During the 10 and under Little League
game in Abilene, TX this April.
A Little League
baseball coach becomes unhinged after
he's thrown out of the game for arguing
balls and strikes and assaults the umpire.
7 to the ground.
It is the latest extreme example
of a youth sports industry
that some believe is
spiraling out of control.
A lot of it has been the chase for
the college athletic scholarship
driven by the runaway
travel sports industry in which families
thousands of dollars a year in teen fees and
travel costs to compete in
national tournaments and events,
youth sports have become an estimated
$19.2 billion a year business
in the US, surpassing the NFL.
Outpacing the yearly operating budget
of DC government, so the travel
sports world has in many ways hurt
the local rec leagues. Quite a bit.
John Solomon is editorial director for Aspen
Institute's Sports and society program.
It has taken away a lot of coaches.
It's taken away a lot of
volunteers to run leagues,
so a lot of families are getting left
behind. Yeah, go at A1 performance
training in Ashburn, shoot.
Go step, step, push families,
pay strength and conditioning.
Coach Greg Fenner.
That's not my maximum force that
is up to $60.00 an hour to help
their sons and daughters finish.
Good had a leg up on the competition.
Stop and catch it catch and keep
going with some parents starting
their kids out with private training
as young as eight years old.
They're 23 to 20 good.
Can you make it in today's
youth sports world without
somebody like coach Fenner?
You can, but you're automatically
a step behind, you know it's it's.
It was like we're racing 100 meters,
but you get to start 20 meters ahead
because this foundation has been
instilled in view of not only the
strength condition and the aspect,
but the skill development
is what sets kids apart.
Active arms, active arm
getting a step ahead hole hole
also meant moving a grade
behind for Brendan Robinson,
part of a growing number of
young athletes drop repeating a
grade in school not for academic,
but athletic reasons.
It's called reclassification.
Why? Well, it basically just gave
me a better opportunity for sports,
just like more years of training,
mom and dad was at a tough decision.
Not for me for her. For her
it was a very tough decision.
It took more than a year to convince Mom
Sonia, who was raised by a family of
educators that holding back a straight.
A student was the smart thing to do.
I also wasn't sure that it would
create the athletic advantage
that we thought it did drop.
Brendan started on the varsity
football and basketball team in his.
Official freshman year and now
after Brendan's reclass and an
estimated $80,000 investment by
his parents over the years in
private coaches and travel teams,
the 18 year old junior just
received his First Division.
One college offer a full athletic
scholarship to the College of
William and Mary in Virginia.
You got there. We
got there. You made it.
Not everybody makes it go.
Good DJ Levine junior.
Reclassified for athletics,
but when COVID cancelled
DJ's senior seasons,
a football and track, he was
left without any college
scholarship offers, so here's
a tough question. Oh boy,
any regrets when it comes to regrets.
It's kind of like a leap of faith you
gotta take forward like you gotta do
something and you know you want to do.
But you also know you're gonna leave
some things behind the help prepare
myself and get myself in a better
position than what I would have been.
Drive drop research from the Aspen
Institute in Washington shows the average
child from a low income household is
6 times more likely to quit sports
because they can't afford it and
that the majority of children from
all income brackets now quit sports.
By age 11, because it's just not
fun anymore, we actually sell.
You don't wanna
travel, you wanna play wreck when
you're young hoping to minimize
the number of kids left behind by
today's world of youth sports.
In May, the Aspen Institute held
its project play summit at Audi
Field to find ways to increase youth
sports opportunities regardless
of income or talent
level. Youth sports, whether we like
it or not, is sort of a big business.
Speakers included former NFL great
Greg Olsen, now a broadcaster.
What did the balance look
like specifically in your life
and host of the youth sports?
Podcast Youth, Inc.
The idea of this just being a bunch
of kids playing for their church
or their rec league is is not
really what's happening anymore
and and you can interpret that
as being a good or a bad thing.
It's it's up to everybody to
make their own determination.
Do we need to criticize or judge
that high level sports world with
the private coaches or just do a
better job uplifting the alternative?
Yeah, I think I think it's a great question.
I think you know there is also a little
bit of a stigma of the families who do
play at the higher level and that do have.
Kids, as long as the kids are
who are driving the ship,
there is absolutely nothing wrong and
I would actually say I think it's great
for these kids to go out and see the
real world and see what really is out
there outside of their little town.
Very nice work, good job work, boys.