Even the (good) kids from Yeehaw High play travel ball now lol it does more good than harm. The real problem is the adults involved.
Top recruit daring OHSAA to suspend him
- Thread starter hammer89
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Stirred not Shaken
Well-known member
Then why do "kids" play AAU for are they and their parents that stupid. Any time you play a sport you are going to get better repetition is a good thing. Plus these AAU coaches some I would dare say are better than H.S. coaches.
Stirred not Shaken
Well-known member
How selfish of him to want exposure. Making himself a better player going up against most likely better competition than he faces in the reg. season is not going to benefit his team. I like how a bunch of yappi experts know what is best for H.S. athletes.
BirdDog10
Well-known member
Parents are stupid. Every parent thinks AAU is gonna help their kid get a scholarship, when all they're doing is bankrolling the "coaches" and program directors running the show. 95%+ of the kids playing AAU or travel baseball will never get a penny towards college for it. Watch 1 of these tournaments and you would know that the kids are not getting better at basketball, and most of the coaches are clowns.
cincifbfan
Well-known member
Very few kids "get discovered" on any of these circuits. With how quickly technology has evolved over the past decade, kids that can play at the next level do. There aren't kids getting past up like they used to.
And to say it works out fine for most kids is disingenuous. Most kids would mean over 50% of them. Playing in more games in a singular sport leads to burnout, higher injury rates, sacrificing other interests, and a steep financial commitment on behalf of the parents. I really think the AAU and other similar circuits do more harm than good, for well over 90% of participants.
scbuckeye99
Well-known member
Not sure daring is the right phrase. I mean at the end of the article the young man already stated that he and his family are willing to leave the state if need be. Seems to me if I were the OHSAA I would encourage him and his family to do just that. His movement would not impact the OHSAA, only his teammates and coaches would be impacted by his movement. If I'm a governing body and an individual student says let me play or I'll move, then they've already stated their alternative so let them exercise that alternative.
What about the kids who want to play travel? 90% is an absurd estimation it wouldnt exist if that were true. Also there are sports where college coaches prioritize the travel circuit over high school. Even in football its important to attend camps for exposure even for the top kids.
cincifbfan
Well-known member
Only those coaches stuck in the 90s put such a priority on travel teams.
This entire travel league/AAU system exists because it's a money grab scheme that has convinced families this is the only way to get noticed by coaches. And that is simply not true, for any sport.
Again, it you are good enough to play at the next level, they will find you.
Travel teams are a scam and moneymakers and do nothing to make a player better at the skills he needs to be successful in the team sport. AAU ball is selfish no d ball. IF player wants to break rules and face consequences and move to another state. Move south where they have spring ball and 7 on 7 year round.
Trust me, I’m not thinking that deep. The way I see it, the OHSAA has a rule. This kid wants to openly break that rule, the punishment for which will be him missing games that his team plays in.
Maybe this is best for him, but it doesn’t seem to be in his team’s best interest. Maybe he’s out to change the rule, whatever. I don’t give a rip what he does.
Steel Valley FB
Well-known member
Thanks for the correction. My memory ain’t what it used to be lol. This family can still sue to challenge this in court if they want to fight the suspension and not change states to play, assuming he’s going to continue breaking the rule and rack up game suspensions.
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NewOldBlood
Well-known member
I couldn't disagree with this more. My daughter played travel softball from age 11 through senior year of high school. The coaches she had in travel ball were far better than any coach she had in school ball. I would say 90%+ of her development happened in travel ball. Every kid on her team received some amount of scholarship money to a DI, DII or NAIA school. Obviously it varied by position with the limited number of scholarships schools have, but they all got something. Yes it was expensive and time consuming, but it's what she wanted to do and I don't every remember her complaining about the time commitment. Maybe you were only referring to travel basketball teams, but it not fair to characterize all travel teams as scams. There are plenty of bad actors in the AAU/travel ball world, but there are also plenty of great coaches with the best intentions trying to help young athletes get to the next level.
Stirred not Shaken
Well-known member
My daughter played travel softball in the summer, didn't do it for college exposure did it to be a better softball player. The players she played against in travel ball were much better than her H.S. competition. I don't think most of the parents of the kids on her travel team were stupid.
BirdDog10
Well-known member
Good for you. Doesn't change the fact that 90% of kids I've seen waste their summers and thousands of dollars on AAU don't get any noticeable benefit from it.
You might the one good example but it sounds like your team was loaded with great players. Most of the time, travel teams in basketball , baseball, and volleyball do not teach skills but are moneymakers for everyone. A d-1 kid will not go unnoticed and the rest are sold a pipe dream. while they cash your check.
cincifbfan
Well-known member
Every single player got athletic money?
I find that hard to believe. If actually accurate, this team is the exception, not rule.
Now, my next question, assuming it was athletic moneys received and not academic or need based aid, is was the amount received more than the money put in by the family for 8 years of travel ball? Especially for DII or NAIA as those schools don't typically give out those full athletic scholarships. I'm willing to bet if a family actually tracked the real expenses for each year, that the amount of scholarship money received would be less than the amount that the family put in each season. But the vast majority of these families have no idea how much they are actually spending in their travel teams.
I don't find that difficult to believe, especially coming from the female side.
Our boys basketball AAU team had its top 8 players get money for athletics. A couple full rides, a full ride turned down and a few with 1/2 or less. Most of these kids played together for five years, and there were no misconceptions about who would be likely getting what. The one or two families who were misguided early on took their D1 sure thing superstars and went to play for teams that made their kids look like a star, you know, the teams we could put a running clock on.
Did the expenses cost more than the reward? Our son was the one who turned down the two full ride offers and decided to focus on academics and recieved a 1/2 off tuition scholarship. Met a girl, graduated, got married and now is in the medical field. We knew all along he was likely a poor fit for D1 athletics, but was a unique enough talent that he wanted to play travel basketball and I wanted to learn how to coach better so I figured as an assistant I was getting free on the job training and he was getting a once in a lifetime opportunity to face future NBA caliber talent so in the end it was well worth it as a family bonding experience. We often took side trips of mountain climbing or went to the beach during our travel to and from tournaments. Not for everyone, was rather pricey , but we knew it was money well spent in return for an experience. And I learned one heck of alot about basketball in those five years as an assistant.
Wildcats1886
Well-known member
Could having fun playing basketball with your friends be a noticeable benefit?
I do agree that a lot of AAU basketball is just a moneygrab with a lot of grifters involved and not a great path to player and skill development. Obviously there are exceptions, and plenty of HS coaches are also not good. Some sports are different with almost no attention paid to the scholastic version and all recruiting centered around travel.
I do generally agree that a lot of kids today are over specialized and ultimately wasting their time in hopes of D1 scholarships. Time that would be better spent studying, developing other interests, volunteer work, etc. But I also think that if a kid really just wants to play basketball (or any sport) year round, that’s basically fine too, families should just make a thoughtful decision around it and think about the trade offs.
I wonder if it’s a game ban per occurrence, or just a one game ban total. If it’s just one game, they probably don’t care much.
cincifbfan
Well-known member
You supported your son turning down a full ride to accept a half scholarship?
Your judgement sounds questionable, or you are independently wealthy where money doesn't matter.
There is far more to life than sports. I would say our faith, and his faith, and what he wanted to accomplish big picture in life was what led to turning down those offers. Today, he is an oncologist, helping people with cancer in their battle of a lifetime both physically and mentally. Would he have ever made it to that point in ability to help others if he pursued basketball for four more years? What were the lifetime advantages vs lifetime costs? I believe he made the correct choice.
cincifbfan
Well-known member
So you're rich, got it.
BirdDog10
Well-known member
That's fine, and there are ways to do that. ACME and legion baseball are both great options for that, and I think if the AAU world didn't exist then you would see something similar for basketball like a legion or CYO league over the summer. The traditional AAU circuit though is a clown show that fills kids and parents with pipe dreams
Exponentially more kids and families know what they're getting into it than what youre giving them credit for. Or it wouldnt be as prevalent as it is. There are plenty of tournaments every weekend where no is going D1 and 99% of the people in the gym are aware of that fact
NewOldBlood
Well-known member
Not full scholarships, but yes, they all got a portion of their tuition paid with athletic scholarship money. Several got full rides when combined with academic money. One got a full ride with her dad's GI bill and scholarship money. I realize they were the exception, but they competed against a lot of really good, well coached teams. My point was that all travel teams are not scams. There are a lot of organizations doing it the right way. And as far as baseball and softball goes, no one is being recruited off of school ball. If you want to play in college, you have to play travel ball.
cincifbfan
Well-known member
They definitely are the exception. I didn't claim they were all scams, just the overwhelming majority of them and the industry in general.
This simply is not true.
Yes it literally is. Travel ball is a huge part of recruiting now in multiple sports. Camping in football is also very important. Kent State is not going to offer a basketball player who just plays 22-25 high school games a year. The more exposure the better, thats an inarguable fact.
Also with the portal and the covid year its actually never been harder to get a scholarship out of high school so good luck to all the kids waiting by their phones because they have the talent and someone will just find them
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So let me get this straight. If you are real d-1 tlent player, Kent will bypass you and give it to a rich kid who has less talent because they saw him ball hog with no d at a travel AAU game. RIGHT. BS. If your d-1 talent, you will get noticed. Do you need to go to their camps....yes. Do you need AAU noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. If your not a d-1 player, NAIA schools give money to anyone with a pulse.
So much stupidity in one post I give up yall got it.
When my son played AAU if there was one pass on offense you might as well run down and play defense because there wasn't going to be two passes. Agree on NAIA, they will take anyone with a pulse to pay 90% of their bloated tuition, act like they are doing them a favor with athletic money when they would do that for about anyone entering.