09/11/2026
Private equity is ruining the joy of sports by exploiting the hopes and dreams of families nationwide, selling the promise of scholarships, exposure, and opportunities to compete at the highest levels.
What was once rooted in pride, community, friendship, and the simple joy of competing has increasingly shifted toward a me-first mentality and the professionalization of youth sports. In the process, we are losing the very essence of sports: an outlet for young people to build character, confidence, relationships, and a sense of community.
At the same time, changes in college athletics, including expanded eligibility, the transfer portal, and now discussions surrounding professionals potentially returning to college sports, have made the recruiting landscape even more difficult for high school athletes. Yet families continue to be sold the idea that more travel, more showcases, more exposure, and more money spent will somehow guarantee an athletic scholarship or opportunity at the next level.
Here is what often overlooked, college coaches will follow where the players are. If talented athletes return to local, community-based, and interscholastic programs, coaches will find them there. The recruiting process does not have to dictate where our kids play or force families into believing they must constantly travel, spend, and chase exposure just to have an opportunity.
Parents, you hold the power to end this madness.
Bring your kids back to local recreation programs, community-based youth sports, and interscholastic education-based athletics. Take your lives back. Stop allowing yourselves to be manipulated into believing that your child’s athletic experience must revolve around securing a scholarship.
Let them play.
Let them compete with their friends, represent their schools and communities, experience winning and losing, and develop without the constant fear and pressure of chasing that elusive carrot, the athletic scholarship.
Your kids may thank you for it.
And you might just get your lives back too.
Roughly 5 million kids are competing for travel or club sports teams that have cropped up across the country. Many benefit from that participation, including some who get college scholarships, but youth travel sports also come with increasing costs and challenges. As Stephanie Sy reports, those trad...
