That’s Life: Sports reap dividends, but not necessarily financial ones

As a group of prepubescent boys dribbled, passed and shot soccer balls the handful of parents watching made small talk. I was within earshot but working and did what I often do. I eavesdropped intermittently, a professional pastime for many columnists.

But then, as often happens, the conversation sparked a burning question.

Two dads were cheerfully commiserating about the costs they’d paid for their boys to play on a travel team. One had a note of pride in his voice. His son was good and those receipts had helped pave the way to youth soccer success.

From annual dues to hire professional coaches, rent fields and cover insurance to add-on costs for extra academies, tournament fees and travel expenses to play across the region, he listed the expenses that had become inevitable for players competing “at the highest level.”

As a parent new to club sports, his candid financial accounting made my stomach clench. I heard the cash register bell in my head. But this dad didn’t seem too bothered.

“It’s expensive but it’s worth it,” he said, adding, “I consider it an investment.”

“An investment in what?” I interjected. Did he mean all the intangible benefits of sports, the ones you can’t put a price on?

“Their future,” he replied, nonplussed at my interruption. Without an ounce of sarcasm, he told me that the thousands he’d spent and planned to spend would reap dividends when his son went to college with an athletic scholarship.

His kid was 12 or 13.

I’ve learned a lot since then about college athletic scholarships as well as club sports. My high school senior will compete at a D1 school with an athletic scholarship next year and my eighth-grader is finishing his fourth year of club soccer.

During that time, I’ve learned from experience as well as the stories of parents with kids in other sports that “investment dad” isn’t unique. You can find his perspective on almost every competitive youth sport sideline.

But his math is bad. The NCAA estimates less than 6 percent of high school athletes go on to play in college and less than 2 percent earn any kind of athletic scholarship. For those who earn athletic aide, it may be as little as the price of books.

And if they get injured, burn out or fail to perform at the level expected, they may lose that athletic scholarship. It’s just not a good basket in which to put your eggs.

By comparison, if parents put what they spent on competitive club sports and travel into a real investment, they’d have much better odds at a return.

I’ve added it up. After two years of select soccer and two years of premier, if our eighth-grader continued playing and paying at this level in high school, by the time he graduates the money we’d have spent would be enough to cover more than two years of tuition and fees at Eastern Washington University. That’s if we put that money under a mattress, without any interest accrued.

This should give any parent pause.

Youth sports is an industry involving a lot of money that’s often elicited with ego strokes to naïve parents who erroneously believe they’re making a college investment that’ll pay off at tuition time. A better word would be “gamble.”

I’ve met too many parents who, in hindsight, feel much of that money was wasted, especially if high hopes were hung on the eventual athletic success of an 11-year-old.

The reality is, most youth sports experience a lot of attrition by age 15, with some estimates that more than 70 percent quit playing. Talented, hard-working athletes often decide the tradeoffs are too big to hang on to youthful aspirations of collegiate competition.

In our family, I’ve often marveled at the sacrifices my son made to get where he is athletically, choices I certainly wasn’t willing to make at that age.

He’s gone to bed early when friends were staying up and out late, removed almost all of the typical teenage junk food from his diet and risen most mornings before the sun so he could run a few miles before school. His social calendar is limited because there aren’t enough hours in the day to be a good student and compete at the level he wants.

We could never ask or expect him to make those sacrifices. It has to be the athlete, not the hopeful parents, who decide how high, how fast or how far they set their sights.

Still, we did talk about scholarships when he was younger. Academic scholarships. We suspected that was the best way to get help with college tuition and we knew that encouraging our kids to do well in school would always have a good rate of return, whether they went to college or not.

From what we’ve seen, academic scholarships are often bigger and easier to achieve anyway. While Isaac’s athletic scholarship opened a door to a school he couldn’t afford otherwise, the academic scholarship made it truly possible to attend. It’s double his athletic aide.

So, if you have a young athlete who shows promise, please just enjoy the moment. Consider it an investment in intangibles like teamwork, self-discipline, respecting authority and developing healthy habits. And if you want to make a good investment to pay for college, consult a financial planner and encourage academics.

Jill Barville writes twice a month about families, life and everything else. She can be reached at jbarville@msn.com.