Guest Posts on County 10 are provided by contributors and the opinions, thoughts, and comments within are their own and may not necessarily reflect those of County 10.
I posted a meme on Facebook last week that drew a few agreeing comments. It was about the modern trend of “travel ball.”
Obviously, that’s hyperbole, but once travel, hotels, tournament fees, uniforms, and private instruction are added together over a decade, many families spend astonishing amounts.
If you’re lucky enough to know nothing of travel ball, I envy you.
Travel ball is an organization that brings a handful of select players from a town, or more often in our isolated area, from a group of communities, and they play basketball, soccer, volleyball, baseball, softball…you get the picture all through the off-season. Often to the detriment of other sports the youngster may have a talent for.
Some go to the extreme of sending their teenagers, and increasingly now, preteens to join teams in Salt Lake City, Denver, or even Las Vegas.
The overriding question is: why?
Why would someone go to the expense of travel, lodging, tournament fees, and team fees while giving up almost every weekend for a summer just so their future all-star can have the “experience”?
You’ll have to ask the parents who are footing the bill; I don’t get it.
The meme read, “The $200,000 you spent on travel ball finally pays off with your son’s $500 scholarship.”
That’s hopeful.
For the truly elite athlete, travel ball can provide exposure that simply isn’t available in Wyoming.” The problem is that many families assume their child falls into that tiny percentage.
Most of the time, the kid ends up without any post-secondary offers.
Travel ball and skills camps are often lumped together, but they serve entirely different purposes.
The other extreme off-season (and there sadly is no off-season for volleyball, soccer, basketball and wrestling for many youngsters) is the individual skills camp.
A player can learn from their junior high coach, their high school coach, or a volunteer in the community. Fremont County is blessed, especially in track and field and in wrestling, with volunteers who bring knowledge, experience, and enthusiasm to their respective sports.
Too many parents see little value in what the local volunteer, or the middle school or high school coach has to offer. They must take their future NBA or WNBA all-star to camp with a big-name professional clinician on stage.
Never mind that most of these camps are conducted by high school coaches hired by the promotional team of the professional draw to work with the kids.
For years, Brigham Young University ran excellent skills camps in football and basketball. The Cougar head coaches always made an appearance, but the drills, skill development and competition was managed by high school coaches who were paid well for their services.
The kids benefited from these camps; there is no doubt. But the professionals had little to do with it aside from a speech or two and an autograph session.
Skill camps are a double-edged sword.
In speaking with college coaches, from NAIA to Division I and II, they often comment on the skill level of certain players trying to draw their attention.
When that skill level is high, but inside a smaller, slower body. The kid isn’t getting a scholarship. College coaches would rather recruit a raw-boned, 6′ 5″ guard that needs to improve his jump shot than a 5′ 7″ kid with incredible ball handling skills and great range.
It’s the luck of the genetic draw, and if your son is 5′ 6″, not quick, doesn’t have an explosive vertical leap or fast feet, he’s not going anywhere. That’s just the law of competition.
College coaches aren’t the teachers and innovators that the average fan thinks they are. They are recruiters, men and women who recognize talent and bring it to their respective programs. It used to be a one-on-one with mom and dad in the living room while touting the academic programs at their school.
Now it’s straight dollars and cents. How much will Junior make if he signs with Mule Creek State? Can you match the offer they have on the table from Doc Holliday College?
It’s all about money once you reach Division I.
A player’s skills come from his youth, middle school, and high school experience. An individual camp can hone a few aspects of their game, but it won’t develop them into a collegiate athlete.
The sad thing is that many parents don’t or simply can’t understand this. They are so vicariously wrapped up in their child’s athletic potential that they’ll do anything to get them noticed.
Skill camps can improve a young athlete’s skill level, but it won’t do anything for his God-given abilities.
It’s an adage from long ago that still rings true today: you can’t coach speed. Either you’re born with it, or you’re not.
At the end of their high school career, they can be a three-time-all-state guard in Wyoming and never see a college floor.
We’re not a basketball state. We do turn out an inordinate number of wrestlers, track athletes, football players, and, surprisingly, baseball players in the college ranks, but hoops scholarships are few and far between.
Veteran college coaches can recognize a player who has polished their skills at camp. If he’s a 6′ 2″ shooting guard, or she’s a 5′ 11″ post, they’ll take notice. If they’re heavy-legged, slow on the cross step, or don’t play intense defense, they’ll pass them by.
In the modern era, recruiters pay close attention to social media accounts and often ask coaches from other schools for their opinion on a player.
One memorable day in the spring of 1988 at Shoshoni High School, the all-call went out asking for the late head football coach Harold Bailey and me to come to the office.
As Harold and I walked down the hall we thought we were heading into a meeting with an angry parent. Not quite.
In the conference room was Earle Bruce, the incoming head coach of the Colorado State University Rams.
Harold and I were taken aback; we didn’t think we had anyone Coach Bruce would be interested in. We were right.
He was there to talk about Beckett Hinckley, a talented senior at Riverside High School in Basin.
Coach Bruce made it a point to check out a potential scholarship athlete with coaches from rival schools.
He asked us about Beckett’s attitude, his toughness and his athletic skill. We gave the kid four stars in every category.
In the end, Beckett took a football scholarship to Stanford University.
The PAC 10 of the late 1980s had found a recruit in one of the smallest towns in the smallest state in the nation, in Basin, Wyoming.
The message is that if you’re good, they’ll find you.
If you’re not and you want to play, there is always a Division III school that will take you. All it takes is money.
At the end of the day, no matter how many times your father claims you’re 5-11, if you’re 5-8, college coaches will take note.
You’ll remain 5-8, no matter how many camps you attend.