By: Thomas Smith
Within the past 15-20 years club sports have been on the rise. Whether it is baseball, soccer or even swimming, club sports are a way for athletes to practice and compete in their sport outside of their school team. Club sports have many levels: rec league, intermediate, and travel or elite team. Take baseball for an example, club teams for youth baseball in our area have three tiers, Recreational League, Double A, and Majors. In a similar way swimming has three championship meets at the end of the summer, all three with different qualifying times. Senior Championships is the slowest of the three, it is a meet specifically for swimmers in Florida of all ages. The next level is Futures, it is also for swimmers of all ages, but it is a national level meet and has five locations across the country. Third, there is the Summer Junior Nationals, this is a meet for the fastest athletes all under the age of 18. Each of these are located across the country.
A local swimmer, Nate Caswell, went to Greensboro, North Carolina, then straight to Irvine, California. Due to him being a competitive swimmer, he was gone for two weeks competing across the country in club sporting events.
Prior to the existence and popularity of club sports, athletes would play during the sports given season and then do their own training in the off season. The off-season training would be strength and conditioning exercises, along with agility. Many years ago students would play other sports in the off season to stay fit while not over working their joints and muscles. By the time the season comes around, the athletes will be stronger and better than they were the previous year.
While some sports have club and travel teams, others have stuck to the traditional fall ball and then train with the team till next season. For example, football players will participate on the high school team in the fall and then play seven vs seven football in the off season. Rather than the well-known “tackle” football these seven vs seven are more of a one hand touch, just to run through the plays.
While sports such as golf and baseball require a lot of repetition of the same arm motions and swings can lead to burnouts. Doing the same motion multiple times, only working out the same muscles can lead to injuries and burning out. It is not uncommon for full-time athletes to overwork themselves and lose joy in the sport. Once someone no longer plays a sport for fun it can feel more like a job, an obligation, a burden. This is where burnouts are most common, due to the athlete losing the drive to success and hunger for improvement.
“It was super interesting seeing the difference in how meets run in the US versus Europe.”
lily doyle (12)
Recently the cost of travelling has increased due to inflation. Whether it is flying, fuel, or hotel rates, the price has increased. According to the “Daily Lodging Report”, multiple hotels rates have increased by 16.3 percent. Club sports require frequent travelling that comes with overnight expenses. To be a parent of a club sport athlete one must be willing to pay with time, money, and always supportive of your athlete(s).
The summer going into an athlete’s junior year is when colleges are first able to reach out to athletes and talk about continuing their athletic and academic careers. Coaches from colleges across the country will go to these top tier athletes’ competitions and scout potential players for their team. For example, junior, Logan Hunt, a club baseball player who played in a tournament at the University of Tennessee. Logan said, “I had a great time at the University of Tennessee showcasing my talents in front of 25 plus college coaches.” Hunt continued, “Team travelling was fun and doing what I love with my teammates and friends made it even better.” Hunt was not the only athlete that traveled for a sport.
Senior at Ponte Vedra High School, Lily Doyle, competed in Ireland for a chance to be on Ireland’s Junior National team. Lily has Irish citizenship, which allows her to represent Ireland on an international level. At the Irish National meet Lily had an outstanding performance. She dropped time in multiple of her events and came home with second place medals in four events. Doyle said, “It was super interesting seeing the difference in how meets run in the US versus Europe.” She added, “Meeting new people was fun and I stay in contact with them.” Due to her outstanding performance and countless hours of hard work she is committed to continuing her academic and athletic career at Duke University.
Pictured: Lily Doyle’s commitment picture for Duke University
