Recently I climbed aboard the hype train. I’ve been coaching my kids and watching them grow as athletes for years. I have always felt they were top flight contenders, in spite of some other coaches downplaying the abilities of two of the three boys. The middle kid has always been the one everyone raved about, and when the eldest hit High School last year I full expected he was going to show up, get playing time, and be one of the better players. He was not. Turns out those coaches were right and he ended up being sorted into the lowest group in almost everything he tried. This left me wondering where I went wrong as a dad and a coach. Why was it he couldn’t get on the field to prove himself? How did he wind up being such an average to below average player/athlete? Well, one thought is that he is merely an okay athlete who excelled because he was surrounded by trash competition. Related to that is he didn’t get enough exposure and confidence to build him into a dominant force. The final answer is he doesn’t have it in him–not now and perhaps not ever. These three answers led me down the short flight of steps into the underground world of Youth Football Promotion. The machine exists largely because the parents (like me) exist. The machine promotes kids as future D1 talents though it comes at a huge cost both in time and money.
The High Schooler is at the point where he needs to work it out on his own. Once he started freshman year I switched my efforts to the younger two. My job–my goal–is to prepare them for the world of high school sports and to get them enough exposure to be able to have a chance to play at the high school level–or at least to be noticed by the coaches enough to get a fair shake in practice. I don’t feel the High schooler got that. In truth I was told by some of the other coaches that he did not.
So how is that done? These days it means having an instagram feed for your athlete and going to exposure camps and playing on all star teams. At least, that is what they want you to believe. The machine exists as a hype engine to promote both your kid and itself as a way to get your kid to play other top kids. However, the machine means constantly checking feeds and paying exorbitant fees for camps. Here is one example. My mid-kid was invited to participate in the ‘Invitation Only’ USA football National Team workouts. That would give him an opportunity to play in the National Team game pitting all the best players against each other–in theory. The camp costs $200 for a 2-day experience of running drills led by NCAA coaches. I feel like that would be very useful for a high school Jr. Still seeking scholarships, but a 7th grader?
I’ve seen the hype train and I am not getting on it. I did the instagram and we may do an all star team just as fun family jaunt to Cali over the summer, but this week in week out grind of camps and publicity is too much. I’m not entirely ducking out on getting my kids some good film, but I am out on promoting them like an agent.