The way of high school sports … travel teams will take over
Research done by Associated Press writer Nancy Armour may give us what the future holds for high school athletics. We all are familiar with elite traveling teams in soccer, softball and baseball.
Families who spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars during the summer and fall to pay for the best equipment, and travel expenses in order for their child to be a part of a ”travel team”. A travel team is composed of the best of the best at just about any age level. Such teams begin as early as age 8 around the country. Many under 10 (referred to as U10) youngsters will play 60 – 70 softball games and travel several hundred miles during the period of May - August. Every weekend there is a tournament somewhere.
Kid’s baseball and softball not only involves team travel and play, but also private year-round lessons with hitting and/or batting coaches. In order for these private vultures – uh coaches – to stay in business, they tell clients what they want to hear. This usually is the college scholarship carrot. “You will get a full ride in college if you continue to train with me.”
Travel teams will participate in tournaments that the local high school team cannot afford to participate in, because of school or high school athletic association limits on number of contests and/or travel limits. Schools and associations (formed mainly to protect against exploitation of young athletes) have academic requirements in order to play school sports. Travel teams have no such requirements. High school coaches have playing experience and training in coaching techniques, first aid, and adolescent psychology; whereas the majority of travel team coaches may have played the sport but have little training or education in dealing with young athletes.
Now there is basketball, but as high school traveling teams. The Associated Press examined the schedules of the top 25 high school teams, according to the National Prep Poll. With growing corporate and public interest, some of these teams will travel tens of thousands of miles this season. Findlay (Las Vegas) high School will travel nearly 32,000 miles – three times the mileage of college power Duke University.
--Findlay has made six trips to the Eastern time zone since mid-November.
--St. Benedict’s Prep (Newark, N.J.) played in a tournament in Ft. Lauderdale, returned home for a day then headed to Puerto Rico for another tournament.
--Chicago’s Whitney Young High School has traveled to California, New Jersey and
Massachusetts for single games.
--Virginia’s Oak Hill Academy played in North Carolina, Kentucky, Wisconsin and Hawaii during two weeks in December. The team will travel more than 18,000 miles this season.
Why? Why? Why? For most parents it is the prospect of a college, full-ride scholarship. Club coaches of elite traveling teams are very good at recruiting players for their team with such an assurance.
Someone is making money. Enter tournament sponsors and personal trainers. Big weekend club tournaments attract travel teams by promoting the presence of numerous college coaches at their tournaments. Think those tournaments don’t make money for someone? Entry fees may be charged teams. Concessions at the tournament are profitable for someone. Athletic apparel companies may be a corporate sponsor. Obviously motels and restaurants can do very well with a big tournament in town. Someone is making money off these kids and their parents.
Bruce Svare is a psychology professor at the State University of New York at Albany and director of the National Institute for Sports Reform. “I have very strong reservations about how wise it is for us to be going down this road. Is it wise educationally? Is it wise fiscally? I think the argument could be made in both cases that it is not. All of the bad things we are seeing at the collegiate level, we’re duplicating them at the high school level.”
But because of the intelligent restrictions on travel and number of contests by state high school associations in order to protect academic integrity and the student, travel teams will eventually replace many high school teams in some sports like basketball. We will find that the best athletes will pass up school team competition in favor of elite travel teams.
Why? 1) There is money to be made by prostituting young athletes. 2) Parents have been duped by the college scholarship promise. 3) Promoters of club events and naive parents do not like the protecting limits imposed by state associations. 4) Parents don’t run high school programs, but like that they have a huge say in club sports. Educators run high school programs. Gee whiz what do they know? 5) The ultimate influence will win out in the end – greed and ego.
ESPN is televising more and more high school contests in football and basketball. Think they don’t make money from these games?
March 2009
Bill Eases Rules For Student-Athletes
Measure Would Let Students Play For School, Club Teams
TheOmahaChannel.com
Sat., March. 14, 2009
LINCOLN, Neb. - A bill in the Nebraska Legislature could change who is allowed to participate in high school athletics.
Legislative Bill 228 would allow athletes to participate on a club team, in the same sport, while the high school season is going on.
The battle could pit parental rights against the future of all high school sports.
Lincoln Northeast freshman Mollie McNeel was forced to decide between competing in swim meets for her club team or her high school.
"It was a very tough decision for her," said Mollie's mother, Lisa McNeel.
She said club competition gives her daughter a better chance at improving, winning national honors and even earning scholarships, especially since the longest distances that Mollie swims aren't offered at high school events.
"Therefore, she needs to train longer and spend more time in the water," Lisa McNeel said.
Cases like Mollie's have some parents pushing lawmakers to force the state's high school competition governing body to loosen its rules on dual participation.
"It's a bad rule to mix the two," said Nebraska State Athletic Association Executive Director Jim Tenopir. He said that overuse injuries are one of the problems that athletes could face when competing for two teams.
He said his organization does allow athletes to participate in Olympic development activities and issued about a dozen waivers every year. He said any more than that, and athletes could be treading in dangerous waters.
"If the door is cracked open for swimming, how far behind is volleyball or basketball," Tenopir said.
Some athletic directors worry it could cause problems with team chemistry or create an unlevel playing field.
"It's a competitive advantage for some high schools to have teams with dual participation, versus kids that may not have (the ability) to afford it," said Omaha Public Schools Athletic Director Bob Danenhauer.
Sen. Bill Avery said he believes the issue should be discussed by the full legislature.
"I'm not in a position and don't want to be in a position to say to a parent, 'You don't have the ability to make an intelligent choice with what your kid wants to do," Avery said.
There is a compromise in the works. The NSAA is looking at allowing just swimmers and divers to train with club teams during their seasons. Member schools will vote on that rule change when it meets April 9.
Should state legislatures become involved in stste high school association business? Absolutely not.
Is Soccer a Sport or a Cult? (November 2004)
There is a battle raging in America between the established interscholastic (school) sports programs and the club soccer or elite teams or travel squads as they may be called. Scholastic soccer as with all school sports must operate under a set of rules developed primarily to protect the student and the integrity of school sports. There are certain academic standards and school attendance standards that must be met by the student-athlete. There are rule limiting the number of contests a team may play. These few rules are in place to provide protection to all concerned and to insure that athletics does not disrupt the academic environment.
On the other hand, club soccer does not operate under such rules. In fact the basis of club soccer (and other non-school sports) is to have such no rules at all. Where schools are "zoned", and only students living in the school zone may participate in athletics at that school, club sports have no such zoning. This means that club, or "all-star teams" may be built from with kids from all over a city, county, state or even a region that may involve kids from several states.
As club sport teams become a larger part of our national landscape, will high school athletics no longer be needed?
State legislatures have introduced bills to further the mission of club teams, coaches argue over rules against players participating concurrently on school and club teams, and many club programs have grown to overshadow the high school teams in their area.
For the sake of discussion, I refer to those activities outside the educational structure of scholastic sports as Youth Sports. These range from summer league baseball to select soccer and AAU basketball. Most of these teams are coached by parents of team members. In the case of AAU basketball, most coaches are guys who are on one of the big shoe company payrolls. AAU basketball and select soccer coaches in most cases have an anti-school mentality.
