Youth Sports (i.e. the thing we all loved which parents have now ruined)

My kid is going to be in one of the classes that I teach this fall, and I'm going to acknowledge that the first day of class. I'm also going to tell everyone that I'm going to hold her to a higher standard than everyone else because what I teach in that class is stuff that she's been hearing about her whole life.

 

My daughter’s middle school band director did a student of the year award for each grade level, which seemed sensible enough to me. This opinion is in no way influenced by the fact that she won this spring for seventh grade and was first chair flute a year ahead of schedule.

 

A funny update on all of this, my kid's old team advertised a new tryout yesterday. Realize tryout season is pretty much a month old at this point. Because, ha, I reached out to a few I know still connected to the team but not with the one coach's clique and yeah, they only have six players right now! They did two tryouts already, and the first, which my kid went to since he was still on the team, had a really good turnout. It sort of serves them right, but there has to be a reason. My guess is some word of mouth about how awful last season was got out.

Going back to it being late in the process, they are going to have a really hard time finding good players or any players at this point. Everyone has teams. This was practically a majors team last year, too. All because of one coach's ego.

 

That's awesome.

We're trying to encourage our 6th grader to audition for the jazz band, which is usually only open to 8th graders. But, the teacher has made accommodations in the past for talented students. She played percussion in the inter-el band.

 

Good series in The Plain Dealer:

https://www.cleveland.com/news/2024...to-play-hockey-tournaments-our-best-life.html

 

It is all a scam, but it is quickly becoming the only way to play. The rec leagues in my area are pretty much dead. So there are a bunch of watered-down "club" and "travel" teams. Even those can't find enough players anymore. As I posted with my son's old team pretty much still needing to fill half a roster, there are at least two other teams on that level in this area that are also not full.

My baseball son's costs aren't crazy and we have never gone to more than two stay-over tournaments in a season. One year his coach decided to pay the stay-to-play fine and we stayed in a better place for cheaper. My cheerleader son, that's a whole different story. The base cost of his program is extreme, and it doesn't cover uniforms, other equipment, or tournament costs. The coaches are paid and they do have a facility but it is nuts. There aren't other options for it either. They also travel four to five times a year to places you'd expect like Orlando, which also requires a Disney trip in addition to the stay-to-play, and those competitions are strict on that.

Anyway, through it all, as my wife says, it's cheaper than therapy for the kids. May or may not be true but it is probably close.

 

I was watching my cousin's son play club hockey. A kid broke his stick and I asked my cousin how much they cost. $300.