In competitive athletics, unlike academia, one eventually discovers his true abilities, or lack thereof.
I was constantly fighting the urge to tell my close friend that his kid just wasn’t that good (he thought his kid was a superstar who was being shafted by the coach.) Eventually his kid quit the basketball team because he wasn’t starting. His dad, my friend, had urged him to quit. The ironic thing is, due to injuries from other players, his kid would have ended up starting. So my friend shafted his own child.