. These hired guns use all kinds of techniques to ensure parents get what they pay for including, teaching unsafe or dirty play. These hired guns often monopolize public resources. Contracting soccer fields near schools or contracting pools and control both the access to teams and training reducing the game to a pay for play scheme.

The unsuspecting kids from families that aren't familiar with a sport trying to have fun are literally driven off the field.

This statement is NOT accurate. If you go to Langley High School on weekends, the football field is literally emptied during the summer (also on weekends during school year), and anyone can use the field to practice soccer. There is an adjacent grass field right next to the football field and anyone can use that field.