45 million children are playing youth sports each year. Yet only 2% will go professional. That’s still 900,000 kids. When kids start off young, there is no yelling or screaming at them. But are youth sports too competitive? Not necessarily. As kids grow up, you can begin to see who wants to play forever, and who just wants to have fun. Starting at around age eight, there is a “more competitive league”. This is the league for club teams that bring kids from different towns to make a better team. This league is designated for the kids who want to play forever and I’m one of those kids. Supposed to start this April, I was on a club team called the CT Rage. Playing with kids who had the same dream as me to play in the MLB. I still played little league, and that is where I knew I needed to be seperated. I wanted to win everything and kids just want to have fun. The difference between me and them is that their coach probably doesn’t yell at them, while my coach screams and yells at me.  I want my coach to yell at me because it determines me to do it and that is why youth sports aren’t too competitive. If the kids know how it is going to be then it isn’t too competitive.  One of the biggest differences in youth sports are the coaches. According to SportsSignUp, 85% of the coaches are parents. While in the other league, 0% of the coaches are parents because they are pros. Only the kids who want to make it get yelled at because their coaches want them to make it too. According to Activekids, 80% of kids quit youth sports after the age of 15. You know why? Because in high school, that is where it starts to get serious for both groups of kids.. These club kids want to win and play well because there will be college scouts there. This is where they start their MLB journey. With small towns only having three or four teams, close towns should combine their sports leagues. When I played in the small town of Easton, Connecticut, I knew every single person. If we combined the towns, kids get to meet new kids and make more friends. They also get to play more games. This will make kids remember their childhood and have a great time. You might think that the kids won’t become friends. The regular group just wants to play and have fun and the serious group wants to follow their dreams.    So you decide, are youth sports too competitive?

 

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Works Cited

 

“NCAA Recruiting Facts.” NCAA, Mar. 2019, www.ncaa.org/sites/default/files/Recruiting%20Fact%20Sheet%20WEB.pdf. Accessed 22 Apr. 2020.

“3 Interesting Facts About Youth Sports.” SportsSignUp, sportssignup.com/blog/3-interesting-facts-about-youth-sports. Accessed 22 Apr. 2020.

“Youth Sports Participation By the Numbers.” ActiveKids, www.activekids.com/football/articles/youth-sports-participation-by-the-numbers. Accessed 22 Apr. 2020.