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@Fishy @kobebeanbryant
Fishy posted this and I wanted to respond to him and Kobe:
Define serious money.
I have extended family who have their kids in sports and they’re traveling out of state every month. I have been to games and watched their kids play and I think they are being sold a bill of goods by their coaches. The expectation of which colleges are going to come calling is disconnected from reality. That whole scenario is driven by the adults who are doing this for a living.
For that reason, let me advocate swimming….the clock is the judge, not some coach.
Our daughter swam since she was eight years old with USA Swimming affiliated clubs. The Metro region is great and there’s no real travel for meets. If there is travel, it’s likely to a championship meet and kids need to qualify on time to go. The furthest we had to travel was Virginia Tech. Outside of that, it was usually to one of the Ivy campuses in NY, Mass or RI. (Even UConn a few times.)
Our coaches never tried to upsell us on a dream. Basically, just, if she works hard, she can swim DI if she wants to. (She did not want to - she swims in the NESCAC.) It was such an atypical experience to what I hear about other youth sports…a few of her former club teammates and her were all swimming at a college meet in Maine last year. The entire club coaching staff took a day off work and drove to Maine to watch them.
I don’t know what I paid, but I would have paid double.
Fishy posted this and I wanted to respond to him and Kobe:
Define serious money.
I have extended family who have their kids in sports and they’re traveling out of state every month. I have been to games and watched their kids play and I think they are being sold a bill of goods by their coaches. The expectation of which colleges are going to come calling is disconnected from reality. That whole scenario is driven by the adults who are doing this for a living.
For that reason, let me advocate swimming….the clock is the judge, not some coach.
Our daughter swam since she was eight years old with USA Swimming affiliated clubs. The Metro region is great and there’s no real travel for meets. If there is travel, it’s likely to a championship meet and kids need to qualify on time to go. The furthest we had to travel was Virginia Tech. Outside of that, it was usually to one of the Ivy campuses in NY, Mass or RI. (Even UConn a few times.)
Our coaches never tried to upsell us on a dream. Basically, just, if she works hard, she can swim DI if she wants to. (She did not want to - she swims in the NESCAC.) It was such an atypical experience to what I hear about other youth sports…a few of her former club teammates and her were all swimming at a college meet in Maine last year. The entire club coaching staff took a day off work and drove to Maine to watch them.
I don’t know what I paid, but I would have paid double.