-To be recruited to play collegiate athletics now often comes with a price. For parents and their child’s dream to play a college sport has resulted in an overall long-term financial investment that can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
-Club sport participation alone can be a heavy financial burden for a family to undertake with registration fees, travel, equipment, uniforms, hotel, food, coaches’ fees, etc. While such participation in a club program can lead to greater exposure for an athlete to be acknowledged and seen by potential college recruiters is widely known, the costs are staggering and become greater when parents and programs take those next steps to mold athletes into greater college prospects, to reach the “5-Star” recruit designation. For example, Alabama quarterback, Bryce Young, received countless hours of training with quarterback specialists/gurus, elite 7-on-7 competitions and camp visits, personal training, etc. These ventures are purposed to “create” the most visible and game-ready recruit at the quarterback position. This is not only a physical and mental commitment, but also a financial one, aimed to appease the most renowned and respected football universities in the nation.
-While such training investments are geared toward building and enhancing athletes to a level of performance that will result in scholarship offers, more parents and athletes are recognizing that basic youth participation and school-based training is simply not enough in many cases to receive the notoriety and recognition from the big time giants of college athletics. Essentially, talent alone and performance in high school competition only (for many sports) once used to be all it took to receive national acknowledgement, but with the greater inception of in-season and off-season training entities, it has become more apparent than ever that competition does not just reside on the field of play, but also in the realm of college recruitment. Today’s athletes must go the extra mile to vie for the attention of recruiters, to get their chance to compete at the highest level possible. If athletes are capable and have the financial backing from their support system (i.e., parents/guardians), to get that edge in recruitment, they take that opportunity to outrun their competition and move up the ladder of recruitment.
Club Sports vs High School Sports 
I love that you brought up this topic about club versus school/youth sports. I was fortunate to play both club and school volleyball but I received attention from college recruiters during club season. It is unfortunately true that athletes who have better financial support have any easier time catch the attention of college recruiters.
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This is a big issue with students not having the financial support and struggling to succeed at a higher level than just rec sports. Being in club sports you are exposed to college recruiters, but never in rec/youth sports. How does one even get a scholarship to college if a student athlete cannot afford a club team?
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Great blog Jared, I enjoyed reading this topic because I can relate to it so much. I was playing high school sports when the whole sports industry began to shift from mainly high school sports to mainly club sports. The biggest difference I noticed was the amount of college scouts I saw at these tournaments. I barely saw scouts at high school games unless it was a very big prospect they were all there for.
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To answer an earlier question, if an athlete doesn’t play club sports, a lot rides on their HS coach. I’ve had many athletes get scholarships without travel sports, but many were based on my providing video and corresponding with college coaches.
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Club versus high school sports has definitely a long time topic in the recruitment of youth athletes. I personally was fortunate enough to be able to play both but did notice that almost all of my exposures to recruits came from my club tournaments. It does put those children who don’t have as much means at severe disadvantages and calls into question whether the best kids are actually being recruited or if they just have more means.
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