The Scholarship Problem

The problem with today’s athletics begins with parents and coaches. I have refereed hundreds of basketball games over the past five year and have had been exposed to the growing number of problems within youth athletics. These problems stem from starting at an extremely young age and lead to the massive burnout many experience in high school. For instance, basketball is now starting in kindergarten with coaches, who are parents, which have zero clue about the game, screaming at their players who cannot even tie their shoes, let alone try to run Fred Hoiberg’s version of the transition flex offense. I have firsthand experience of coaches in kindergarten through second grade screaming at me for not calling three seconds in the key. Most of these kids cannot count to three let alone understand the process of a lane violation. Yet coaches and parents alike consistently bicker and yell at not only the official, but also their kids for performing badly. Trust me, I have been held to high standards throughout my athletic experience, but I was never berated like these kids. Parents and coaches are literally turning red like the “oompa lompa blueberry girl.” These kids, at such a young age are exposed to the evil side of sports. There is no love for the game anymore, simply a parental want/need for a scholarship.

I understand the value a scholarship presents and the heavy burden that student loans will place on your shoulders. It is not fun to watch your bank account diminish and watching paycheck after paycheck being cashed by the government or some other private “non-profit” loan organization. We can save that fiasco for another day. Furthermore, no one wants to be $100,000 in debt straight out of college where the job field is as intense and downtrodden as ever. But this is life and we all will struggle through it in hopes of being more successful than our parents. It’s the so-called “American Dream.” How do parents combat this problem? They force their kids into sports, scream, yell, and turn funny shades of red and purple in order to get their kids a full ride to college. Laughable right? It’s the truth, and it is what is wrong with modern day athletics.

It is extremely disturbing, yet funny (I am thinking of the parents of grade school kids that I have conversed with about how their son/daughter is going to get a scholarship) in some respects when you go to the NCAA’s research on titled, “Probability of competing in sports beyond high school” and look at the probabilities of competing beyond high school. The data that is shown begins with baseball and continues through soccer. When looking at the larger team sports such as baseball and football, where roster spots are abundant, the numbers and percentages are higher than every sport, other than hockey, as expected. Due to the low amount of high school hockey players, percentages of playing in college are much higher. According to the NCAA’s research on estimated numbers and data, there are 482,629 students playing baseball and 1,093,234 students playing football in high school. Out of the large numbers, only 6.9 percent (33,301 students) of baseball players will play in college, with or without a scholarship. Comparing that to football, only 6.5 percent (71,060 students) will play after high school again with or without scholarships. No, your annual Thanksgiving Turkey Bowl does not count as playing time after high school, no matter how many touchdowns you have scored under the clothesline pole. If you are one of those lucky 33,000 plus baseball athletes, you then have an 8.6 percent chance (2,864 students) compared to the 1.6 percent (1,136) of football student athletes that have a chance of getting drafted. Relatively speaking, parents are not looking for their kid to make it professionally, just looking for a way to pay for college.

If we look at one more statistic, and probably the most controversial and over played sport in all of youth athletics, it is basketball. Out of the 541,054 males playing basketball, only 3.4 percent (18,395 students) have a chance of playing in college. Out of the 433,344 females playing basketball, only 3.8 percent (16,467 students) have a chance in college. The percentage for both going to the NBA and WNBA respectively is under 1.3 percent for each. My question to parents, coaches, and AAU tournaments is why do we lie to our youth? I have refereed a number of AAU basketball tournaments and rarely see a college scout. I have played in shootouts as a high school athlete and on occasion would see a handful of recruiters. Yet we still are overplaying our youth in order to either, one… in the AAU realm, make money, or two… in the parenting realm, receive a scholarship offer.

The astonishing number of athletes in every sport that receive some form of financial funding according to the NCAA for sports is 2 percent! That is not just full scholarships; that is all funding for athletic scholarships. What is wrong with this picture? The percentage is fine, we want the best, and the system will continue to weed out the weak. The problem is we have parents and AAU programs creating these flaws. Everyone hears the common story; you want to play in college? Okay, you need to join an AAU team, quit every other sport, and have financial backing so we can talk to scouts for you. Laughable right? Except it’s the modern day truth. Parents are pumping hundreds if not thousands of dollars into travel tournaments. All in hopes for getting their child an athletic scholarship.

I am a high school basketball coach and I know I sound like I condone travel sports, which I do not. I believe they do have benefits when you are playing against quality opponents. I think they are a good way of getting name recognition and creating connections, IF and a major IF, you are playing in the big time invitational tournaments. Fundamentals lack, it becomes a showboating drama, and kids get burnt out. These so called “elite programs” expose that money is “king.” If you want your kid to play, whether they should or should not be in AAU or highly competitive programs, they can. Money can create a team and play in mediocre tournaments in the hope for a scout to watch. Scouts are not wasting their time at these lower level functions. The system in its entirety is watered down. Competition levels are dropping at as rapid rate, yet the money continues to flow in. Will this problem end? When will people begin realizing that a travel team is not meant for all athletes? If we remain on the current system and path, sports at EVERY level will continue its rapid downward spiral. Fundamentals have faltered and with it has come the entire sport.

What is wrong with this madness is starting at the youth level. First and foremost, fundamentals are thrown out the window. Coaches, whether they understand the game or not, ultimately want to win. I am not saying that this is a bad thing but at the grade school level, fundamentals should be of prime importance. I have watched it transpire the last several years from all aspects of the game. Coaches will simply play their best kids while the others picked their noses on the bench or ate dandelions in the outfield. I have watched bigger and taller kids be forced to play down on the post and not allowed to dribble a basketball. Hello, does anyone watch European basketball? If you do, tell me how many of their “bigs” cannot dribble. I would imagine number is astonishingly low. This lack of fundamentals can be observed the entire way up through the NBA. Someone needs to explain to the NCAA and the public that the shot clock is not the issue, it’s rooted deeper than that alone. The problem stems from youth coaches and parents not educating kids the proper way to shoot, to move without the basketball, and of course the most underrated aspect, passing. All of these become exposed many years later.

Secondly, pressing is out of control and atrocious. We have no true basketball players like the Larry Bird’s or John Stockton’s anymore. We simply have athletes that run around like a “chicken with its head cut off” in hopes of stealing the ball and making a layup. The jump shot is dead and non-existent. To add to this all, coaches are trying to fast break every single possession. Parents and coaches alike sit in the stands and scream PUSH, PUSH, PUSH, as if they’re lives depended on it. In the rare occasion that they attempt to run a play, coaches run a variation of Bo Ryan’s swing offense that confuses your average basketball enthusiast, let alone a 4th grader. Maybe other sports should take of the major innovations hockey is doing within its youth organizations that has enabled the sports’ growth by upwards of 43%. Through the “Come Play Youth Hockey” campaign, local hockey organizations in partnership with USA Hockey, has begun implementing less travel and move fundamentals at the lowest levels in hopes of keeping kids in the sport longer. This has actually worked! Who would have thought that there would be a direct correlation between fundamentals and participation? Think about your youth teams or just in general. If you understand how to dribble, block, kick, or how the game works, would it not be more enjoyable? Athletics across the country at every level would flourish. Numbers would rise and competition would grow.

Now, I am not saying do not try to win. Winning is important, but by no means does it trump fundamentals at ANY level, especially K-9. We live in a society where winning is of key importance at every level starting with national tournaments in kindergarten where most kids struggle with the pressure to spell their name let alone the high intensity of a national event. Anyone reading this article can most likely remember the kid that dominated in middle school and panned out to being average at best in high school. Can anyone remember the kid that improved immensely due to fundamentals being taught? Probably not, because that kid never got a chance to play due to a parent or coach focusing on their own child succeeding and chasing that offer. That offer is not coming in first grade, or second grade, or eighth grade. Looking at the statistics above, that offer may never come. Why do we continue to over play, over pay, and exhaust our youth for the hopes of a scholarship? Sports are meant to be fun. They build character, teach responsibility, and enable growth within social, mental, and physical areas.