Opportunities are there… you just have to look harder. There were co-ed high school soccer teams that would play on our practice fields. My daughter now plays on an intramural team with other med students, and I played indoor soccer in my early 50’s (until it took longer for my body to recover than when the next game was scheduled).
I fully agree that there need to be more Rec opportunities, but they don’t come free. You need facilities, and they don’t come mowed and lined automatically for the game on Saturday. They also need equipment, coaches, refs, people to work concessions, and many other things that many people don’t think about. Which takes us back to the discussions of the economic abilities of certain areas.
The general problem is that America is a place that, for good or bad, rewards success in sports. Schools provide kids with opportunities to succeed at sports but, because of messed up school funding systems, upper-class and middle-class kids almost always have those opportunities and poor kids rarely do. That sucks. If schools are going to create these opportunities, they should make sure that they are available to everyone regardless of their parents’ income.
The $700 is what parents are spending, not what parents are spending after they have fundraisers. Also, saying “fundraiser” doesn’t magically raise money. Fundraising requires asking people you know for money. Guess what? The poor kids in poor neighborhoods don’t have a ton of rich neighbors to ask for checks. And, fundraising places another burden on these kids’ success - not only do they have to be good at sports, they have to spend a bunch of time fundraising that middle-class and upper-class kids don’t. So, poor kids have to work harder to achieve the same level of success. This is not the route to a meritocracy.
No, parents are not aware of their kids’ abilities. My brother’s kids are on baseball teams. They are both pretty good for their age. On teams of 30-ish kids, at least a third of the parents hope or expect that their kids will get scholarships. My brother believes that one of his kids might go pro. His teammate’s father also believes that about his son. I’ll bet that every year there are a couple of parents who think their kids might play in the MLB. This team has never, in decades of existence, produced a single player that played in the MLB. All of those parents are deluding themselves.
The article notes that “Families earning $50,000 or less – or middle- and lower-income households – cited cost as the top reason their kids don’t participate in organized sports, the Rand study noted.” But if you really care that the article didn’t focus enough on people who make exactly $50,000 per year, you could at least read the study.
One in ten kids who play sports get some kind of athletic scholarship, according to the article to which you linked. That’s way higher than I would have guessed, based on my high school experience. But I went to a shitty high school with mediocre sports offerings and plenty of poor kids. I didn’t realize there are schools that offer tennis, hockey, skiing, rowing, and lacrosse teams where nearly every athlete has a pretty good shot at getting a scholarship somewhere. Those sports are also much more expensive for kids to participate in, according to this articlelinked to from your source. So, again, the system gives the best opportunities for athletic success to the kids whose parents are already financially successful.
I’d rather access to college didn’t depend on athletic ability, but in a country where it does, I agree with this statement.
Right after I moved to my current house, one of the local public high school football players came by, selling “coupon books.” That’s pretty much what has to be done to afford sports nowadays, especially as more and more schools are upgrading their fields to articifial turn and all-weather running tracks (which have the added advantage that you don’t have to redraw the lines every year).
It depends. What percentage of families making less than $25,000 and whose kids want to play sports can afford it?
I’m pretty sure it refers to “competitive” leagues, although that would include school as well as club teams.
I just wonder how many parents think that an athletic scholarship is the only way their child is going to get into / they will be able to afford to pay for a “good” university. Also remember that there are very few “full” scholarships given out; in the NCAA, only Division I schools “have to” do this (and even then, they don’t “have to,” but the limit is on how many athletes in a sport get scholarships, as opposed to the total amount of the scholarships), and even then, only in six sports (football (and that’s only at FBS schools), men’s & women’s basketball, women’s volleyball, women’s tennis, and women’s gymnastics).
On a side note - those cheerleaders, yell leaders, and even the guys in the mascot costume. They work/perform at every game and have to put alot of time into that but often the “scholarship” even at D1 schools, is maybe around $300 a year. Often mascot people work for free but can make some money for making personal appearances.
However the schools feature them prominently in advertisements.
Soccer (futbol) should be encouraged more in the US as a rec sport. The equipment cost is relatively low. Pitches can be various sizes and fit in many many park areas. This is where the US lags the rest of the world.
A former MLB recruiter tlaked to me about this and he told me how a local league had never produced a MLB player although they had had some make minor league teams and several got scholarships.
But hey, thats not bad. They have learned a valuable skill as a trainer and coach. Often some of not most of the best coaches only played up to that point.
I know some HS football coaches that between their HS salary and what they make running camps and doing personal training make well over $100 k a year and most of them never made the NFL.
It depends upon the team. A travel baseball team at the AAA level is pretty darn good and they play tournaments and work out year around. Maybe take off just August and January. A kid playing at that level will probably get a small scholarship. My nephew has one for college baseball.
I think most parents are just hoping to break even or “make it all worth it” in the hopes a scholarship will offset the $50-$100 k they have spent the last 10 years on the kids sports.
And they think - hey, the kid had fun. Made good friends. Parents made good friends (and often great business networks), and got in great shape!
A few years ago I was pushing our area to build an indoor facility for ice/ soccer/ lacrosse, etc… No luck. People dont realize how much money comes in when 1,000 kids and their families come in for tournaments.
There was a ton of opposition when it was proposed. Now with a few new hotels, many new restaurants and other businesses the little farm community has exploded.
Interesting article on the socioeconomics of youth sports.
One interesting takeaway is that sports scholarships are the leading form of affirmative action in college admissions but as high school sports get more expensive and fewer poor people participate, more Division 1 athletic scholarships seem to be going to wealthier kids.