On another site, I see lots of threads about select Baseball/Soccer/volleyball. Pay to play stuff. Do these parents really believe that they can pay enough to make their babies D1 candidates?

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Save your money and put it into a college fund

That's my thought as well.

My buddy is eat up with it. His boy plays on two select teams and little league. He constantly talks trash about the little league players because they "aren't on the same level" as his boy but it's "good practice". Of course he knows he's gonna go pro, he's 6.

Most kids get burned out or injured before finishing hs. They get started too young

My youngest son plays select soccer. He started playing soccer when he was 3 and started club/ select when he was 10. I paid for him to play select because he loves to play soccer and rec was not a challenge. For us it's not about paying enough to make it to D1. Players have to be VERY good to play D1 soccer! My son is 17 and a junior this year. He has several schools that are interested in him coming to play for them. They email and text him every other week or so to see how the season is going and what tournaments he is playing in so they can come and watch him play. I think that my son can play college soccer but I prefer that he does not go D1 route. He always starts and plays pretty much the entire game. I do not want him to go somewhere where he will not play. I feel that he would get discouraged and end up hating it and want to leave school. I would like for him to go to a smaller school where he will have the opportunity to play right off the bat.

The new koolaid10-20,000 a year to play ball crazy.

Baseball has to be the worst , maybe volleyball.

My oldest grandson has played select baseball since he was 8. He's a senior now and will be playing college ball next year. It's not a D1 school but nonetheless he'll be playing. Most people don't realize how hard it is to be able to play college ball at any level. Just a little over 2% of all players coming out of high school get to play at the next level. There are very very few scholarships given to baseball players so it helps to have some very good grades to go along with some playing ability. Grandson is getting some sizeable academic scholarships.
Select ball alone won't get you there, it takes a lot of hard work to go along with it.

In all honesty I think that's about 25% of why parents pay. I played select soccer for 15 years and I can tell you that my parents did not pay all of that money to make me a D1 athlete. A lot of parents pay that amount of money because their child thoroughly enjoys playing the sport and has the potential to develop a serious skill in that sport.

Makes more sense to give your child an opportunity to fail. Let them play city league ball with a bunch of kids who can’t catch, throw, or hit and most only play bc mom and dad make them and the competition sucks. Play travel ball and play against other kids and teams that are good competition and you don’t win all the time and it teaches kids they have to work hard for success. Most the people I see complaining about these leagues prob sucked at sports and gut bullied for throwing like a girl. Competition is good for kids nd translates I to real life.

99% of the reason ours plays select is bc the competition wasnt there in rec ball. He got tired of taking his bag every game bc kids cant pitch. Same reason he decided to quit football and focus on wrestling, he wanted to challenge himself and know that he was the deciding factor in the victory/loss. Mom and I both said we dont care what you do but 4 sports over(baseball, basketball, wrestling and football), pick 2 and get good at what you enjoy the most. He chose baseball and wrestling. He might do 7 on 7 just to play with his friends but hes footballed out already.

I couldn't agree more

These organizations like Perfect Game are absolutely making a killing off of parents who think their kid is the next Mike Trout. It's a money making machine.

Same here. I played select from 6th grade till I was a junior. The level of competition is outstanding and really helped in my development. I will be damned if I pay 10k for it though lol

When I was in high school, we were all in front of the coaches and they said if you played select baseball go over there. They did and all made the team.( If parents had the money to put kids in select, then they were booster club candidates)

This was over 30 years ago.

For my daughter it is about the level of competition, no about college. I have college taken care of.


For baseball, the level or scholarship money is definetly not worth it.

Seeing your child compete at a high level against other kids playing at a high level and having the time of his life playing a sport he loves a enough reason for me to pay for him to play. Right now it just cost a couple hundred a month

Kids’ sports in general is pretty much out of control these days from both a time and money standpoint.

My son played Jr. Golf, and hs golf. Every summer was traveling around for golf in state. He was a good golfer, just didn’t do well in high pressure tournament golf. When it came time for college, he could have played at a smaller school. Instead he made the descision to get a degree at A & M. I was proud of that descision.

Never been around anybody that played it but do they Teach the kids in soccer how to flop or is that a natural thing?

I think they teach that later in life

I think those kids that flop in soccer get that from watching the pros. None of my sons coaches have ever taught them to flop. Mexican league soccer is ridiculous with the players flopping. You don't see it much at all in European soccer.

Even in high school. The select athletes stand out so much above the non select

In volleyball there are several layers of “club”.

Example, a club usually has these levels

3. Metro level. Where teams don’t travel. This is what Troy Ailmans daughter plays. 2000 per year
2. Regional teams. May go to Houston/ Austin/ once 3500 per year.
1. National teams. Go to several out of state tournaments. 6000 per year. Plus travel, hotel, airfare, etc.

No, that's the Hollywood and other elites' scam. "Compete" in a sport for an offering then don't play after getting in. Fake pics and all!

I see that rec leagues have become watered down but I'm not certain that it is not a result of the "pay to play" trend. Many of the select teams are less competitive than the rec leagues were 20 years ago.