The great college athletic scholarship myth

I was shocked to see myself in the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch last summer. I wasn’t literally in the newspaper, but I saw myself reflected in the parents profiled in the brilliant investigative piece “Children may be vulnerable in $5 billion youth-sports industry: Parents and athletes feel the pressure to compete at all costs” (Aug. 29, 2010).

My daughter, who is now in sixth grade, started playing soccer at age 5 and instantly fell in love with the game. By the time she was 10, she was playing on a Division I team in the Long Island Junior Soccer League. The team not only traveled across the Island, but also as far as away as Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Maryland.

As a parent, I quickly realized that my daughter could play no other sport but soccer if she were to remain on a Division I team. Earning playing time meant total commitment. Division I trainers, who are well-paid by any standard, are often selected because of their winning records, not because they have a bachelor’s degree in phys. ed. or child psychology. Too many trainers win by picking top players and driving them hard. If children don’t meet performance expectations, they sit on the bench and may even get cut.

To stay ahead of the game, a third of the players on my daughter’s team took private lessons with a trainer. Some worked out at a gym. On every extended vacation, the children were encouraged (read: expected) to attend a four-day camp, either with the club or their trainer. Every three-day weekend, there was a tournament. They had all of four weeks off –– in July –– and even then, some attended training camps.

The Columbus Dispatch piece described stressed-out, worn-out parents spending thousands of dollars on training and out-of-state, even international competitions. And it described children burned out on the sports they once loved by the time they reached their freshman year of high school. I was worried.

I began to see youth sports –– at least at this “highest level,” as the Dispatch de-scribed them –– as an industry. Parents of older, “premier-level” players told me they were traveling as far away as Orlando and Las Vegas for tournaments. Their annual soccer bills ranged as high as $10,000.