The high price of athletics

Editor's note: Nancy Justis, a former competitive swimmer, is a partner with Justis Creative Communications.

By Nancy Justis, correspondent

I'm going to point out that when I was growing up we didn't have elaborate high school graduation parties. We didn't send out 'Save the Date” cards when we got married. We didn't pay for private coaches.

We did join the local Y and we did on occasion have to pay event entry fees.

Times have changed, of course. It's like everything has turned into 'keeping up with the Joneses”. Graduation parties feed a couple hundred ravenous children. Our family has received numerous 'Save the Date” cards for weddings. And families now pay thousands of dollars each year for Johnny and Susie to play competitive sports, beginning at younger and younger ages.

That is, if families can afford it.

Travis Dorsch is a former Purdue University All-American kicker who went on to play for the NFL's Cincinnati Bengals - a feat not likely to happen for a vast majority of children playing sports today. He now is an assistant professor at Utah State University where his research involves parents' engagement in their children's sports.

He said spending on sports has grown so high (up to 10.5 percent of gross income) that it is upsetting the family's apple cart.

'A family bringing in $50,000 a year could be spending $5,500” on their children's athletic experience annually, he reported recently in a NYTimes.com article. 'Without being judgy, I'm fine with families spending that kind of money. What's wrong is when that investment brings out some sort of negative parent behavior.

'Or if the kid says ‘mom and dad are spending $10,000 on me a year,' what are they expecting in return? Is it a college scholarship?”

The article also points out that 135 young quarterbacks from 36 states would be flying to Los Angeles for a two-day camp with Steve Clarkson. Parents of these third- through 12th-graders were paying about $800 each, not including the flight, hotel and other expenses, like the necessity of food. Clarkson also offers private coaching starting at $400 an hour.

I come from a middle class family. My father owned his own business. My mother, for a time, acted as bookkeeper. There was no way my parents could afford that kind of special coaching. I still competed 10 years, including one year at the collegiate level at which time I quit because of burnout.

Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen wrote an essay for the Players' Tribune about growing up in small town Fort Meade, Fla.

'When you're a kid from a low-income family who has talent, how do you get recognized?” he wrote. 'Now, you have to pay thousands of dollars for the chance to be noticed in showcase tournaments in big cities. My parents love me, but they had to work hard to put food on the table, and there wasn't much left over.”

Mark Hyman, an assistant teaching professor at George Washington, mentioned a Cincinnati-based father of three who recorded each sports-related purchase made over the course of a year. By the end of the first year, he listed 43 items ranging in price from a few dollars to more than $1,000.

Hyman reported the father listed two dozen recycled golf balls and a pair of softball socks, two trips to Dayton, Ohio, and baseball trips to Kentucky and Indiana. A baseball tournament took the family to Cooperstown, N.Y. The final total came to $8,921 for the year.

Hyman notes the youth sports economy is estimated at $5 billion. But how many children are missing out on the experience? And how badly do mom and dad feel when they can't provide that life-learning experience for their child?

A FOLLOW-UP

In my previous column I wrote about how children are quitting sports at an alarming rate. I mentioned a nine-year-old hockey player in Canada who quit because it was no longer fun. He was sitting on the bench the entire game.

In an article written by Jason Gregor in the Edmonton Journal (May 19, 2015), he wrote many parents who read the original story seemed to feel winning was most important. He also quoted Paul Carson, vice president of hockey development for Hockey Canada.

Carson said stopping the mind-set of playing only certain kids in 'important” situations begins with the parents and local associations.

'If we can get parents and associations to understand that it isn't about winning, it is about developing, it is about have a great time in sport, then I think we're closer to solving that dilemma of what coaches will resort to to win hockey games,” he said.

l Let us know what you think by contacting Justis at njustis@cfu.net