Anonymous wrote:We do travel and spend money for hockey at levels I never would have thought possible 10 years ago. What I've learned though, is that no matter what we do, there is always someone out there willing to do more. Kid has a teammate who, for the past three years, drives 180 miles each way for practice three times a week! Such a great kid and great family, but I can't imagine doing that.
Very similar. We are easily spending $25k per year between private lessons, travel to tournaments, team dues, camps, clinics and equipment, in that order, for a 10-year old who's good enough to be in the running to play D1 hockey someday (and yes, I am very aware that a million things could alter the current course, etc. etc.). There are plenty of folks who take a more passive approach for perfectly valid reasons, many of whom think their kid will still have a chance to play college hockey someday and everything will workout, but from talking to parents who have kids that played juniors then college hockey, I think it is close to impossible to do it any other way. I am planning to send my kid to prep school at 15 or 16 if he continues to love hockey as much as he does today, work hard and excel because there is no path to college hockey from where we live (no longer in the DC area). It's a little insane, but we're too far down the path now to do it any differently. Also, every time I start to think I'm making crazy time and financial situations, I meet another family at a spring or summer AAA tournament and realize that there really is always someone out there doing more.