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I'm out of the youth sports blogging business but I have some things to say about this piece SO BRING ON THE THREAD https://sports.yahoo.com/are-high-school-sports-in-need-of-radical-reform-and-if-so-how-can-it-be-done-160742515.html
First, no argument with his point that high school sports participation in many places is driven by elite athletes and over-the-top spending. But in many places, especially small towns, it's not intramurals but it's not different from the way things used to be...
Plus, starting the article off by saying that it's all about life lessons blah blah and "somewhere along the way that got lost" -- I can't find the link but the Dallas Morning News cited a HS football recruiting scandal in the early 1900s...
So the issue is, when you keep score, people are going to compete, and they're going to cheat. There was no age of purity. Now, there are real problems that the author lays out, and I'll explain them further...
A lot of HSs use sports as promoting their excellence in everything. Private schools do it because they have to convince people to spend cash for something "better." Public schools do it so people with money will move their suburb instead of another... https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobcook/2019/08/18/two-more-shots-fired-in-the-great-texas-high-school-football-stadium-war/
HSs are also feeling the pressure of competing against club sports -- which (except football, for the moment), is where elite athletes are really evaluated for college...
Parents are savvy about this -- and we've had decades of policymakers tells parents that they should have the right to move their kids into another public school for any reason -- you know, school choice. So they choose. https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobcook/2017/01/08/high-school-sports-can-gripe-but-athletic-transfers-are-a-way-of-life/?sh=6bd2999ba8c2
Also, the chase after some brass ring isn't only about sports. Parents and kids do it for academics. For music. For theatre. For speech. For whatever. The message comes pretty early that if your kid is to excel they'd better dedicate themselves to something early and often
So participation in all things goes down, not just sports. (Also, participation is going down because we're not having as many kids, but that's a separate discussion https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobcook/2015/10/24/why-youth-sports-participation-will-fall-even-if-kids-are-having-fun/?sh=2cdf5514388d)
If you are going to make changes in HS sports that emphasizes intramurals over varsity sports, the first thing that will happen is that no one will show up to intramurals. The weeding out process has already happened.
The issue is that the message has to come to parents and kids early and often that participation is its own reward. And you know how best to send it? Make college free. Or cheap. That stops the scholarship chasing. ...
...but something also would have to be done to make it so parents didn't feel their kids had to get into a CERTAIN college to get ahead in life. I'm not sure how you do that. But that thinking drives a lot of the HS sports issues, believe it or not...
Basically, if you want parents, students, coaches, everyone to be more relaxed about HS sports, create an even, just society where people aren't sweating whether their kids can have a future unless they show elite talent early. /END
