Gentrification of School Sports

"Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo" (rustyvandura)
08/30/2019 at 18:36 • Filed to: None

As parents have recognized that athletic success can burnish college applications, sports have come to resemble just another pre-professional program, with rising costs, hyper-specialization, and massive opportunity-hoarding among the privileged.

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Me? I was the fat kid that was bullied and ostracized by the jocks when I was in school, so I don’t have a lot of feels for athletics anyhow. (I was also bullied and ostracized generally by the wealthier kids, so no feels there, either.) And as a secondary educator, I see the talented kids come along who could get all their tuition and books and room and board paid, even an allowance, but they can’t get a C in Algebra 2 and they grow up and work in a car wash and sit around and re-live the glory days. And the sense of entitlement ...

They say there’s no I in team . But there definitely is an I in bulls**t . Or bullies .

Hmmm... Resentment much? Body shame much?

I guess I’m glad I got that off my chest...

DISCUSSION (29)

For Sweden > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
08/30/2019 at 18:45

Lol more athletic training isn’t going to secure Albus Bartholomew Stantly IV an athletic scholarship to Boston College.

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
08/30/2019 at 18:46

And for those who take 3 tries to pass a math class AND suck at sports, there is always insurance.

I’ve heard....

My X-type is too a real Jaguar > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
08/30/2019 at 19:08

So lots of Al Bundys at the school

facw > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
08/30/2019 at 19:13

I’m still annoyed about this Deadspin story from yesterday about a public rec center in DC giving a wealthy private school near-exclusive use of their fields in exchange for basically $75k a year:

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The school had previously operated under the same deal, but had to contribute much more to improve the facilities, but it sounds like the administrators of the facility have been so captured they happily agreed to extend for a much smaller contribution (meaning the public will see even less benefit from the original contribution, and the millions of new money the DC government has committed).

facw > For Sweden
08/30/2019 at 19:15

Rich kids don’t need a scholarship, but unless they are super rich, they may need help getting in. Extracurriculars can help with that in general, but even more helpful is a coach (even from a non-scholarship sport) telling admissions that they really want this kid.

For Sweden > facw
08/30/2019 at 19:20

If mildly-athletic kids wanted a good education they would go to Caltech

facw > For Sweden
08/30/2019 at 19:23

Caltech is hard to get into though. IIRC, they do allow cats in the dorms, so that’s nice.

Besides, this isn’t about what the kids want.

gettingoldercarguy > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
08/30/2019 at 19:28

I briefly glanced through this but it appears the author doesn't know what meritocracy means.

fintail > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
08/30/2019 at 19:59

You should see what money has done to youth hockey since I was a kid, kind of depressing in a way. It used to be a very working class kind of thing, not so much anymore.

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > fintail
08/30/2019 at 20:12

Working class kids just stay home now. No landrover? no hockey.

fintail > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
08/30/2019 at 20:33

I fear that’s the way it is going. There was always an expense, but local youth hockey can cost 5 figures these days, and there are now “academies ” (sarcastic quotes - I sincerely question the academics ) which give more practice often at a cost of 25-50K per annum, all in hopes of landing that scholarship for a ride that the parents likely could have paid anyway.

Sad. It used to be something fairly egalitarian, not so much anymore.

subexpression > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
08/30/2019 at 20:39

I find t his idea of high school sports as an equalizer to be absurd . Wealthier districts have always had more sports to choose from and better equipment for the teams . Once you get to things like lacrosse and golf I can’t help but picture private high schools with tuition higher than some state universities .

But hey, the possibility that the article author’s kids might have to sit next to mere peons in college classes because the fancier soccer camp is so expensive is totally more important than having public schools turn out graduates who can barely read, write, and do basic math. Colleges and employers don’t care about that stuff, right?

Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
08/30/2019 at 21:56

I walked a really fine line in terms of my experience with sports. I ran and cross country skied in high school(not really high profile sports) and I wasn’t great in high school. I wasn’t going to get a scholarship out of high school. But then it turned out that I wasn’t great in high school probably in large part due to coaching and I got much better at running in college and chased dreams of trying to be a pro triathlete after college with some occasional success . I love sports; it gave me that I otherwise struggled to find, leadership skills that I know help me in my job to this day , and really if I hadn’t had sports who knows what age 18-25 would have had in store for me. So in my mind; sports can offer people a lot and i think it’s good when people participate.

But at the same time my wife was one of those kids talked about in this article. She played high level volleyball from like age 12 to 20. Her parents refused to help her with undergraduate school when she left behind her full ride because it made her miserable even though they had plenty of cash to spare . She played on expensive teams at a young age , and went to far away places all to prove she was good at volleyball to get a scholarship but I think she would have been better off without the formal athletics in college(and probably in high school) . This is the downside to what the article is talking about.

I hate the idea that some kids specialize at sports before the age of 18 ; and that their parents funnel money into their athletics trying to buy some success they didn’t have or a college education(that they could afford). But I also hold sports out as offering something unique to the life experience that’s not for everyone but which can’t be matched by anything else so I hope that other people give it a chance.

And if it helps any; I was body shamed from pretty much 14-28 for being too skinny.

TheRealBicycleBuck > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
08/30/2019 at 22:30

I was glad when neither of our kids wanted to continue in little league. The teams were supposed to be randomly selected, but then the coaches started swapping players like they were playing big league ball. The parents in the Baton Rouge area take sports way too seriously.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > gettingoldercarguy
08/31/2019 at 00:48

That would not surprise me. But I know what bullying and ostracism are. And I have a hard time seeing the upside of getting your brain traumatized playing football.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > subexpression
08/31/2019 at 00:55

The irony in your reply is going right over my head. Would you mind dumbing it down for me? I will probably agree with you once I understand what you're saying.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle
08/31/2019 at 01:09

My gut reaction to your reply is this: track and CC skiing are cool and I’ve never known track athletes to be dicks. Nor wrestlers, for that matter. Nor swimmers. Nor badminton players. It’s the football players, the basketball players, the baseball players. And whatever you played, you were probably never a dick.

That story about your wife makes it sound like her parents’ priorities are different from mine.

I climbed a bigass mountain this summer, at 55 years old and I wouldn’t trade it for any amount of athletic prowess.

Kinja'd!!!

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > TheRealBicycleBuck
08/31/2019 at 01:10

All that pressure on the kids: sad.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > facw
08/31/2019 at 01:12

The rich don't get rich and stay rich by parting with their money, do they?

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > For Sweden
08/31/2019 at 01:15

I wish I could more consistently understand WTF you talk about here; I'm certain I'd find it stimulating. Or maybe it's all nonsense, but I think not.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > facw
08/31/2019 at 01:16

Not about what the kids want: I think you nail it.

For Sweden > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
08/31/2019 at 01:16

Neat

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
08/31/2019 at 01:17

I never passed Algebra in high school and I was fat and unathletic and now I'm a math teacher.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > My X-type is too a real Jaguar
08/31/2019 at 01:18

TheRealBicycleBuck > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
08/31/2019 at 08:49

I’m sure the parents have big dreams of a professional sports career for their child. I did the math with a college football player who kept failing my class. I was trying to get him to focus on school instead of football. He wanted to go pro. The statistics showed he had a better chance of getting a Ph.D. than going pro. You can guess which he decided to focus on. It was his last chance to pass my class. He didn’t.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > TheRealBicycleBuck
08/31/2019 at 09:54

Oops. I strive not to be jaded in my own teaching, but when it comes to sports, and a story like yours here, well... Sometimes the scholly can be on offer from a Division II or even a Division III school, but the student cannot appreesh the value of the degree itself. Athletics skews everything, in many facets of society. And breeds corruption and absorbs taxpayer dollars and exploits athletes and makes a few white guys rich. And people pay their own money to advertise for them.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > TheRealBicycleBuck
09/01/2019 at 21:41

A lot of sport parents are delusional and get an unhealthy amount of ego into it . A senior manager at work sends both kids to a particular sport camp, travel teams, extra coach sessions in the off season. Then will go on “yeah we really crushed them on Sat.”

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo
09/02/2019 at 01:17

I think high school sports have become preverted by a number of factors. One of which is parents trying to relive their past or dream on their kids.

a senior individual at work sends both of his kids to camps, travel teams, school teams, private coaches. An dthen all the internal team politics between players and parents jockeying for position. Also it doesn’t seem healthy getting shuffled from one thing to another

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > gmporschenut also a fan of hondas
09/02/2019 at 15:45

To all of it, I say "Yuck." My daughters all three swam on their high school swim team. One daughter wrestled for a while, but got injured because of insufficient preparation and training. She was, at the time, depressed to the point of suicidal thoughts, and wrestling saved her, by her own account. Glad for that.