Not sure it’s always so much of a money thing. More like the parents get a continuation of living vicariously through their children and an “in” to the highest levels of amateur sports.
Youth Sports-USSSA Baseball, Basketball, Soccer
- Thread starter Carlisle Clone
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Not sure it’s always so much of a money thing. More like the parents get a continuation of living vicariously through their children and an “in” to the highest levels of amateur sports.
Your right there are a lot of “state champs” but you have to think of it as being in different classes like high school sports (1A-4A/5A).
For instance my son played 8u USSSA baseball last year (small nw Iowa team). As you play in USSSA tournaments your team gets points associated with your final place in tournaments- the higher the finish the more points you get and the better team you usually are.
At the end if the season if you want to play in state tournament (last year there were 36 teams in Des Moines and 19 teams in Cedar Rapids) you are seeded into divisions (Major, Div 1/AAA, Div 2/AA, Div 3/A) based on those accrued points throughout the season.
If all those teams were thrown into one tournament it would be a complete ********, also the better teams would just destroy even average to decent teams. Only way to make it fair is to make different divisions just as high school has. Could you imagine A football playing 4A football in a state tournament game?? It would be an absolute massacre- this is why there are so many State champions in USSSA baseball.
Div 3 sports is a small step from kids at Div 1 schools playing intramural sports. It's just more organized, and they can go on to be Art or PE teachers.
The problem isn’t splitting them up by major/AAA/AA/A it’s that there are 4 state champs for every single one of those divisions. Personally I don’t think you should get one of those state champ banners unless you win the gold bracket for your division.
Ok- yes I will 100% agree with you on that- it doesn’t even make sense that any other bracket besides gold would get a state championship since when the results are posted they would be the most likely 9th place finishing team.
The only division in 8u that even had a silver bracket was the major division and we weren’t in that one.
That’ll change once your kids get to 10U or 11U. The AA division will have over 100 teams in it.
I would say that several of those intramural teams would have better talent than many D3s.
Go and look at the 990’s for usssa. It is obscene what the “non-profit” directors make. It is absurd.
- Jun 20, 2006
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A point not yet made is the HS Athletic Associations have been a big factor in creating the competitive youth sports market.
A HS coach isn't allowed to coach athletes outside of their season... and a season is about 10 weeks? So where do kids and families go to for coaching "off" season? They go to professionals, at least in my sport area. These coaches may have a full time job training (most do in our sport) and developing these kids year round and from an early age. Once that athlete hits HS, they are in with the HS coach who does this 10 weeks out of the year. And the HS coaches are good people, trying to do good things.
Take track ... how much development does a HS offer for those 10 weeks? How much more development can a full time professional offer 42 or 52 weeks of the year.
In our sport, we see kids with bright futures level off once they engage in the HS season all across the state. That 10-12 weeks of soft training really doesn't keep the trajectory that was in place.
HS sports and their inclusion is very important, but it isn't a developmental model.
Rant: When I hear on the news from a sports reporter says to a HS coach "your program is really ...... " I shake my fist, they have them 10 weeks and haven't developed the talent over the course of the year. Tell me what that program really is, its club coaching creating better athletes that happen to go to your school.
A HS coach isn't allowed to coach athletes outside of their season... and a season is about 10 weeks? So where do kids and families go to for coaching "off" season? They go to professionals, at least in my sport area. These coaches may have a full time job training (most do in our sport) and developing these kids year round and from an early age. Once that athlete hits HS, they are in with the HS coach who does this 10 weeks out of the year. And the HS coaches are good people, trying to do good things.
Take track ... how much development does a HS offer for those 10 weeks? How much more development can a full time professional offer 42 or 52 weeks of the year.
In our sport, we see kids with bright futures level off once they engage in the HS season all across the state. That 10-12 weeks of soft training really doesn't keep the trajectory that was in place.
HS sports and their inclusion is very important, but it isn't a developmental model.
Rant: When I hear on the news from a sports reporter says to a HS coach "your program is really ...... " I shake my fist, they have them 10 weeks and haven't developed the talent over the course of the year. Tell me what that program really is, its club coaching creating better athletes that happen to go to your school.
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- Jun 20, 2006
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I'll add, the successful model for these club opportunities, is with the younger athletes. That is the bread and butter, as kids age up not as many will participate so the full time professionals need the younger athletes and families buying (paying) in. To be clear, the young kids subsidize the older kids being coached.
Your second paragraph is incorrect. They can’t do full fledged coaching as a team but they can open gym for shooting and many still instruct there. Label captains for the next season, tell the captains what they want done and the they do “captain” practices, since they are at the schools, somebody has to open it up and watch them—guess who.
They aren’t supposed to interfere with other sports but it happens all the time. Nobody will turn them in since nobody wants their kid to be punished and sat as the whistleblower. Know a HS football coach that ran 2 a days through the whole season basically and didn’t adjust the time limit. He would stand on the other side of the parking lot so he wasn’t officially on the practice field.
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You made my point with "captain practices" and can't fully coach athletes off season.
Sitting in the bleachers and yelling at them of standing across a parking lot yelling what to do is basically coaching. Just have to be louder. Summer the coaches can go full blown coaching though. So it is 10 weeks during the season and 10 weeks during the summer.
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Will, I will qualify that all sports that my kids smaller school had. They don’t have everyone. But my kids have summer football, basketball, wrestling, track makes sure they are in something so that is the least, volleyball and whatever else. My oldest two were four sporters and some coaches punished them for missing practices the same time as softball/baseball.
It's incredibly naive to think the successful programs only have coaching for 10 weeks. We'll take Frank Huston in Ottumwa for instance. He's had a pretty successful softball program for 30+ years. It's not year round, but he had them practicing a majority of the year. He's there leading practices. It's like that at a lot of schools.
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