Americans love their sports — always have, always will. Back in the good ol’ days, the seasons changed, and our sports changed with them. Summer meant pick-up games, wiffle ball, bikes, fishing, swimming. Nobody stressed over “skill progression” or whether we were following the right “player pathway.” We just played. We learned to win, to lose without losing our tempers, and to compete. Coaches were rough around the edges, but you always knew where you stood. Some of us played in high school or college; others moved on. Natural ability plus “want-to” separated the real athletes from the amateurs. Youth sports shouldn’t be mere pipelines for college programs, gambling markets, or the ambitions of adults who forgot what childhood feels like. Today, youth sports feel very different — now a $56 billion-a-year global industry. Families regularly spend over $1,000 per child per year for a single sport. Meanwhile, the beloved local rec leagues that once anchored town life now look like the soft option and seem overshadowed by travel teams, year-round academies, and private coaches promising exposure, scholarships, and elite outcomes. Performance-wise, the results are undeniable. At high school games today, you see stronger, faster, more specialized athletes than ever. Multi-sport kids are rare birds. Early specialization now feels like a prerequisite just to make high school varsity teams, let alone play in college. The downside is that community programs that once welcomed every kid are losing talent, energy, and funding to elite travel circuits. That’s not to say travel sports are all bad. When the intent is developmental rather than purely transactional, they can be tremendous for kids. Playing at a higher level gives young athletes a reality check about what it takes to succeed — discipline, preparation, resilience. Being on a competitive team teaches children to handle stress, navigate pressure, and work with extremely driven peers. Travel leagues expose kids to new places and new people and forge friendships built on shared passion. They get kids outdoors and off screens. The teams are typically led by disciplined, professional coaches who enforce standards, demand accountability, and keep kids locked in. Done right, travel sports deepen a child’s appreciation for a game’s nuances and help form values that transcend the field or court. However, for parents who view the endeavor as a mere financial investment, the economic payoff is modest. According to the NCAA, fewer than 2 percent of high school athletes receive any athletic scholarship — and even fewer receive a full ride. Training a kid like a pro may feel like a wise investment given today’s college costs, but the real beneficiaries are big-time college athletics, pro leagues, and online sportsbooks. For example, the NCAA generates roughly $1.28 billion annually, and the NFL more than $23 billion, with over $13.7 billion tied directly to sports betting, so they love the idea of better athletes increasing the entertainment value of their products. But far more is at stake than money. The “youth-sports-industrial complex,” as Tim Carney writes in Alienated America, has quietly hollowed out parts of American civic life and contributed to the erosion of American education. Highly competitive prep schools increasingly admit students based solely on athletic talent. This isn’t new, but paired with declining academic rigor and rising grade inflation, the effect is greater. The “gentleman’s C,” once a wink-wink joke in major college sports, now feels at home in some American high schools. Some youth sports models are at least transparent about their goals. In Europe, soccer academies like Ajax’s Youth Academy and FC Barcelona’s La Masia openly aim to develop professional athletes — and eventually sell their contracts to the highest bidder. Education exists, but it doesn’t disguise the primary mission. That clarity stands in stark contrast to American high schools and elite prep programs that market themselves as academic havens while functioning as pipelines to the NCAA and beyond. In the United States, similar institutions are emerging. IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, offers year-round, high-level training across multiple sports paired with academics — but parents know why they’re there. MLS clubs like the Philadelphia Union and Inter Miami are now running professionalized youth academies, offering serious player development with a sprinkling of schoolwork. These programs prove you can cultivate elite talent while staying honest about the mission: developing athletes to compete at the highest level, not pretending they’re secretly minting the next generation of engineers and doctors. Step back further, and the consequences of today’s youth sports model go beyond academics or finances. The American Enterprise Institute warns that when sports lose their moral and communal foundation, they also lose their ability to teach the virtues that matter — discipline, teamwork, perseverance. Another AEI analysis argues that the obsessive pursuit of athletic achievement often comes at the expense of childhood, well-being, and intellectual development. Somewhere along the way, youth sports stopped feeling like childhood and started looking like a Saratoga thoroughbred auction, but no one is arguing against athletic excellence. Youth sports shouldn’t be mere pipelines for college programs, gambling markets, or the ambitions of adults who forgot what childhood feels like. Maybe the simplest reform is the oldest: let kids be kids. READ MORE from Pete Connolly: The Case for the Filibuster: A Check on Zeitgeist Impulses Boys Need More Male Teachers The New York Times Sets a New Low on Israel