You should see what they pay in Marin for hacky sack coaching.
Posted on 10/10/2004 7:07:01 AM PDT by truthandlife
Last March, after an exhausting nine-month schedule, the White Buffaloes, a boys Danville soccer team coached by John Wondolowski, won the prestigious California Soccer State Cup.
That was when Wondolowski got the news. He was out and would not be asked back to coach this season. The players needed someone to develop their skills and move on to the next level. So the Mustang Soccer League was bringing in a professional coach. The kicker? The kids on the White Buffaloes were 11 years old.
Professional coaches for kids who are still in grade school? Absolutely. In the Bay Area parents shell out $70 an hour for individual pitching and hitting coaches for their Little Leaguers. They pay professional coaching salaries that have been estimated as high as $75,000 a year. And they warn kids they had better specialize in a specific sport -- all before they become teenagers.
"If they wait until they are 12," Virgil Lewis, executive director of U.S. Soccer has been quoted as saying, "it is too late."
California may be the cutting edge of the trend, but the professionalization of kids' sports is nationwide. The 12-year-olds from Tom's River, N.J., who make up the program that won the Little League World Series in 1998 and made it to the nationally televised showcase three times between 1995 and 1999, have an annual budget estimated at $200,000 and a sumptuous clubhouse with indoor batting cages for winter workouts.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
It is a shame that so many kids can't just go out and play a bit in the afternoon before or after doing some homework.
As for the high salaries enjoyed by sports stars, pursuing these is still a bad proposition. Much better to have encourage the child to do well in school, and encourage the child to learn practical skills.
You should see what they pay in Marin for hacky sack coaching.
My son is 16 now, but we never did the "organized" team sport thing.
Here was my opinion (just for us, not condemning those that participate in organized sports):
I watched the neighborhood kids get together and play football, basketball, soccer, and baseball (sport changed with the seasons it seemed).
They'd play on the rough of the golf course on our street, or in a driveway or little park in the area.
They'd form teams (kids of all ages playing together), they'd assign positions, they'd decide on rules, then referee themselves.
It seemed to me to develop more realistic ways of coping and socializing in life than going to a field and having a coach tell you what to do and where to go.
Nowadays, my son's friends seem more inclined to come to our house to play pool, but they still form a friendly touch football or soccer game every once in awhile.
That is why we are seeing organized sports turn into a professional business. Since kids very rarely play outside they put them in organized sports and the stakes are getting higher every year. Parents wants to give their kids everything everybody else is giving and we are seeing this type of "win at all cost" culture come out of this. It will be interesting to see in a few years how many of these kids turn out.
This obsession with sports causes kids to not excel as much as they could in their academics, which would give them access to much more money in terms of scholarships. It also increases the chances for serious injuries to the kids.
No one here gets it.
Pickup games are non-existent because people are afraid to let their kids play in the neighborhood unsupervised. When my kids want to play with their friends, they go to their house or their friends come to our house. There aren't enough kids to form pickup games.
I have 2 kids in organized sports and will have my 2 other kids play as well when they get old enough. This is the only way for them to play sports today.
As far as the competitiveness goes, some teams are very competitive but others are not. You don't have to play on one of the elite teams that try to challenge for the State or National title. Like anything else, some parents take it too far, others get it about right.
This article almost tends to make one believe we're a nation of highly competitive sports all-stars. I thought we were told we're a nation of fat-bodies--especially children. Can't the "experts" make up their minds?
Do these children actually make better adult athletes?
Nice post. Having coaches at the youth, scholastic and collegiate levels for over 20 years, I can testify to the truth of this. Good people are getting out in droves because they can't stand the bs and the paid guys are finding it is not worth the money.
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