Young Parents: Why youth soccer should be your last resort
- Thread starter oh canada
- Start date
You can't look at total scholarships offered. You need to look at total offers vs total applied (how many play it in HS and seek scholarships).
High number of scholarships are offered for football and basketball for boys but there are also a TON of kids who play it and want those scholarships and thus extremely hard to get.
Different charts have different sports that list the "easiest" to earn scholarship sports but a few always make the cut: lacrosse for both boys and girls, ice hockey for both boys and girls, and soccer for girls.
If the goal is to get money for college... academic scholarships are much easier to get than athletic scholarships...
There are also ways to "make finances look tight" right when the kids are applying for colleges and receive substantial financial aid... and revert those back after they're done college... a few thousand spent on a good college admissions counselor could earn you tens of thousands in additional financial aid...
If the goal is to get money for college, why are you playing travel ball at all?
Add it up. A lot of folks are spending $10,000 per year for six years. $60,000.
That's enough for two years of CC and two years of UC. Problem solved.
Play for the love of the game, like Jamisfoes said. It's not an investment.
That's what my dd did and I chased the wins with her. The winning changed in 8th grade and the big win became getting admitted to Big U or any U for that matter. 10%, 25%, 50% or 100% off to play college ball is what it's all about. Class of 2023 top players are going pro and turning down college.
I know a few that paid well over $15K a year x6= $75,000 to pay to play.
One of my old schoolmates has amazing company and that's all she does, helps students find college dollars outside of sport and outside of the college fund. If your Middle Class and spend $7000-$10,000 a year doing Travel Ball, that's the college fund and tithe for church all going to sport and most of your Sundays are on the 5 or 405 frwy. Soccer is a religion for the Elite and their kids. They own it and some even worship it. Middle Class and the Lower Class folk and the Poor Class are priced out of Elite Soccer. $10,000-$17,000 a year is insane.
Eagle33
PREMIER
Actually hot bed of soccer is not CA, it's TX.
More than enough for 4 year CSUs for sure
Yes Play for the love of the game not the $$ college pie and the sky..
CSU resident tuition is < 7k for a year (fall and spring) so you can attend D1 at places like Fullerton or SD state for 28-30k for the 4 years. Besides room, board, meals, many of players get some financial assistance and tuition covered if your a starter but it's not a great plan to think youth sports spending is equitable, it's really just "entertainment" expenses and ways to spend "disposable income".
Yes it's nice that tuition is covered but it's more of a bonus situation and the education is the real "Investment"
If we fix our issues in SoCal we could put a very good top 11 plus 7 reserves and beat a lot of teams. TX would lose to SoCal and if we add NoCal's top players to the competition, then no one beats us Eagle. I bet you 1 keg of your favorite beer
aong cangkol
SILVER
See attachment for youth sports academy, this IMG Bradenton Academy has golf, basketball, football, tennis, lacrosse, soccer and track and field. Same price $65k for daycamp and $85k for boarding school.
Admissions & Tuition
The journey to greatness starts here. Learn about IMG Academy tuition before and submit your application to IMG Academy today or learn more about the application process and admission criteria.
The only problem IMO is lacking affordable youth sports because AYSO or NJB (basketball) are not sufficient, same for track and field. I can see golf is really for the elite due to facility/equipment but soccer/basketball facility is available anywhere in USA.
Can you say NWSL Next? Its coming. ;-)
Playing for scholarships can lead to individualistic play in some cases. Chasing wins is one of the symptoms of what is wrong with youth soccer. Relentless effort on wins tends to lead to a lack of technical development in our system. Its just not that simple.
MacDre
PREMIER
Spot on! I also think this has a lot to do with why there’s so much kickball in college as there are usually 11 individuals and not one cohesive team. My kid played lots of pickup all throughout Tijuana and it was never a problem to keep the ball on the ground and play as one unit with strangers.
Sorry @Carlsbad7 but I’m not buying that old song and dance that college coaches don’t have enough time to teach possession. Meet me in Tijuana on a Saturday and I’ll show several instances where 10 year olds are playing pickup and possession with kids they don’t know.
First, academic scholarships are not much easier. Oldest did dance (most expensive "sport") had 10 AP classes and was in top 10 of her senior class. Zero scholarships for UC and Cal State schools available. Private schools, yes, but they are so expensive they are still more than a Cal State even with the scholarship.
Second, total applied is a complete BS number for many sports because all they do is look at participants in the sport for High School. I've looked at my daughters High School soccer team, JV and Varsity. 60 players and maybe 3 can play college since most are average athletes with average skill. If your kid is ECNL level (not saying you have to play ECNL, but your kid is as good as ECNL players), you can get a scholarship to a college.
Third, "make my finances look tight" ???? I've worked at the same job for 33 years, wife 25. We make enough to own a house and cars, which means we make too much for any type of scholarship, but we also don't have any extra money.
Lastly, we never played ECNL, GA, ECRL, etc. Is it really 10K a year that people like to throw out? Honestly I never paid more than $2000 in a year and that included keeper training that we paid on our own.
How many of you went to NWSL or MLS games last season?
How many bought jerseys or Team gear?
How many games did you watch on TV?
In short...the more everyone in this board starts watching and supporting (buying jerseys, going to games, etc) the more money the clubs have which in theory they would invest in developing players (ie Academies) like European Clubs do.
How many bought jerseys or Team gear?
How many games did you watch on TV?
In short...the more everyone in this board starts watching and supporting (buying jerseys, going to games, etc) the more money the clubs have which in theory they would invest in developing players (ie Academies) like European Clubs do.
If your kids team doest win what would Moms (and some Dads) use to make other parents jealous about how great their lives are on social media? Or better yet at the country club?
Literally have a couple of these on my kids team right now. Even worse are the moms that actually get jealous over what's posted + let it rule their lives.
One Mom actually said "I don't understand why we cant just play certain teams. Like we do when our club plays other clubs" (she was talking 50k per year Country Club not a 5k soccer club). There were so many levels of condemnation, elitist attitude, and general obliviousness all wrapped up into that statement I just walked away.
4 NWSL games, 2 USWNT games. 1 MLS game. No gear. 40 games on TV.
Maybe we'll come down some time.
See attachment for youth sports academy, this IMG Bradenton Academy has golf, basketball, football, tennis, lacrosse, soccer and track and field. Same price $65k for daycamp and $85k for boarding school.
This academy has been around for decades so definitely it playground for the rich. Soccer is not the only one or the worst. Not that there is anything wrong with it.Admissions & Tuition
The journey to greatness starts here. Learn about IMG Academy tuition before and submit your application to IMG Academy today or learn more about the application process and admission criteria.www.imgacademy.com
The only problem IMO is lacking affordable youth sports because AYSO or NJB (basketball) are not sufficient, same for track and field. I can see golf is really for the elite due to facility/equipment but soccer/basketball facility is available anywhere in USA.
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$$ doesn't buy success or even great looking soccer.
On the boys side funny thing is when top west coast teams play IMG teams thinking they should be pretty good only to find out they don't make it out of bracket play and they get blown out. Although they say thats it's invite only, you can be average as long as you have the $$$.
Housing & food is a major expensive for out of area residence just like college but IMG and Barcelona academy in Arizona really cost the big bucks
I like chasing wins. We have been on teams where passing the ball to a teammate means the ball is lost. My son once played a scrimmage with players his level. He was so happy after the game. Good passes lead to good things and kids pass the ball back after you make a good run. There are teams that always preach development and there are teams that already have good players.