Our HS team is good, and not all kids who played club will even make the freshman team, certainly not varsity. Even if they make varsity, several will ride the bench.

Not sure why posters are confused about what pay off is in this context. Pay off is, your child plays club sports so that he/she can play on the high school team. Not thinking beyond that. Right now, so many kids are playing club basketball just in my son’s grade alone. And it seems unlikely that the entire middle or high school team will be filled with just those grade kids.. so no not everyone will make their middle or high school teams.

It is “paying off” for DC in that he has a built in set of friends, purpose, built character, has an extremely high level of physical fitness, and was accepted into a SLAC he otherwise probably wouldn’t have been able to.
This is without doing the most extreme levels.

Is it nevertheless worth it to play club? Yes, if you enjoy team travel, your kid likes the team, coach, and the extra work required (running, private training etc.)

If not, there are lots of other things to do in high school. Flag football is a nice alternative for soccer girls.

To make JV soccer at our high school, you must play club - girls and boys. To make varsity, probably need to play for a top club. Plenty of club players get cut from JV and Varsity.

The club teams sort for the varsity coaches. Try outs are only a few days long and they don’t really get to see players in game situations.

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.