Youth Sports Costs

[ISUTex]

This is what we did last year for my son's 8u team. This year in 9u they have moved up toward the top of AA. The goal is to get to AAA next year. We are in Waukee and all tournaments we go to are in the DSM metro.

We have a group of 5 or 6 dads that help coach baseball, basketball, and football. All the boys are buddies from the same elementary, and they have played together for 3 or 4 years for some sports. No paid coaches, but the costs still add up with tournament/season fees, uniforms, practice space reservations, etc. But it's a heck of a lot cheaper than joining any tryout/travel ball program and we are competitively right where we should be.

That's what a dad and I did with our son's class. We started in A when they were 10 and we're moved up to AA quickly. Only played in 4-5 tournaments per summer. They played little league in May/June. Played in DSM area mostly. Went to Iowa City and Cedar Rapids a few times( We got tired of playing the "Sticks" or the "Bats" every tourney in DSM) Kids had a good time and they didn't get burned out. With uniforms and tourney fees it would come out to a little over $200 per family. Plus gas, food etc.

 

[CycloneSpinning]

I have 2 young kids, 7 and 5, and am super excited that the young one will be out of daycare and going to kindergarten in the fall so I should be able to save quite a bit more money. I mention this to other people and they say well it just goes from daycare expenses to sports/activities costs. I know that these cost more, but it seems like all you hear about is kids doing tournaments/travel ball all the time. My neighbors are gone every weekend during the summer for baseball tournaments all over the state. There seems like there are competitions all over the place and that is the new norm even for young kids. I heard a commercial today for Des Moines softball tryouts for what I am assuming are "elite" teams that start at an 8 and under division. I can't believe that they have tryouts for specific teams at that age. Are the days of pee wee baseball with just kids from the local schools or other sports like that without having to travel all over the state done? I live in Ankeny so it is hard to believe that there isn't enough kids that they have to travel all over to play teams. I am all about kids playing sports but I really don't want to go crazy competitive and cost wise especially for super young kids. Any input from other Fanatics on this issue?

Just do i9 to start. Practice and game are the same day. 5 or 6 week “season”. Super simple way to get the kids to try out a sport and not over-commit yourselves…

 

[NY Chicago Fan]

My son is 10, swim practice 4 times a week now. He seems to love it and times are excellent for age but we have been careful to not put pressure on him or burn him out. Swim club isn't cheap but not horrible compared to some of the soccer and baseball things I hear. Luckily practice pool is 5 mins away from home and meets about an hour except for league championship 2x a year

We did rec league soccer and basketball but turns out he hates running. I was glad he didn't ask to try baseball because I hate it, and I while I love basketball got to let them choose within reason if want them to enjoy long term

 

[Cloned4Life]

Very interesting thread. Really interesting to read (and appreciate) all the perspectives here.

I am in the same situation as the OP.

I cannot believe the situation of youth sports around the metro (and all around the country). Didn't realize how naive I was. Night and day difference vs. the small 3A community I grew up in where I was able to play football, basketball, golf, and baseball. As a 10 year old, we played maybe 15 baseball games per summer. I didn't want to play baseball in the fall, or hit in the batting cage in the winter. I was done with basketball by spring. With football, we did 7-and-7 camps (including Iowa State's), then August camp, then the season. That was it. Now, I have friends and family and neighbors having their kids playing 50 - 80 games per year (of softball, baseball, soccer, whatever). They sometimes travel across the state or even to tourney's other states.

Just my personal opinion: I find the number of games and tourneys and travel absolutely insane. Mind-boggling insane. The costs are insane. The time-commitments are insane. I truly do not mean to offend. And hell, I literally might end up doing all of it (if we can afford "it"). Because as others have said - what is the alternative? SO MANY families do it. So many of the kids' friends do it, at least for a few years. I "think" my boys seem to be good athletes, especially the younger one. His baseball and golf swings are natural AF; his backswing, the natural lag he creates, his left arm position at various stages of the swing, and then a vintage wrist/release through impact. He certainly did not learn that from watching me swing. And he's a lefty with a strong arm and great throwing motion for his young age. So already, all the other "dads" and friends, etc. are telling him how excited he should be to be a pitcher someday (which of course makes him feel really good hearing these compliments from other people).

And again I stress - I do not mean to be offensive. I acknowledge that for a lot of families, they can afford it, they really sincerely enjoy it and get a lot out of it, and do believe it is a great way for their kids to grow up and learn and develop the physical, mental, and social skills that will serve them as they become young adults and into adulthood, etc.

Maybe the one thing that I poke a bit of fun at (or just am a bit annoyed at) is when parents stress "my kids love it!" Respectfully, kids are extremely amenable and flexible. There is an extremely high likelihood that kids will love/enjoy any activity that they get to be around their friends or just anything where they get to be out and about doing something. If you told me as a kid that I would get to play sports all the time with friends, get to travel all the time, get to stay in hotels with my buddies and go swimming, get to cross around the state eating fast food and getting pop and Gatorades at Casey's all the time, getting to pack a cooler with all sorts of fun snacks, getting to wear cool uniforms and gear and wristbands and headbands and eye black and cool shades, getting to go out to eat with other families, etc. etc. etc. - and get to do this ALL summer - weekend after weekend - not really having to worry (as much) about chores or mowing the lawn, never having to be bored or wonder what 'everyone else is doing' - I would have signed up for that 1,000 times out of 1,000. So yeah, of course your kid loves it They have literally no idea what things cost or why any of this all matters. And they don't care.

Edit: I see a lot of comments about 'travel' and distance, and how "tournaments around the metro" isn't traveling. My definition must be different than some of ya'll. The whole "if we win at 4, then we play at 7 and then if we win that we play at 11:00AM tomorrow morning but if we lose we play at 8:00AM and then if we win that we'll play in 2 but if we lose we are done.." Crossing back and forth for 25 - 45 minute drives between Ankeny, WDM, Indianola, Norwalk, Waukee, Ames, etc. - from Friday late afternoon to Sunday late afternoon - with no real idea when actual games are going to be - stresses me out just thinking about it

 

[do4CY]

My kids have done both rec league and travel ball. We are from a small school district and the rec league is with other area schools. It starts in 3rd grade for most sports and combines 2 grades together, 3rd/4th and 5th/6th. Our kids started basketball and baseball/softball in 4th and flag football or volleyball in 5th.

When they got to 5th grade we asked them if they wanted to play travel ball. My son said yes for basketball and baseball. So we organized a basketball team with his friends and did local tournaments. We tried to stick with smaller school tournaments but did play some bigger ones occasionally. We tried to do 4-5 tournaments a year. For baseball there was not enough interest to start our own team and he did not want to do a select team so we practiced when he wanted to.

My daughter has done the same with basketball but we were able to start our own 10u softball team as well. We asked every girl in her grade that was out for rec softball, and with all of them saying yes we had 10 girls. One has since decided to not do travel, but still does rec, and we have had to ask a few girls in other grades to play. We started small and did a few weeks of games at a fall league in ames. We have worked up to usssa tournaments and we do around 4 in the fall and 4 in the spring/summer. We stick to the des moines metro.

The kids on the travel teams also did rec ball. We weren't going to take half the kids away from that and we always made it so the rec teams were pretty fair. My wife and I coached the travel teams and the rec teams that our kids were on.

As for cost, it depends how much effort you want to put in. We have found sponsors for the softball team. This has been a huge help. Most of the parents were able to get their employers to pitch in and my wife was able to find several others. We also make the jerseys for our teams, and by we I mean my wife. I want to say this past year for basketball it was around $75 per kid and softball is maybe $150.

I don't know that we are creating any div 1 athletes this way but the kids seem to enjoy it and have time to do different sports and other things as well. When the kids are sad when the last tournament of the year is done, that seems to be a good sign.

 

[CycloneSpinning]

Very interesting thread. Really interesting to read (and appreciate) all the perspectives here.

I am in the same situation as the OP.

I cannot believe the situation of youth sports around the metro (and all around the country). Didn't realize how naive I was. Night and day difference vs. the small 3A community I grew up in where I was able to play football, basketball, golf, and baseball. As a 10 year old, we played maybe 15 baseball games per summer. I didn't want to play baseball in the fall, or hit in the batting cage in the winter. I was done with basketball by spring. With football, we did 7-and-7 camps (including Iowa State's), then August camp, then the season. That was it. Now, I have friends and family and neighbors having their kids playing 50 - 80 games per year (of softball, baseball, soccer, whatever). They sometimes travel across the state or even to tourney's other states.

Just my personal opinion: I find the number of games and tourneys and travel absolutely insane. Mind-boggling insane. The costs are insane. The time-commitments are insane. I truly do not mean to offend. And hell, I literally might end up doing all of it (if we can afford "it"). Because as others have said - what is the alternative? SO MANY families do it. So many of the kids' friends do it, at least for a few years. I "think" my boys seem to be good athletes, especially the younger one. His baseball and golf swings are natural AF; his backswing, the natural lag he creates, his left arm position at various stages of the swing, and then a vintage wrist/release through impact. He certainly did not learn that from watching me swing. And he's a lefty with a strong arm and great throwing motion for his young age. So already, all the other "dads" and friends, etc. are telling him how excited he should be to be a pitcher someday (which of course makes him feel really good hearing these compliments from other people).

And again I stress - I do not mean to be offensive. I acknowledge that for a lot of families, they can afford it, they really sincerely enjoy it and get a lot out of it, and do believe it is a great way for their kids to grow up and learn and develop the physical, mental, and social skills that will serve them as they become young adults and into adulthood, etc.

Maybe the one thing that I poke a bit of fun at (or just am a bit annoyed at) is when parents stress "my kids love it!" Respectfully, kids are extremely amenable and flexible. There is an extremely high likelihood that kids will love/enjoy any activity that they get to be around their friends or just anything where they get to be out and about doing something. If you told me as a kid that I would get to play sports all the time with friends, get to travel all the time, get to stay in hotels with my buddies and go swimming, get to cross around the state eating fast food and getting pop and Gatorades at Casey's all the time, getting to pack a cooler with all sorts of fun snacks, getting to wear cool uniforms and gear and wristbands and headbands and eye black and cool shades, getting to go out to eat with other families, etc. etc. etc. - and get to do this ALL summer - weekend after weekend - not really having to worry (as much) about chores or mowing the lawn, never having to be bored or wonder what 'everyone else is doing' - I would have signed up for that 1,000 times out of 1,000. So yeah, of course your kid loves it They have literally no idea what things cost or why any of this all matters. And they don't care.

Edit: I see a lot of comments about 'travel' and distance, and how "tournaments around the metro" isn't traveling. My definition must be different than some of ya'll. The whole "if we win at 4, then we play at 7 and then if we win that we play at 11:00AM tomorrow morning but if we lose we play at 8:00AM and then if we win that we'll play in 2 but if we lose we are done.." Crossing back and forth for 25 - 45 minute drives between Ankeny, WDM, Indianola, Norwalk, Waukee, Ames, etc. - from Friday late afternoon to Sunday late afternoon - with no real idea when actual games are going to be - stresses me out just thinking about it

The current youth sports setup preys on a parent’s fear that their kid is going to miss out on an opportunity to do what they (the parent) dream of their kid doing…and that their kid may eventually dream of doing too. My personal take is that most kids that are going to be a D1 athlete are going to get their regardless because they have natural, elite abilities. Kids that put in a ton of time from age 4 or whatever may get more playing time at lower levels and then play at a lower level college.

I don’t want to teach my kids that playing sports or winning are the most important thing in the world, so I’ve let them take a lead to some degree. I encouraged my son to try basketball. He played two seasons and didn’t live it/wasn’t great at it…so we stopped. He’s not great at soccer,but he likes it so we play low level soccer for fun. He likes golf, enjoys bowling…we do that a bit, etc. Taught the kids to swim for safety.

Our daughter is very good at soccer, and she wants to play…so we’re looking at moving up in that. She’s also very good at volleyball but only wants to play for fun, so we won’t push that. You get the idea.

The only thing I would recommend thoughtful exposure to early is baseball or softball. With kid pitch starting so young, I think having the kids at least exposed to that early is important. Otherwise a 5th grader trying to get into baseball for the first time is tough.

 

[brokenloginagain]

Iowa Sticks Baseball

www.iowasticks.com

Seems straightforward to me!

Just put your kid in the "t-ball development program" (seriously, they offer it), at age 3 and 14 yrs later and around $75,000 you should have a scholarship locked up!

This stuff always cracks me up, you can't make it up!

Our T-ball and Coach Pitch Development program is designed specifically for youth players age 3-5 (t-ball) and 5-6 (coach pitch), to help develop a love for the game and learn the core fundamentals needed to advance to higher level baseball.

 

[mustangcy]

Had 2 kids play multiple travel sports. Ain't no way your even coming CLOSE to daycare costs when it comes to travel sports. I mean, travel sports isn't cheap, at all, but compared to daycare its a drop in the ocean.

 

[mramseyISU]

Iowa Sticks Baseball

www.iowasticks.com

Seems straightforward to me!

Just put your kid in the "t-ball development program" (seriously, they offer it), at age 3 and 14 yrs later and around $75,000 you should have a scholarship locked up!

This stuff always cracks me up, you can't make it up!

Our T-ball and Coach Pitch Development program is designed specifically for youth players age 3-5 (t-ball) and 5-6 (coach pitch), to help develop a love for the game and learn the core fundamentals needed to advance to higher level baseball.

I used to tell other parents if your goal is to get college paid for baseball isn't the sport for it. Up until recently even at the D1 level players only got partial scholarships. That money would be much better spent getting dumped into a 529 plan. However we had a lot of great memories and formed some good friendships from the 5 or 6 years we did travel baseball with my boys and it's hard to put a price on that.

 

[BryceC]

First off, good questions and I have kids older than a lot of people in this thread and we’ve done a lot of youth sports stuff both rec and club and I also live in Ankeny so I’ll give you my .02. My kids are 14,13, and 8.

The #1 thing I tell other parents is match your kids’ intensity level. I’ve seen so many kids either get burnt out (especially on baseball), and I’ve also seen kids get frustrated because they are competitive and care a lot and they don’t like being on rec teams where 50% of the kids are there because their parents signed them up.

For your kid who hasn’t done much baseball, have them do Ankeny LL. I’ve coached in the organization for close to 10 years. I’ll be dropping down to coach my youngest in Single A next year. Every year I have parents tell me they think it’s too late to have their 10 year old sign up. That’s ludicrous. Put them in a rec league and go from there. In Ankeny I’d recommend AJF, ABC for basketball, LL for baseball, and whatever you want for soccer. Kids can get better really fast if they are into it.

As an example, I coached my middle kid in baseball in LL through last year. He kind of liked baseball. It was probably his fourth favorite sport. He joined a parent led club team last year and he’s told me about 15 times how much fun he’s having with it. For him, it’s way more fun. I help coach my oldest son’s team. I spent about 20 hours at the baseball fields last weekend and they wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Not all kids are built for that and that’s totally okay.

JUST MY OPINION, and I’m sure others will disagree with me, but here is what I would do if I had to do it over again and I wanted to maximize the value of your dollar and have your kid have the most fun. Again, this is my opinion. This is if they want to have fun and be prepared for high school.

• Play for a mid-tier club in whatever sport they really like that is primarily comprised of kids in your community, hopefully mostly in your school. I have kids that play club baseball, basketball, and soccer. At every level, during team practices they only have so much time and individual development is extremely difficult to prioritize. If you’re thinking about spending 1,500 to play on some “high level” basketball team, I think you’d be much better off paying 400.00 and then spending another 1,000 to get individual or small group training through a great coach in the summer.

I have friends that think I’m a little crazy for how much time I spend coaching and everything. To be honest I went to ISU with the intention of being a teacher, but I didn’t think I’d be great at it so I gave that up. Coaching kids is how I scratch that itch. I also primarily coach rec stuff. I was a terrible player growing up, and I’ve turned into a pretty good coach. And I want people who just want to have fun with it to still have a great experience and I want them to get good coaching and get better.

PM me or ask me anything, coaching kids and helping them have great sports experiences is honestly my passion and what I spend 90% of my time and energy thinking about and doing.

 

[BryceC]

Some interesting thoughts in this thread so I’ll add mine. My son is 13. Played rec soccer and at 7 years old I think was asked to play on a travel team by one of the league directors. He didn’t like soccer that much and said no and switched to football, where he played YMCA before switching to tackle thru a league associated with the high school. Played basketball mostly with the YMCA and a couple camps in the summer. Some good players and competition, but also a lot of kids who just started. Asked him if he wanted to try a travel team and he said he wanted to keep playing with his friends despite being good enough. At camps he is solid and definitely can hang with the travel ball kids. Played baseball and eventually moved up to a travel team. Almost all of those kids stopped playing within a year or two including him.
I’m not sure travel ball gives you these great advantages in many cases. For some, the schedule is just too demanding, coaching is not that much better, and denies them the chance to play multiple sports. People think by playing in these leagues they will earn college scholarships and make the pros but that simply isn't the case. Just look at the rosters of the D1 schools in the state for whatever sport and see how many came from Iowa, then do the math with any local tournament and see how many kids are there...it just doesn't work out. Now if your kid is super passionate about it, has friends doing it too, you can financially afford it and want to give up lots of time, go for it. My goal has always been for my son to play as many sports as he can for as long as he can. It's a lot harder to pick up a sport when you've never played or been away from it for a while.

People love saying this but I don’t know anybody who is playing club ball with the expectation of earning a scholarship.

Especially in baseball and soccer it’s basically the same likelihood as getting struck by lightening.

 

[Cychl82]

I have 2 young kids, 7 and 5, and am super excited that the young one will be out of daycare and going to kindergarten in the fall so I should be able to save quite a bit more money. I mention this to other people and they say well it just goes from daycare expenses to sports/activities costs. I know that these cost more, but it seems like all you hear about is kids doing tournaments/travel ball all the time. My neighbors are gone every weekend during the summer for baseball tournaments all over the state. There seems like there are competitions all over the place and that is the new norm even for young kids. I heard a commercial today for Des Moines softball tryouts for what I am assuming are "elite" teams that start at an 8 and under division. I can't believe that they have tryouts for specific teams at that age. Are the days of pee wee baseball with just kids from the local schools or other sports like that without having to travel all over the state done? I live in Ankeny so it is hard to believe that there isn't enough kids that they have to travel all over to play teams. I am all about kids playing sports but I really don't want to go crazy competitive and cost wise especially for super young kids. Any input from other Fanatics on this issue?

I am basically in the same boat. My son is 7 and daughter is 5. My son plays sports but nothing too serious yet but my daughter is completely different for sure. We are about to see a large decrease in daycare but she also just made the competition team for 2 different teams at Premier in Waukee.......not going to be cheap, but like ive said for a while, daycare isnt a choice we just have to pay it, other things we will choose ......still going to do it if our kids love it and the effort is there though.

 

[Clonefan32]

People love saying this but I don’t know anybody who is playing club ball with the expectation of earning a scholarship.

Especially in baseball and soccer it’s basically the same likelihood as getting struck by lightening.

There's kind of an irony to this. The sports that give you the least chance of picking it up in your teens and having success are also probably the ones that you are least likely to get a scholarship in due to scholarship restrictions. In soccer, golf, baseball, swimming, gymnastics, etc., if you don't start early you probably don't have much of a chance.

In baskeball and football, if you have the size and athleticism you have a shot, and it really doesn't matter what age you started playing.

 

[mramseyISU]

There's kind of an irony to this. The sports that give you the least chance of picking it up in your teens and having success are also probably the ones that you are least likely to get a scholarship in due to scholarship restrictions. In soccer, golf, baseball, swimming, gymnastics, etc., if you don't start early you probably don't have much of a chance.

In baskeball and football, if you have the size and athleticism you have a shot, and it really doesn't matter what age you started playing.

Anecdotally my son didn't start swimming competitively until Freshman year of high school. Didn't join a club team until after his sophomore high school season. When we finished up he had qualified for the high school state meet in 3 events, was a qualifier at multiple events in the short course and long course state club meet and speedo sectionals. He had 5 or 6 D3 offers to swim on hint-hint wink-wink academic scholarship. So starting late with that isn't impossible but you're going to have a steep hill to climb to beat out those iFly kids.

 

[AuH2O]

I used to tell other parents if your goal is to get college paid for baseball isn't the sport for it. Up until recently even at the D1 level players only got partial scholarships. That money would be much better spent getting dumped into a 529 plan. However we had a lot of great memories and formed some good friendships from the 5 or 6 years we did travel baseball with my boys and it's hard to put a price on that.

This x 1000. Baseball is a hell of an expensive sport to play, and that's just the gear. If you don't have some significant disposable income, and your kid isn't absolutely begging to do it because they are a baseball junkie, most travel ball is not a good idea. There are only a handful of kids in Iowa that probably would recoup that type of cost through scholarships each year.

Now, I'd reiterate that especially at a pre-HS level, organizing volunteer led local teams and playing in those tournaments can be a great experience. But like @Cloned4Life said, the number of games and travel most of these take on is ridiculous.

When my kid did those in middle school with our volunteer team, it was maybe 5 tournaments a summer, so maybe 20-25 games total. Plus most years they did little league, which wasn't many. Then we'd maybe practice 2-3 times a week as a team, and the kids that wanted to would do things on their own.

Now my son is in HS and will end up doing the real travel ball thing (although mostly just Iowa with a couple weekends in KC and Minneapolis). But even taking the lower cost, less intensive volunteer and local approach, between gear, tournaments, travel, and everything, I guarantee we've probably spent $10-12k over 8 years.

The good thing is every birthday and Christmas present is known. It's always new batting gloves, cleats, a bat here and there. Haven't bought a gaming system since 2016. So I guess there's that.

 

[Clark]

Anecdotally my son didn't start swimming competitively until Freshman year of high school. Didn't join a club team until after his sophomore high school season. When we finished up he had qualified for the high school state meet in 3 events, was a qualifier at multiple events in the short course and long course state club meet and speedo sectionals. He had 5 or 6 D3 offers to swim on hint-hint wink-wink academic scholarship. So starting late with that isn't impossible but you're going to have a steep hill to climb to beat out those iFly kids.

Did your son just learn to swim as a freshman? I think that's what he meant. No different than someone who plays backyard baseball with their friends in the summer but never played in little league would probably be just fine in high school.

 

[mramseyISU]

Did your son just learn to swim as a freshman? I think that's what he meant. No different than someone who plays backyard baseball with their friends in the summer but never played in little league would probably be just fine in high school.

No he was in swim lessons at a pretty young age but there were a couple of kids on that high school swim team that didn't take a single swim lesson until they were in like middle school. I get what you're saying though.

 

[ISUTex]

Iowa Sticks Baseball

www.iowasticks.com

Seems straightforward to me!

Just put your kid in the "t-ball development program" (seriously, they offer it), at age 3 and 14 yrs later and around $75,000 you should have a scholarship locked up!

This stuff always cracks me up, you can't make it up!

Our T-ball and Coach Pitch Development program is designed specifically for youth players age 3-5 (t-ball) and 5-6 (coach pitch), to help develop a love for the game and learn the core fundamentals needed to advance to higher level baseball.

5-6yr old kid pitch? Seriously? That's ridiculous.

 

[ISUTex]

Anybody's kids into showing livestock? I did growing up 30-40 years ago. My kids had no interest. I've heard it's gone the same direction as youth sports.

 

[8thfloor]

People love saying this but I don’t know anybody who is playing club ball with the expectation of earning a scholarship.

Especially in baseball and soccer it’s basically the same likelihood as getting struck by lightening.

Maybe it was just some people I know saying it, who knows. Agree on the second point.

I think a lot of it where I live is also a dumb status symbol. It's not enough that you drive an SUV the size of a boat, you must also have your kid in the Elite All-Star Platinum League and post every weekend when you are at the fifth state tourney of the year and how it "wasn't the results you wanted, but they still had fun!"