What happened to all this stuff just being free or almost free? Did towns quit paying for a parks department? Do we no longer have rec centers? Why the 17 is a youth sports league 4.5 months long? And why the 17 can't a few mom's or dad's not volunteer their time to be coaches instead of having to pay someone?
It has just gotten too serious. After junior high, maybe it should. But if you are going to tell me that kids under the age of 12 need this world class competition and coaching, I'm going to tell you we parents are taking it too 17ing serious.
For less than $1000 a year my 9 year old kid competes in what many could consider very expensive sports year around.
--Plays tackle football in the fall (Mid August- mid October).$100
--Get a half dozen golf lessons and play 6 rounds of golf against other kids (walk 9 holes) with an instructor in May and June. $250
--And he gets a season ski equipment lease ($150) and year around passes to two ski areas. One of which provides a bus ride after school to the lodge and two hours of lessons 3 days a week January-March ($350) The other resort gives him free coaching for the air and style team every Tuesday night and Saturday morning and a season pass ($79.) All of this is available for free via scholarship to many of the less fortunate kids in the area.
There's not a chance in hell volleyball should cost more than golf, football, or definitely alpine skiing, but in the name of club sports we have figured out how to do it.
Wow, a lot to unpack.
1- Has it ever been free or almost free? I played sports in the 80s and 90s and it was anything but free or almost free back then. Baseball, basketball, and soccer- house leagues werent free or almost freen and travel leagues definitely werent free.
Refs, equipment, facilities, etc all cost money. That money either comes from taxes or sign up fees.
2- I dont think towns have quite paying for a parks department entirely, but see the last sentence above- funding comes from taxes or sign up fees. So if city/public leagues cost a lot of money, then little funding is coming from taxes.
3- Rec centers exist, but from what I have read and seen, they are not well staffed/funded and are more of a spot to go for unstructured pickup basketball and e-sports, rather than a place to go for structured quality coaching.
4- Why wouldnt a tryout league be 4.5 months long? In my example, its usually 6 or 7 tournaments on Saturdays, and the rest is practice. 2 hours twice a week where the girls get good cardio, learn healthy communication, practice accountability and focus, and get to shut off all the drama in their lives and focus on something they have a passion for.
That practice time is whats really important to me- giving teens a chance to learn communication and accountability skills while also getting exercise? Thats a no brainer to me.
5- Parents can volunteer coach, and do. The YMCA league that used to exist was parent coached. There are multiple house leagues run by private volleyball clubs and those are all parent coached. There are a couple AAU focused clubs that are also parent coached.
I know all the parents of the teams my oldest daughter has played on over the last 4 years(8th grade thru current 11th), both HS teams and club teams, and I dont want any of them coaching her.
First off, she wouldnt improve because they lack depth of knowledge about the game and her team would be at a level that exceeds any of those parent's ability. Secondly, I dont think the parents would successfully manage personalities. Third, if they wanted to coach, they would. They choose not to learn the game's complexities and they choose not to apply/volunteer.
Parent volunteer coaching works well at the 4th and 5th grade levels. Maybe 6th. Once you get to 7th though, unless the team is brand new to volleyball, a random parent volunteer coach will likely be out of their depth and will struggle to identify and correct poor form, or will struggle to teach higher level concepts on offense.
6- You do acknowledge that maybe after Jr High it should be more serious. I would argue that Jr High is a time when there can be both serious and intro tracks for sports. Some kids are being introduced to a sport in 7th or 8th grade, and thats awesome. Others have played it for 3 years and should be encouraged to continue to improve, if they love the sport. That doesnt mean kids who have a solid understanding and talent for a game should play against the kids that are just learning the basics. That doesnt challenge the experienced kid and doesnt encourage the new kid.
Multiple types of leagues are the obvious answer. And reality is that more challenge = higher cost. It doesnt need to be stupidly expensive to be challenging, but it will cost more than an introductory rec house league.
7- Many park districts around me have house leagues. My town has one for 8-9 year olds and 10-11 year olds. They dont go older because lack of interest in house leagues at older ages and lack of willing coaches at older ages. <--this is directly from the current Director of Parks and Rec.
Its great that you have found opportunities for your kids that are enjoyable and inexpensive.
I can tell you, after having helped run a volleyball club that was as bare bones as it gets, that the unfortunate reality is it appears club volleyball is more expensive than your kid's best life.
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We charged $450 per girl at the older level and $415 per girl at the younger level(under 12).
- Our volleyballs, poles, nets, buckets, etc were all borrowed from the feeder high school, which kept costs down.
- Each team practiced 2x per week for 2 hours at a time. The gym space was the least expensive we could find, its cheaper than any of the surrounding school districts rent gym space for.
- Tournaments were $75-125 per tournament.
- Uniforms were $50.
Take 11 girls, thats $4950 to work with.
- $550 for uniforms
- $700 for tournaments
- $2520 for gym space at $35/hour for 36 practices
- $1180 for a knowledgeable and experienced coach, which comes out to $10/hour between practices and tournaments.
The only reason it is possible at this low cost is because equipment is lent out.
Once a family adds in cost of gas and food at tournaments thru the season, you get to $800-1000 in total cost.
If you can find a parent to volunteer their time, it drops the cost by $100 per kid. So its now $700-900 in total cost between uniform, practice and tournament costs, and gas and food.
And again, finding a parent that is willing to volunteer 120 hours of their time to practices and tournaments AND know how to coach the game at a level that will push kids, is an extremely rare thing.
