Given all the news about bad behavior by parents in youth sports, I figured this book was going to be about that topic. While it touched on it, it was really about so much more.
Title/Author:
“What is the Goal? The Truth About the Youth Sports Industry” by Jean Linscott and Kenneth Ruoff
Rating:
5 of 5 stars (excellent)
Review:
Even if one does not have children who play sports, nearly everyone is aware that there are bad behaving parents at games where youth are the players, and it has put a damper on the enthusiasm of some. Expecting this book to be about that topic, it was eye-opening. While parental behavior is explained, the real wealth a reader will take away from this book is how the Youth Sports Industry (YSI, as abbreviated by the authors liberally) is truly for the well-off, plays off fears of parents and has extraordinary costs for items such as tournaments that should make parents think twice before committing to a pay-to-play league or club.
The main reason for parents wanting to place their athletic children into these programs is the lure of obtaining a college scholarship for athletics, especially at a prestigious university. The programs can be everything from elite traveling teams to tournaments and ID camps when supposedly a coach or coaches from “major” universities will be present to see the athlete in action and can evaluate these athletes. While stopping short of calling these programs fraudulent, the book does a very good job of explaining how the return on investment for these parents – the chances of obtaining that scholarship against the amount spent on this endeavor – is usually not good.
Using their own experience as the parents of three youth soccer players, the authors do a fantastic job of explaining the true motive of these programs – money. While because of their experience, the book is soccer-centric, the authors do explain that their information on the YSI is applicable to any sport in which universities offer scholarships to athletes. Chapters are dedicated to the different aspects of the YSI – coaches, clubs, tournaments, and ID camps are just a few of the aspects covered in the book.
There will be some discussion about the actual games, mainly in tournaments, but that is very limited. The closest to any in-depth discussion about the actual sport (soccer) is in the chapter on coaches and how some of them can be good in developing younger players, such as in the U-12 leagues and how some are looking to win at all costs in order to gain better paying coaching jobs. There will also be some eye-opening accounts that parents should read closely. The best example of this is the true cost of tournaments – these were broken down into the cost per hour of actual playing time for each player and the cost was staggering.
This is just a preview of all the excellent information and advice given to parents who are considering enrolling their young athletes into one of these programs. It is highly recommended for these parents or anyone else interested in the workings of the YSI.
I wish to thank the publisher for providing a review copy of the book. The opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own.
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