Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not true at all. There are tons of sports that require wealth. Sure it helps if kids have an athletic physique once they go through puberty; however, wealth makes quite a difference in a lot of sports.

Downhill skiing, squash, tennis, golf, hockey, equestrian sports, fencing, ice skating are some examples of sports that require tons of money. My friend taught at a private school in Florida where it accommodated students' sports schedules which included swimming, tennis, equestrian sports, fencing and car racing. All of those kids were super wealthy.

Yes they may require money but it doesn’t necessarily mean the kids will be good. Are you seriously debating this

Are you kidding? You need money to get good in tennis or golf. Even Francis Tiafoe needs serious training that JTCC provided him for FREE due to his family situation. Scott Scheffler wouldn't be the best golfer in the world had his family was poor.

If you have kid A and B with the same athletic ability, but kid A has wealth and kid B is poor, kid A will come out ahead in athletic because kid A gets the best training money can buy.

Anonymous wrote:I’m pp who said these rich Asians are buying houses in cash. We live in McLean. We also live in a $4m house. The nicer houses seem to be being bought by wealthy Chinese. They don’t even live here full time.

You will see more of them in NYC, CA and Vancouver. The rich Chinese often buy the $10m+ apts in nyc in cash.

+2

I also live in Langley, a subset of McLean. There are many Asians in the area with expensive homes, and kids in private schools like Sidwell, NCS, St. Albans, etc... They pay $175/hour for golf or tennis lessons without blinking an eye.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It depends. My DS made the varsity tennis team at Langley HS as a freshman.

My kid also made the tennis team as a freshman. There is only varsity tennis in fcps. No JV. For your kid and my kid, it doesn’t seem so competitive. For the other 40 kids who came to tryouts and didn’t make the team, they will say it is extremely difficult to make the tennis team.

There is no JV in either golf or tennis in FCPS. They are probably the two most difficult sports due to the small roster size. It is even more difficult in HS such as Langley, Mclean, and Oakton because just about every kid in the tryouts is either from UMC or UC families. Those kids are trained at a very young age, since money is not an issue. The competition to be in the golf or tennis team is ten times worse than the competition in academics.

Wut. As long as you play some tournaments you can make high school team.

Not if you attend any of the schools in a wealthy neighborhood.

Everyone here makes everything about wealth. There is no correlation between wealth and athleticism. Quite a few private schools require students to participate in a sport after school. That doesn’t make them all athletes but it’s a great idea.

Sports like basketball can only take a very few kids. That would be the tall kids who have coordination, hand eye coordination, endurance, fast rubbers, skills necessary to play. This happens in every town.

Agreed. This area in particular has a lot of parents trying to buy their kid a shot, whether it be education or athletics, and then grousing if it doesn’t pan out.

All the private coaching and elite travel in the world provided to pre-pubescent kids won’t mean a thing after the puberty lottery. And it’s fine if you have the resources and inclination to go for it as long as possible, but the kids who play varsity basketball aren’t playing because their parents were wealthy and got them lots of coaching. They’re playing because they’re the superior athletes with the right genetics.

(Golf may be a different story, but of course, golf isn’t a sport, or at least not a sport that requires any particular athletic ability.)

This is not true at all. There are tons of sports that require wealth. Sure it helps if kids have an athletic physique once they go through puberty; however, wealth makes quite a difference in a lot of sports.

Downhill skiing, squash, tennis, golf, hockey, equestrian sports, fencing, ice skating are some examples of sports that require tons of money. My friend taught at a private school in Florida where it accommodated students' sports schedules which included swimming, tennis, equestrian sports, fencing and car racing. All of those kids were super wealthy.

Okay. It’s true for these elitist activities you listed which wealthy people call sports because they can’t buy their kid’s way onto the varsity basketball team.

(FWIW tennis and hockey are the only real sports you listed, and hockey is plenty accessible the farther north you go.)

I know someone has posted a study that show elite travel basketball AAU teams are actually high MC and UMC families predominantly.

Nobody in the DMV is playing on any of the good HS basketball teams without playing this AAU circuit (which has the HS coaches, coaching different programs). Also, the best players have been playing since very young…and both their parents are super tall so they know they will hit a decent height when puberty kicks in.

Hockey players all have to play in prep school teams for a 5th year of HS if they want to play college and definitely skews UMC in the US. May be different in Canada.

Football is the one sport without any travel circuit so probably more accessible.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It depends. My DS made the varsity tennis team at Langley HS as a freshman.

My kid also made the tennis team as a freshman. There is only varsity tennis in fcps. No JV. For your kid and my kid, it doesn’t seem so competitive. For the other 40 kids who came to tryouts and didn’t make the team, they will say it is extremely difficult to make the tennis team.

There is no JV in either golf or tennis in FCPS. They are probably the two most difficult sports due to the small roster size. It is even more difficult in HS such as Langley, Mclean, and Oakton because just about every kid in the tryouts is either from UMC or UC families. Those kids are trained at a very young age, since money is not an issue. The competition to be in the golf or tennis team is ten times worse than the competition in academics.

Wut. As long as you play some tournaments you can make high school team.

Not if you attend any of the schools in a wealthy neighborhood.

Everyone here makes everything about wealth. There is no correlation between wealth and athleticism. Quite a few private schools require students to participate in a sport after school. That doesn’t make them all athletes but it’s a great idea.

Sports like basketball can only take a very few kids. That would be the tall kids who have coordination, hand eye coordination, endurance, fast rubbers, skills necessary to play. This happens in every town.

Agreed. This area in particular has a lot of parents trying to buy their kid a shot, whether it be education or athletics, and then grousing if it doesn’t pan out.

All the private coaching and elite travel in the world provided to pre-pubescent kids won’t mean a thing after the puberty lottery. And it’s fine if you have the resources and inclination to go for it as long as possible, but the kids who play varsity basketball aren’t playing because their parents were wealthy and got them lots of coaching. They’re playing because they’re the superior athletes with the right genetics.

(Golf may be a different story, but of course, golf isn’t a sport, or at least not a sport that requires any particular athletic ability.)

This is not true at all. There are tons of sports that require wealth. Sure it helps if kids have an athletic physique once they go through puberty; however, wealth makes quite a difference in a lot of sports.

Downhill skiing, squash, tennis, golf, hockey, equestrian sports, fencing, ice skating are some examples of sports that require tons of money. My friend taught at a private school in Florida where it accommodated students' sports schedules which included swimming, tennis, equestrian sports, fencing and car racing. All of those kids were super wealthy.

Okay. It’s true for these elitist activities you listed which wealthy people call sports because they can’t buy their kid’s way onto the varsity basketball team.

(FWIW tennis and hockey are the only real sports you listed, and hockey is plenty accessible the farther north you go.)

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was always competitive, OP. Many countries have had ultra competitive college admissions for generations. Here in America you just didn't realize it because you were part of the privileged. As PP said, in your generation many of the US poor or the US non-whites didn't make it to college. Now it's opened up a lot more, and you're feeling the heat.

It’s not because of US poor or non whites it’s mostly because of foreign elites coming here

This. Foreign elites also affected the housing market.

I was a child of poor Asian immigrants. My parents came here for a better life. Same with DH’s family. DH and I did well in school and professionally. Recently there has been a wave of extremely wealthy Asians. They were not as common when I was a kid. These are people who will buy a $5m home cash without blinking. They have money and brains. So you now have the smart Asian Americans like my kids, the kids of poor Asian immigrants (like me and Dh when we were kids) and now the really smart rich immigrant kids.

There are more and more Chinese illegal immigrants crossing the southern border. According to Homeland Security there was an. 8,000 percent increase in border crossings from March of last year to March of this year. People automatically think brown people when discussing illegal immigrants but Asians are coming to the country illegally too and the numbers are going up.

You think Chinese immigrants are illegally crossing the border and then enrolling their kids into travel sports? Very creative imagination.

This is a new one

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s because parents are involved. They’ve ruined everything!

And that gets back to the foreign elite test mill culture that has taken root.

Omg it isn’t foreign elites. American parents are doing a fine job ruining sports on their own.

We are "foreign elite" - highly educated immigrants with high HHI. I can tell you that our parenting is changing American parents, I can see it with our American friends. I am talking about very high academic expectations in particular. Like, expectations of excellence in whatever they are doing. Not saying it's the only factor or anything, but there is a real effect there.

I think it's possible that among certain classes, highly competitive parenting styles "imported "from other countries, mostly east Asian and south East Asian, are affecting the culture, and that that has filtered down to the middle class.

I am chagrined about this, like many others on this thread (and it's the point of the OP's post) This emphasis on winning, being better than others at all costs, the pursuit of the highest grades and the best schools – it's toxic and ugly. It's the worst of human nature. There is a reason why depression and suicide rates are sky high in Asian countries. Some adults will say that you're glad that your parents made you play violin 8 hours a day or whatever, but this isn't the life that many of us want for our children.

I'm not blaming the competitive state of parenting today on Asian culture, but I think it is a factor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate

Suicide rates in Japan and China are lower than in the USA.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s because parents are involved. They’ve ruined everything!

And that gets back to the foreign elite test mill culture that has taken root.

Omg it isn’t foreign elites. American parents are doing a fine job ruining sports on their own.

We are "foreign elite" - highly educated immigrants with high HHI. I can tell you that our parenting is changing American parents, I can see it with our American friends. I am talking about very high academic expectations in particular. Like, expectations of excellence in whatever they are doing. Not saying it's the only factor or anything, but there is a real effect there.

I think it's possible that among certain classes, highly competitive parenting styles "imported "from other countries, mostly east Asian and south East Asian, are affecting the culture, and that that has filtered down to the middle class.

I am chagrined about this, like many others on this thread (and it's the point of the OP's post) This emphasis on winning, being better than others at all costs, the pursuit of the highest grades and the best schools – it's toxic and ugly. It's the worst of human nature. There is a reason why depression and suicide rates are sky high in Asian countries. Some adults will say that you're glad that your parents made you play violin 8 hours a day or whatever, but this isn't the life that many of us want for our children.

I'm not blaming the competitive state of parenting today on Asian culture, but I think it is a factor.

+1 I am Asian American and agree with this 100%. My parents are first gen but very laidback by Asian standards. Growing up, I was struck by how strict my Asian friends' parents were - tutors, extracurriculars, Ivy Leagues, plus corporal punishment. I ended up going to a decent state school (think UT Austin) and even though I was not competitive for the same colleges/careers some of my peers went on to, I feel lucky about the childhood I was able to have and the close relationship I still have with my parents.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s because parents are involved. They’ve ruined everything!

And that gets back to the foreign elite test mill culture that has taken root.

Omg it isn’t foreign elites. American parents are doing a fine job ruining sports on their own.

We are "foreign elite" - highly educated immigrants with high HHI. I can tell you that our parenting is changing American parents, I can see it with our American friends. I am talking about very high academic expectations in particular. Like, expectations of excellence in whatever they are doing. Not saying it's the only factor or anything, but there is a real effect there.

I think it's possible that among certain classes, highly competitive parenting styles "imported "from other countries, mostly east Asian and south East Asian, are affecting the culture, and that that has filtered down to the middle class.

I am chagrined about this, like many others on this thread (and it's the point of the OP's post) This emphasis on winning, being better than others at all costs, the pursuit of the highest grades and the best schools – it's toxic and ugly. It's the worst of human nature. There is a reason why depression and suicide rates are sky high in Asian countries. Some adults will say that you're glad that your parents made you play violin 8 hours a day or whatever, but this isn't the life that many of us want for our children.

I'm not blaming the competitive state of parenting today on Asian culture, but I think it is a factor.

The thing is that this is not just Asian culture. It's specifically the culture of elite Asian immigrants to the US. If you think there is pressure in Asian countries to be perfect and succeed then the pressure that wealth and highly educated Asian immigrants are imposing is a finely distilled version of it. And because we are talking about wealthy people with expensive degrees it carries with it a high level of entitlement. The "tiger mom" culture is just this -- we are fundamentally better than other people and will do and pay anything to prove it.

A pursuit of excellence and success isn't inherently bad. But when you mix it in with this superiority that's when it becomes really toxic. We are superior to others because of our success. Also our children must succeed to show how superior we are. There is no way for this not to result in misery for at least some members of the culture. And their misery will then be viewed as a sign of their weakness and inferiority. It's terrifying.

I have no idea why anyone would emulate these cultural beliefs. In the hopes it will result in your kid getting into CalTech and going to work for FANG I guess. It is a really messed up set of values and I urge everyone Asian or not to reject it. This is not the way.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s because parents are involved. They’ve ruined everything!

And that gets back to the foreign elite test mill culture that has taken root.

Omg it isn’t foreign elites. American parents are doing a fine job ruining sports on their own.

We are "foreign elite" - highly educated immigrants with high HHI. I can tell you that our parenting is changing American parents, I can see it with our American friends. I am talking about very high academic expectations in particular. Like, expectations of excellence in whatever they are doing. Not saying it's the only factor or anything, but there is a real effect there.

I think it's possible that among certain classes, highly competitive parenting styles "imported "from other countries, mostly east Asian and south East Asian, are affecting the culture, and that that has filtered down to the middle class.

I am chagrined about this, like many others on this thread (and it's the point of the OP's post) This emphasis on winning, being better than others at all costs, the pursuit of the highest grades and the best schools – it's toxic and ugly. It's the worst of human nature. There is a reason why depression and suicide rates are sky high in Asian countries. Some adults will say that you're glad that your parents made you play violin 8 hours a day or whatever, but this isn't the life that many of us want for our children.

I'm not blaming the competitive state of parenting today on Asian culture, but I think it is a factor.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It depends. My DS made the varsity tennis team at Langley HS as a freshman.

My kid also made the tennis team as a freshman. There is only varsity tennis in fcps. No JV. For your kid and my kid, it doesn’t seem so competitive. For the other 40 kids who came to tryouts and didn’t make the team, they will say it is extremely difficult to make the tennis team.

There is no JV in either golf or tennis in FCPS. They are probably the two most difficult sports due to the small roster size. It is even more difficult in HS such as Langley, Mclean, and Oakton because just about every kid in the tryouts is either from UMC or UC families. Those kids are trained at a very young age, since money is not an issue. The competition to be in the golf or tennis team is ten times worse than the competition in academics.

Wut. As long as you play some tournaments you can make high school team.

Not if you attend any of the schools in a wealthy neighborhood.

Everyone here makes everything about wealth. There is no correlation between wealth and athleticism. Quite a few private schools require students to participate in a sport after school. That doesn’t make them all athletes but it’s a great idea.

Sports like basketball can only take a very few kids. That would be the tall kids who have coordination, hand eye coordination, endurance, fast rubbers, skills necessary to play. This happens in every town.

Agreed. This area in particular has a lot of parents trying to buy their kid a shot, whether it be education or athletics, and then grousing if it doesn’t pan out.

All the private coaching and elite travel in the world provided to pre-pubescent kids won’t mean a thing after the puberty lottery. And it’s fine if you have the resources and inclination to go for it as long as possible, but the kids who play varsity basketball aren’t playing because their parents were wealthy and got them lots of coaching. They’re playing because they’re the superior athletes with the right genetics.

(Golf may be a different story, but of course, golf isn’t a sport, or at least not a sport that requires any particular athletic ability.)

This is not true at all. There are tons of sports that require wealth. Sure it helps if kids have an athletic physique once they go through puberty; however, wealth makes quite a difference in a lot of sports.

Downhill skiing, squash, tennis, golf, hockey, equestrian sports, fencing, ice skating are some examples of sports that require tons of money. My friend taught at a private school in Florida where it accommodated students' sports schedules which included swimming, tennis, equestrian sports, fencing and car racing. All of those kids were super wealthy.

Okay. It’s true for these elitist activities you listed which wealthy people call sports because they can’t buy their kid’s way onto the varsity basketball team.

(FWIW tennis and hockey are the only real sports you listed, and hockey is plenty accessible the farther north you go.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was always competitive, OP. Many countries have had ultra competitive college admissions for generations. Here in America you just didn't realize it because you were part of the privileged. As PP said, in your generation many of the US poor or the US non-whites didn't make it to college. Now it's opened up a lot more, and you're feeling the heat.

It’s not because of US poor or non whites it’s mostly because of foreign elites coming here

This. Foreign elites also affected the housing market.

I was a child of poor Asian immigrants. My parents came here for a better life. Same with DH’s family. DH and I did well in school and professionally. Recently there has been a wave of extremely wealthy Asians. They were not as common when I was a kid. These are people who will buy a $5m home cash without blinking. They have money and brains. So you now have the smart Asian Americans like my kids, the kids of poor Asian immigrants (like me and Dh when we were kids) and now the really smart rich immigrant kids.

There are more and more Chinese illegal immigrants crossing the southern border. According to Homeland Security there was an. 8,000 percent increase in border crossings from March of last year to March of this year. People automatically think brown people when discussing illegal immigrants but Asians are coming to the country illegally too and the numbers are going up.

Pretty sure they aren’t the ones buying houses for $5MM cash.

I agree with PP…we aren’t seeing many of these HNW immigrants in Upper NW DC. Perhaps they are all in McLean or Great Falls.

+1

These guys just fly over.
LMAO at thinking of them grubbing around by the Mexican border

Then fleeing border patrol and enrolling their kids in travel soccer or fencing. Comical!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was always competitive, OP. Many countries have had ultra competitive college admissions for generations. Here in America you just didn't realize it because you were part of the privileged. As PP said, in your generation many of the US poor or the US non-whites didn't make it to college. Now it's opened up a lot more, and you're feeling the heat.

It’s not because of US poor or non whites it’s mostly because of foreign elites coming here

This. Foreign elites also affected the housing market.

I was a child of poor Asian immigrants. My parents came here for a better life. Same with DH’s family. DH and I did well in school and professionally. Recently there has been a wave of extremely wealthy Asians. They were not as common when I was a kid. These are people who will buy a $5m home cash without blinking. They have money and brains. So you now have the smart Asian Americans like my kids, the kids of poor Asian immigrants (like me and Dh when we were kids) and now the really smart rich immigrant kids.

There are more and more Chinese illegal immigrants crossing the southern border. According to Homeland Security there was an. 8,000 percent increase in border crossings from March of last year to March of this year. People automatically think brown people when discussing illegal immigrants but Asians are coming to the country illegally too and the numbers are going up.

You think Chinese immigrants are illegally crossing the border and then enrolling their kids into travel sports? Very creative imagination.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was always competitive, OP. Many countries have had ultra competitive college admissions for generations. Here in America you just didn't realize it because you were part of the privileged. As PP said, in your generation many of the US poor or the US non-whites didn't make it to college. Now it's opened up a lot more, and you're feeling the heat.

It’s not because of US poor or non whites it’s mostly because of foreign elites coming here

This. Foreign elites also affected the housing market.

I was a child of poor Asian immigrants. My parents came here for a better life. Same with DH’s family. DH and I did well in school and professionally. Recently there has been a wave of extremely wealthy Asians. They were not as common when I was a kid. These are people who will buy a $5m home cash without blinking. They have money and brains. So you now have the smart Asian Americans like my kids, the kids of poor Asian immigrants (like me and Dh when we were kids) and now the really smart rich immigrant kids.

There are more and more Chinese illegal immigrants crossing the southern border. According to Homeland Security there was an. 8,000 percent increase in border crossings from March of last year to March of this year. People automatically think brown people when discussing illegal immigrants but Asians are coming to the country illegally too and the numbers are going up.

Pretty sure they aren’t the ones buying houses for $5MM cash.

I agree with PP…we aren’t seeing many of these HNW immigrants in Upper NW DC. Perhaps they are all in McLean or Great Falls.

+1

These guys just fly over.
LMAO at thinking of them grubbing around by the Mexican border

I’m pp who said these rich Asians are buying houses in cash. We live in McLean. We also live in a $4m house. The nicer houses seem to be being bought by wealthy Chinese. They don’t even live here full time.

You will see more of them in NYC, CA and Vancouver. The rich Chinese often buy the $10m+ apts in nyc in cash.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It depends. My DS made the varsity tennis team at Langley HS as a freshman.

My kid also made the tennis team as a freshman. There is only varsity tennis in fcps. No JV. For your kid and my kid, it doesn’t seem so competitive. For the other 40 kids who came to tryouts and didn’t make the team, they will say it is extremely difficult to make the tennis team.

There is no JV in either golf or tennis in FCPS. They are probably the two most difficult sports due to the small roster size. It is even more difficult in HS such as Langley, Mclean, and Oakton because just about every kid in the tryouts is either from UMC or UC families. Those kids are trained at a very young age, since money is not an issue. The competition to be in the golf or tennis team is ten times worse than the competition in academics.

Wut. As long as you play some tournaments you can make high school team.

Not if you attend any of the schools in a wealthy neighborhood.

Everyone here makes everything about wealth. There is no correlation between wealth and athleticism. Quite a few private schools require students to participate in a sport after school. That doesn’t make them all athletes but it’s a great idea.

Sports like basketball can only take a very few kids. That would be the tall kids who have coordination, hand eye coordination, endurance, fast rubbers, skills necessary to play. This happens in every town.

Agreed. This area in particular has a lot of parents trying to buy their kid a shot, whether it be education or athletics, and then grousing if it doesn’t pan out.

All the private coaching and elite travel in the world provided to pre-pubescent kids won’t mean a thing after the puberty lottery. And it’s fine if you have the resources and inclination to go for it as long as possible, but the kids who play varsity basketball aren’t playing because their parents were wealthy and got them lots of coaching. They’re playing because they’re the superior athletes with the right genetics.

(Golf may be a different story, but of course, golf isn’t a sport, or at least not a sport that requires any particular athletic ability.)

This is not true at all. There are tons of sports that require wealth. Sure it helps if kids have an athletic physique once they go through puberty; however, wealth makes quite a difference in a lot of sports.

Downhill skiing, squash, tennis, golf, hockey, equestrian sports, fencing, ice skating are some examples of sports that require tons of money. My friend taught at a private school in Florida where it accommodated students' sports schedules which included swimming, tennis, equestrian sports, fencing and car racing. All of those kids were super wealthy.

Yes they may require money but it doesn’t necessarily mean the kids will be good. Are you seriously debating this

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It depends. My DS made the varsity tennis team at Langley HS as a freshman.

My kid also made the tennis team as a freshman. There is only varsity tennis in fcps. No JV. For your kid and my kid, it doesn’t seem so competitive. For the other 40 kids who came to tryouts and didn’t make the team, they will say it is extremely difficult to make the tennis team.

There is no JV in either golf or tennis in FCPS. They are probably the two most difficult sports due to the small roster size. It is even more difficult in HS such as Langley, Mclean, and Oakton because just about every kid in the tryouts is either from UMC or UC families. Those kids are trained at a very young age, since money is not an issue. The competition to be in the golf or tennis team is ten times worse than the competition in academics.

Wut. As long as you play some tournaments you can make high school team.

Not if you attend any of the schools in a wealthy neighborhood.

Everyone here makes everything about wealth. There is no correlation between wealth and athleticism. Quite a few private schools require students to participate in a sport after school. That doesn’t make them all athletes but it’s a great idea.

Sports like basketball can only take a very few kids. That would be the tall kids who have coordination, hand eye coordination, endurance, fast rubbers, skills necessary to play. This happens in every town.

Agreed. This area in particular has a lot of parents trying to buy their kid a shot, whether it be education or athletics, and then grousing if it doesn’t pan out.

All the private coaching and elite travel in the world provided to pre-pubescent kids won’t mean a thing after the puberty lottery. And it’s fine if you have the resources and inclination to go for it as long as possible, but the kids who play varsity basketball aren’t playing because their parents were wealthy and got them lots of coaching. They’re playing because they’re the superior athletes with the right genetics.

(Golf may be a different story, but of course, golf isn’t a sport, or at least not a sport that requires any particular athletic ability.)

This is not true at all. There are tons of sports that require wealth. Sure it helps if kids have an athletic physique once they go through puberty; however, wealth makes quite a difference in a lot of sports.

Downhill skiing, squash, tennis, golf, hockey, equestrian sports, fencing, ice skating are some examples of sports that require tons of money. My friend taught at a private school in Florida where it accommodated students' sports schedules which included swimming, tennis, equestrian sports, fencing and car racing. All of those kids were super wealthy.