@3and2Fastball posted:One of the things I absolutely detest about our current culture is the ridiculous child celebrity phenomenon that revolves around youth sports. You would think that there were 25 Bronny James kids in every town.
I can’t even begin to tell you how many kids from around here who were hyped to the moon ended up at D3 and low level junior college programs.
so, yeah, I never stopped paying attention because I never really paid much attention to it at all. I guess my first clue was six years ago when a local All State, PBR hyped conference player player of the year Hit some thing like .143 in his career in D3, and Barely played until his junior year of college.
What amazed me is the adult idolization of young kids. Some of the talk about how great certain kids were at seven amazed me. I nearly choked when someone told me I won’t have to pay for college when my son was seven. I smiled and thanked the person for the compliment knowing the parent was clueless.
I remember asking the mother of a nine year old where he might go to high school. I was only curious because the dad was on the high school’s Wall of Fame and the kid was in Catholic school. The mother had drank the KoolAid. She told me whichever private high school offers the best athletic scholarship. The issue ended up being the dominant nine year old wasn’t good in any sport by thirteen. The kid had the mother’s build and slow feet. It wasn’t hard to predict his athletic future.
Another parent referred to four players on a 9u and 10u travel team I coached as the Fantastic Four. Only two of the four made a high school team. One made his high school team only because his parents put him in a 150 enrollment private.
But, even going back to my high school days I remember being in a mall and a parent pointing me out to his young son and saying, “Do you know who that is?” My parents would have responded, “Yes, the kid who forgot to take out the trash this morning.”