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Originally Posted by PilotMan
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This is spot on and it has eliminated "standard" youth programs such as Little League and Pop Warner in some places here in Arizona. Now the best athletes are pressured to play one sport year round (Including Football by the NYS league, which is fucking insane by the way, since you NEED time to recover and rebuild due to the physicality of Football)
Carl Hayden, an inner city school where I coached in 2016 and will be returning to next year because I want to spend my last years coaching serving a higher cause than winning games is a perfect example. This area used to have a robust Pop Warner program, but the best athletes were recruited way to other schools or their "feeder' youth teams in the Football version of travel league and the program died in this area.
When Pop Warner was in this area impoverished kids were still able to play because there were grants in place that set registration money aside for the kids, or a "trade" program where a players fee was waived in exchange for the parent working the snack bar or field set up. Now those kids have no options because the whores that run many of these travel teams and lure kids in with promises of trophies, recognition at elite tournaments and connections to camps/colleges that either don't exist or come with a hefty additional price tag.
Yeah, that is a broad statement and doesn't apply to all of these programs for sure, but as a high school coach I have zero fucking time or patience for many of these clubs teams/leagues or the overbearing parents and entitled athletes they turn out. I would much rather coach up a kid with less talent, more humility and a better work ethic.