[BostonCard]

https://www.wsj.com/sports/football/flor..._permalink

Teens in Florida, especially in the lucrative sports of football, basketball and baseball, jump from school to school chasing playing time, winning teams, talented teammates, connected coaches and anything else that might put them on the radar of colleges, boosters and corporate sponsors with millions to spend.

In this academic year alone, interscholastic officials have recorded 7,028 athletic transfers, up from 5,688 last year. Elite football players commonly pass through two or three schools and some students transfer eight times, according to a top regulator. 

Apparently, what they are not chasing, is an education. Someone please make this stop.  Many (probably most) of these kids will not, for one reason or another, ever make enough money from NIL or professional leagues to make a living.  And in the meantime, I have a hard time believing that a kid who went through three high schools in four years, then a handful of colleges thereafter, will produce any kind of meaningful education that prepares them for a life that doesn’t involve a ball.

What’s going on in college is bad enough, but the sports-industrial compex reaching into high school is a travesty.

BC

[BostonCard]

https://www.wsj.com/sports/football/flor..._permalink

Teens in Florida, especially in the lucrative sports of football, basketball and baseball, jump from school to school chasing playing time, winning teams, talented teammates, connected coaches and anything else that might put them on the radar of colleges, boosters and corporate sponsors with millions to spend.

In this academic year alone, interscholastic officials have recorded 7,028 athletic transfers, up from 5,688 last year. Elite football players commonly pass through two or three schools and some students transfer eight times, according to a top regulator. 

Apparently, what they are not chasing, is an education. Someone please make this stop.  Many (probably most) of these kids will not, for one reason or another, ever make enough money from NIL or professional leagues to make a living.  And in the meantime, I have a hard time believing that a kid who went through three high schools in four years, then a handful of colleges thereafter, will produce any kind of meaningful education that prepares them for a life that doesn’t involve a ball.

What’s going on in college is bad enough, but the sports-industrial compex reaching into high school is a travesty.

BC

[Treebound]

BC,
I put the blame squarely on the shoulders of the parents for this.  While coaching my kids in youth sports (both boys and girls), I was shocked at the number of parents here who swore little johnny or susie were going to earn a D1 scholarship in hoops, baseball or volleyball.   In the end, it may have helped a few get into a good school (Claremont, little ivies/ivies), and I can count on one hand the kids that made it to a D1 team mostly as recruited walk-ons.   My kids all loved playing sports, but Family and School first was the mantra in our house.    That worked out pretty well for our kids...so far!

To your point, the transfer portal is bad enough in college, but for high school it's a joke.

[Treebound]

BC,
I put the blame squarely on the shoulders of the parents for this.  While coaching my kids in youth sports (both boys and girls), I was shocked at the number of parents here who swore little johnny or susie were going to earn a D1 scholarship in hoops, baseball or volleyball.   In the end, it may have helped a few get into a good school (Claremont, little ivies/ivies), and I can count on one hand the kids that made it to a D1 team mostly as recruited walk-ons.   My kids all loved playing sports, but Family and School first was the mantra in our house.    That worked out pretty well for our kids...so far!

To your point, the transfer portal is bad enough in college, but for high school it's a joke.

[Mick]

BC,
I put the blame squarely on the shoulders of the parents for this.  While coaching my kids in youth sports (both boys and girls), I was shocked at the number of parents here who swore little johnny or susie were going to earn a D1 scholarship in hoops, baseball or volleyball.   In the end, it may have helped a few get into a good school (Claremont, little ivies/ivies), and I can count on one hand the kids that made it to a D1 team mostly as recruited walk-ons.   My kids all loved playing sports, but Family and School first was the mantra in our house.    That worked out pretty well for our kids...so far!

To your point, the transfer portal is bad enough in college, but for high school it's a joke.

Couldn't agree more. I told both my sons, I literally don't care if you ever appear in a game or on a college roster...once you're in college, you're working for your future. One son played all four years, one son retired after his frosh year, both are doing quite well post-college because they focused on their academics.

I was friendly with a pitcher at SCU. His chief highlight was beating Mike Witt 1-0 in a SoCal regional high school playoff game (must have been interesting, Witt was 6'7" and my friend was 6'10"). My friend had rotator cuff surgery as a college freshman and could never make it back. His son was highly talented, but my friend ensured that he focused on his studies.

[Mick]

BC,
I put the blame squarely on the shoulders of the parents for this.  While coaching my kids in youth sports (both boys and girls), I was shocked at the number of parents here who swore little johnny or susie were going to earn a D1 scholarship in hoops, baseball or volleyball.   In the end, it may have helped a few get into a good school (Claremont, little ivies/ivies), and I can count on one hand the kids that made it to a D1 team mostly as recruited walk-ons.   My kids all loved playing sports, but Family and School first was the mantra in our house.    That worked out pretty well for our kids...so far!

To your point, the transfer portal is bad enough in college, but for high school it's a joke.

Couldn't agree more. I told both my sons, I literally don't care if you ever appear in a game or on a college roster...once you're in college, you're working for your future. One son played all four years, one son retired after his frosh year, both are doing quite well post-college because they focused on their academics.

I was friendly with a pitcher at SCU. His chief highlight was beating Mike Witt 1-0 in a SoCal regional high school playoff game (must have been interesting, Witt was 6'7" and my friend was 6'10"). My friend had rotator cuff surgery as a college freshman and could never make it back. His son was highly talented, but my friend ensured that he focused on his studies.

[82lsju]

https://www.wsj.com/sports/football/flor..._permalink

Teens in Florida, especially in the lucrative sports of football, basketball and baseball, jump from school to school chasing playing time, winning teams, talented teammates, connected coaches and anything else that might put them on the radar of colleges, boosters and corporate sponsors with millions to spend.

In this academic year alone, interscholastic officials have recorded 7,028 athletic transfers, up from 5,688 last year. Elite football players commonly pass through two or three schools and some students transfer eight times, according to a top regulator. 

Apparently, what they are not chasing, is an education. Someone please make this stop.  Many (probably most) of these kids will not, for one reason or another, ever make enough money from NIL or professional leagues to make a living.  And in the meantime, I have a hard time believing that a kid who went through three high schools in four years, then a handful of colleges thereafter, will produce any kind of meaningful education that prepares them for a life that doesn’t involve a ball.

What’s going on in college is bad enough, but the sports-industrial compex reaching into high school is a travesty.

BC

to some extent this sort of thing in high school has been going on for some time.

I grew up in Cincinnati and in the 1970s (maybe earlier) there was some "recruiting" of good high school football players by the Catholic high schools, they (especially Cincinnati Moeller) were known to encourage good public school players to enroll in their schools and quite a few did.

[82lsju]

https://www.wsj.com/sports/football/flor..._permalink

Teens in Florida, especially in the lucrative sports of football, basketball and baseball, jump from school to school chasing playing time, winning teams, talented teammates, connected coaches and anything else that might put them on the radar of colleges, boosters and corporate sponsors with millions to spend.

In this academic year alone, interscholastic officials have recorded 7,028 athletic transfers, up from 5,688 last year. Elite football players commonly pass through two or three schools and some students transfer eight times, according to a top regulator. 

Apparently, what they are not chasing, is an education. Someone please make this stop.  Many (probably most) of these kids will not, for one reason or another, ever make enough money from NIL or professional leagues to make a living.  And in the meantime, I have a hard time believing that a kid who went through three high schools in four years, then a handful of colleges thereafter, will produce any kind of meaningful education that prepares them for a life that doesn’t involve a ball.

What’s going on in college is bad enough, but the sports-industrial compex reaching into high school is a travesty.

BC

to some extent this sort of thing in high school has been going on for some time.

I grew up in Cincinnati and in the 1970s (maybe earlier) there was some "recruiting" of good high school football players by the Catholic high schools, they (especially Cincinnati Moeller) were known to encourage good public school players to enroll in their schools and quite a few did.

[Papa John]

This paragraph stuck out to me:

Florida is different. School-choice laws mean athletes transfer easily, often without losing a moment on the playing field. In the age of Name, Image and Likeness compensation, the result is a first-of-its-kind high-school transfer portal that some insiders warn may be the future of scholastic sports in America.

The article doesn't mention any other state having or trying to pass similar laws, so maybe Florida--in terms of the extremes--is an outlier? It seems like the state is trying to attract athletic talent by not having reasonable rules on transfers, NIL, etc. for high schoolers. But I'm basing this on a single WSJ article, so there's that.

The private/Catholic schools in Southern California have been recruiting talented athletes since I first moved to LA in 1985. Maybe it's happening in the Bay Area as well. So Florida is taking a well-established precedent and putting it on steroids (metaphorically speaking).

[Papa John]

This paragraph stuck out to me:

Florida is different. School-choice laws mean athletes transfer easily, often without losing a moment on the playing field. In the age of Name, Image and Likeness compensation, the result is a first-of-its-kind high-school transfer portal that some insiders warn may be the future of scholastic sports in America.

The article doesn't mention any other state having or trying to pass similar laws, so maybe Florida--in terms of the extremes--is an outlier? It seems like the state is trying to attract athletic talent by not having reasonable rules on transfers, NIL, etc. for high schoolers. But I'm basing this on a single WSJ article, so there's that.

The private/Catholic schools in Southern California have been recruiting talented athletes since I first moved to LA in 1985. Maybe it's happening in the Bay Area as well. So Florida is taking a well-established precedent and putting it on steroids (metaphorically speaking).

[TonyLima]

This paragraph stuck out to me:

<snip>
The private/Catholic schools in Southern California have been recruiting talented athletes since I first moved to LA in 1985. Maybe it's happening in the Bay Area as well. So Florida is taking a well-established precedent and putting it on steroids (metaphorically speaking).

Not just SoCal. I regularly shop at a Safeway in Mountain View. Directly across the street is St. Francis, a pipeline for pretty good athletes.

[TonyLima]

This paragraph stuck out to me:

<snip>
The private/Catholic schools in Southern California have been recruiting talented athletes since I first moved to LA in 1985. Maybe it's happening in the Bay Area as well. So Florida is taking a well-established precedent and putting it on steroids (metaphorically speaking).

Not just SoCal. I regularly shop at a Safeway in Mountain View. Directly across the street is St. Francis, a pipeline for pretty good athletes.