The high school vs club sports battle rages on, with the most recent flare-up touching the baseball diamonds of Colorado.
The following comments are excerpted from an article by Paul Willis in the June 28th Boulder Daily Camera. The article “Baseball: Area high school programs fighting club-team takeover – Increasing club presence could de-emphasize varsity season, coaches fear”.
The excerpt follows:
“The more Scott Weiss considers the club baseball scene, the more his blood boils.
The Monarch coach isn’t alone. Several other prominent coaches in the area share his concerns, with some believing the club scene soon could invade the varsity season, much like it already has in soccer and hockey.
The value assigned to Colorado high school baseball is in peril, many coaches recognize, and in need of some reconstruction to combat the encroaching club presence.
It’s a slippery slope. Clearly, not all club baseball teams are disreputable. But in the shady underbelly of the circuit, deplorable tactics are abundant. False promises of prime exposure, low-brow recruiting measures and several additional dangled carrots designed to lure an athlete away from his team’s summer program.
“We’ve been talking about it the past few years that these club teams, they’re getting into these kids’ heads, and they’re buying into it,” Longmont coach Tom Fobes said. “Some of them are good, but the majority, I don’t see the benefit.”
Monarch is fielding only a Legion B squad this summer, because most of the Coyotes’ marquee athletes have fled to the purported greener pastures of the club scene.
“I’m all for our kids getting varied coaching, different points of view and becoming better baseball players,” Weiss said. “But what happens with some of these club teams is, they go about their business in a way that they’re trying to discredit the high school coaches.
“They tell kids that they need to play with them in order to get better or get a college scholarship. It’s a big sales pitch that’s put on, and it creates a lot of tension between the high schools and the club teams — and the parents and the kids.”
Make no mistake, high school programs are fighting back, with Fairview coach Rick Harig spearheading an effort to overhaul the current high school landscape, which clearly is a decade or two behind states such as Texas and Florida.”
The coaches quoted in the article appear to be knowledgeable, highly regarded, and passionate about their sports. Hats off to them for having a positive impact on the youth of Colorado.
These coaches correctly spotted the trend that high school sports are not as relevant as they were 25 years ago and that club sports have become more relevant. Right or wrong, times have changed. It is GAME OVER for the good old days.
These changes have occurred for a variety of reasons such as funding cuts for education, a poor economy, weak school programs, policies that are unfavorable to athletic programs, and overzealous parents and club directors.
Along the way there are plenty of horror stories, as suggested by the article. Both club and high programs are guilty.
For example, some private coaches for individual sports don’t want “their” athletes “wasting their time” high school programs. In some cases, high school coaches have banned their athletes from cross training or playing club sports during “their” season. Unfortunately, the list goes on and on.
These disagreements are unnecessary, as most high school and clubs claim to be looking out for “their” athletes. The bottom line is that some of the coaches and programs have chosen to make themselves the focal point, rather than focusing on the athletes.
That is the real problem!